Press Room

Fish and wildlife conservation groups have filed a legal challenge in the U.S. District Court in Medford, Oregon today over illegal grazing in the Fremont and Winema National Forest. The court challenge indicts the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approving livestock grazing that degrades important habitat for bull trout, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and damages the quality of a popular recreation area. The controversial grazing harms the upper Sycan River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic River, and the Hanan Trail, a popular route for hikers and horseback riders. Grazing these areas also violates water quality standards in the Sprague River watershed, contrary to the region’s Forest Plan conservation objectives  
 
“The watersheds are especially important because they provide habitat for isolated populations of the Klamath River bull trout, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,” said George Wuerthner, ecologist and member of Western Watersheds Project's Board of Directors.. “The livestock grazing that is occurring is causing increases in the sediment levels and water temperature in the rivers and their tributaries, and this harms the bull trout which can only survive in cool clean waters.”
 
By allowing livestock grazing to continue along these streams, the stream channels are becoming wider and shallower, with reduced overhanging vegetation and trampled banks. These impacts lead to higher water temperatures that violate state water quality standards and harm bull trout. The 2011 assessment that approved continued grazing failed to account for the full extent of these impacts and relied on a monitoring scheme that the Forest Service was unlikely to implement and which is not even sufficient to protect threatened bull trout.
 
“Our members regularly use the Sycan and Sprague River watersheds for recreational, scientific, or other purposes,” said Quinn Read, Wildlife Coordinator for Oregon Wild. “The livestock damage to the aesthetics of the riparian areas is, frankly, disgusting, and the impact to fragile bull trout habitat is unacceptable.”
 
“We’ve tried to get the Forest Service to improve its management of these watersheds and species by participating in public planning processes,” said Joe Serres, President of Friends of Living Oregon Waters. “Sometimes the courts can make the agencies listen better than we can. At the end of the day, what matters is that we do our best by the species that share our Oregon waters.” 
 
“The Fremont and Winema National Forest Management Plan set lofty goals for protecting and enhancing the Sycan River’s scenic, wildlife, recreational, and fisheries values,” said Laurie Rule, lead attorney on the case. “Those goals, as well as state water quality standards, have been violated for years due to cattle grazing, but the agency hasn’t done anything to fix it. Hopefully this lawsuit will compel them to clean up their act.”
 
The plaintiffs are represented by Advocates for the West and the Law Office of David H. Becker in the lawsuit.
 
The complaint can be read online here.