PHOENIX— A federal court today ruled that federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by ignoring years of damage from illegal livestock grazing to rare desert stream habitat for imperiled fish and birds within the Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona.

“This decision confirms what we’ve been saying for years. Illegal livestock grazing is trashing endangered species habitats in Agua Fria National Monument and the federal government is doing next to nothing about it,” said Chris Bugbee with the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m hopeful this will shock slumbering agencies into finally fixing the problem and working to save the Gila chub and yellow-billed cuckoo. It’s not too late to repair our public lands and keep wildlife from sliding into extinction.”

In today’s ruling, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona rejected claims from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that unauthorized grazing caused by BLM-permitted cattle was beyond their control.

The judge also dismissed the agencies’ decision to rely on fencing to protect habitat for imperiled Gila chub and southwestern yellow-billed cuckoo, noting they failed to build or maintain the fences and had years of data showing they were ineffective.

The court ordered the agencies to redo Endangered Species Act consultation to correct those problems and ensure that cattle don’t jeopardize threatened and endangered species.

Field surveys by the Center have documented damage from unauthorized livestock grazing to endangered species habitats in Agua Fria National Monument in each of the past six years. The BLM’s own staff have reported similar damage.

Just today, the Center sent a letter to both agencies documenting additional unauthorized cattle use and damage in the monument that occurred over the weekend.

Cows damage streamside habitat by trampling banks and streambeds, stripping vegetation to bare soil, blocking tree regeneration, and polluting water with feces, urine, sediment and cattle carcasses.

Livestock damage in the monument spans five grazing allotments and includes contaminated streams, trampled streambeds and banks, and vegetation grazed down to the roots in protected critical habitat along the Agua Fria River, Ash Creek, Little Ash Creek, Sycamore Creek, Silver Creek and Indian Creek.

Today’s ruling addresses cattle damage to Silver Creek and the Agua Fria River within the Horseshoe allotment. A pending lawsuit addresses four other allotments.

Agua Fria National Monument was designated in 2000 to protect cultural resources, riparian forests and biodiversity. The grazing permit for the Horseshoe allotment, at issue in today’s order, is held by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, which used federal funds to purchase the Horseshoe Ranch in 2009 with the promise to improve endangered species habitat in the monument.

Field surveys in recent years have documented chronic and severe damage from unlawful livestock grazing to endangered species habitat along hundreds of miles of streams, rivers and tributaries in Arizona and New Mexico. In those two states, the Center has surveyed 70% of designated critical habitat for the threatened yellow-billed cuckoo and found that cattle grazing has caused moderate to significant damage in 80% of those areas.