TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity today released documentation showing continued widespread damage to critical habitat for Gila chub and Western yellow-billed cuckoo from herds of unauthorized cattle in Arizona’s Agua Fria National Monument.
Both animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Today’s finding comes despite an ongoing lawsuit seeking removal of livestock from the monument’s protected areas.
“Our new survey shows that federal officials are continuing to allow cattle herds to trash endangered species habitat in a national monument, breaking the law,” said Chris Bugbee, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Federal agencies and the Arizona Game and Fish Department are complicit and choosing to look the other way, even as the wildlife they’re legally required to protect are pushed towards extinction. This disgraceful violation of the Endangered Species Act has to stop.”
Widespread cattle-grazing damage on the monument includes trampled streambeds and banks, vegetation grazed down to the roots in chub and cuckoo critical habitat, feces piles in streams and even damaged archeological sites.
Center field surveys of Agua Fria in 2021 first documented the damage, which was found again in 2022. A Center lawsuit that year prompted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service to begin new consultations under the Endangered Species Act. Field surveys in 2023 then recorded widespread degradation of critical habitat, leading to another Center lawsuit in 2024. Field surveys this year show damage from illegal grazing to endangered species habitat continues without exception.
Congress designated Agua Fria National Monument in 2000 to protect cultural resources, riparian forests and biodiversity.
Nestled within the monument is the Horseshoe Ranch, which the Arizona Game and Fish Department bought with taxpayer dollars in 2010 for the explicit purpose of endangered species conservation. In a letter authorizing federal funds for the purchase of the ranch, the Department of the Interior stated: “This acquisition will benefit the following threatened, endangered or candidates species and their riparian habitat: Gila chub, Gila topminnow, Desert pupfish, Sonoran Desert tortoise, and Mexican gartersnake.”
However, Center surveys show chronic damage to endangered species critical habitat from grazing within Horseshoe Ranch, as in other protected areas of Agua Fria.
“Arizona’s wildlife agency should’ve shown the public a higher standard of land stewardship. Sadly the opposite is true,” said Bugbee. “Visitors come to Agua Fria National Monument expecting breathtaking views of wide desert vistas. Instead they find a feedlot of trampled land and baking cow pies. Those visitors might never return, but we’ll be back year after year until agencies and cattle growers follow the law and keep their herds away from areas they don’t belong.”
The Center has documented chronic and severe damage from livestock grazing to endangered species habitat across hundreds of stream miles throughout Arizona and New Mexico, revealing agencies’ chronic failure to protect endangered species from cattle damage throughout the Southwest.
Up to 75% of Arizona’s wildlife species depend on riparian areas, although riparian areas make up less than 1% of the state’s land. During the 20th century most of Arizona’s low-elevation riparian habitats were destroyed by human activities, including livestock grazing. The cottonwood-willow riparian forest, still found in the Agua Fria National Monument, is now the rarest forest type in North America.
In the desert Southwest, livestock grazing harms threatened and endangered wildlife and is the primary driver of riparian ecosystem degradation and species imperilment. Removing livestock from riparian areas is critical to curbing the extinction crisis in the Southwest.
