RENO, Nevada, December 5, 2002 (ENS) - The Western Watersheds Project and the Committee for the High Desert have sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over its grazing policies on more than 500,000 acres of public lands in Nevada.

The groups say overgrazing is destroying the only remaining critical habitat for the desert dace, a rare fish species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

"In embracing a more intensive grazing regime in desert dace critical habitat, the BLM has turned its back on sound science," said Todd Tucci, staff attorney for the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies, which represents the conservation groups.

"Incredibly, the BLM is refusing to protect the last three miles of occupied habitat of desert dace. This plan pushes the species closer to the edge of extinction in express violation of the Endangered Species Act."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Reno, cites the BLM for failing to stop the ecological damage caused by livestock grazing - damage that the suit says the BLM has noted in its own analyses - on the Soldier Meadows and Paiute Meadows grazing allotments in northwestern Nevada. These allotments encompass portions of five wilderness areas of the Black Rock Desert and large parts of the Black Rock National Conservation Area.

"BLM itself has documented the adverse impacts of grazing within these allotments but continues to cower to the whims of politically connected ranching corporations," said Tucci.

Soldier Meadows (Photo courtesy Soldier Meadows Guest Ranch and Lodge)

The Soldier Meadows area is well known for its wild mustangs and natural hot springs.

The Hot Springs Pasture of the Soldier Meadows allotment contains the only known habitat for desert dace. Several streams in the Soldier Meadows and Paiute Meadows allotments also provide occupied habitat for Lahontan cutthroat trout. Populations of both species have declined in recent years.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department wants to make it easier to permit without environmental review any activities that it sees as having "insignificant effect" on public lands, according to William Myers, the department's solicitor general. That definition might very well include grazing.

In November, the Associated Press reported that Myers told a meeting of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, "It has gotten to the point where you can hardly dig a post hole without having to do an environmental analysis."

The cattlemen claim that grazing reforms imposed under the Clinton administration are aimed at driving sheep and cattle off public lands in the West.

"It is long past due for the BLM to stand up for the ecological health of our public lands," said Katie Fite, conservation director of the Committee for the High Desert. "In many areas throughout these allotments, cows have beaten the public lands to dirt. Obviously, neither Lahontan cutthroat trout nor desert dace can survive in these conditions."

In its Final Allotment Evaluation for Soldier Meadows and Paiute Meadows, the BLM concluded that livestock grazing violates management objectives for both allotments. In such cases, the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act requires the BLM to revise its grazing management program "no later than the start of the next grazing year."

Soldier Meadows is a working cattle and sheep ranch at the far northern end of the Black Rock Desert in northeastern Nevada. (Photo courtesy Soldier Meadows)

But the BLM's current preferred grazing alternative calls for increasing grazing levels on Soldier Meadows Allotment by as much as 58 percent over the next few years. The preferred alternative also extends the grazing season to 11 months from 8.5 months.

Myers, a former Idaho lawyer who once served as a lobbyist for ranchers who use public lands, now directs 300 lawyers at the Interior Department. He says they are completing a set of proposals by year's end that would reverse some of the changes in livestock grazing regulations adopted under past Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a Biological Opinion which concludes that increased grazing "will ... likely result in more extensive habitat damage and adversely affect desert dace and adversely modify designated critical habitat."

"Now is the time to act," said Tucci. "Otherwise it will be too late."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved.