Washington Judge Rules Against Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Regarding Cattle Grazing on the Whiskey Dick-Quilomene Wildlife Area
For immediate release: February 2, 2009
Contacts:
Jon Marvel, Western Watersheds Project: 208-788-2290
Kristin Ruether, Advocates for the West: 208-342-7024 ext. 208
Dr. Steve Herman: 360-451-0089 (cell); 360-894-0751
Washington State Superior Court Judge in Olympia Rules Against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife In Regard to Cattle Grazing on the Whiskey Dick-Quilomene Wildlife Area Near Ellensburg
Washington Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham of Thurston County has ruled that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) violated the State Environmental Protection Act when it issued a livestock grazing lease last spring on the Whiskey Dick/Quilomene Wildlife Area near Ellensburg (please see the attached Court ruling).
The court’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the west-regional conservation group Western Watersheds Project and Dr. Steve Herman of Yelm. The court specifically held that the state inappropriately used a “categorical exemption”—a method of avoiding any analysis under the State Environmental Protection Act—because the state did not have evidence of a prior grazing lease on the land. A prior grazing lease is a requirement for invoking the exemption.
The WDFW’s plan stirred controversy because the Department issued a lease to graze lands that state biologists and conservationists agree would be damaging to wildlife habitat on some of Washington’s best remaining sagebrush steppe habitat home to the threatened Washington sage grouse despite the Department’s legal obligation to manage state wildlife areas for wildlife and to protect listed species.
“Livestock grazing destroys wildlife habitat. Grazing in areas that the state is required to manage to restore and enhance fish and wildlife habitat makes no sense,” said Jon Marvel executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
The Whiskey Dick-Quilomene Wildlife Area lies between Washington’s two remaining sage grouse populations, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has identified the area as an important corridor to connect the two populations.
The ruling is important because it will prevent WDFW from avoiding environmental analysis if the agency attempts to reintroduce livestock grazing on other Wildlife Areas around the state where the state lacks proof of a prior grazing lease.
Western Watersheds Project was represented in this litigation by attorney Kristin Ruether of Advocates For the West in Boise, Idaho.
