WASHINGTON— A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to strip the Southwestern willow flycatcher of protection under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit was brought by the extreme private property law firm Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“I’m so happy the beautiful, little Southwestern willow flycatchers will remain protected,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Pacific Legal Foundation has been making the same baseless arguments for years to callously deprive imperiled wildlife like the flycatcher the protections they need to survive. What a relief the court didn’t buy it.”

The flycatchers face serious threat of extinction because of extensive loss of streamside forests in the Southwest, with livestock grazing a primary factor. Grazing also harms water quality, habitat for hundreds of other wildlife species, and people who need rivers for drinking water and enjoyment.

“Thank goodness we’ve defeated another bogus effort by ranchers to remove protection for this imperiled songbird,” said Charles Babbitt, conservation chair of Maricopa Audubon Society. “That protection is problematic for ranchers whose unsustainable business model requires that their cows continue to destroy the country’s few surviving desert riparian areas.”

The Maricopa Audubon Society and the Center for Biological Diversity intervened in the case to retain federal protections for the birds. In Wednesday’s ruling, the court found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service correctly applied the science when it decided to retain Endangered Species Act protections for the bird.

The Center first petitioned for the Southwestern willow flycatcher to be protected as an endangered species in 1992 and has fought alongside Maricopa Audubon Society for decades to safeguard the bird’s highly imperiled critical habitat.

The small migratory songbirds have grayish-green wings and travel from Latin America each spring to the southwestern United States to nest and breed along desert streams.