FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2024
Media Contact:
Delaney Rudy, Western Watersheds Project, 970-648-4241, delaney@westernwatersheds.org
Court Rules Bureau of Land Management Failed to Take a “Hard Look” at Grazing Impacts on 24 Livestock Allotments in Colorado
PAONIA, Colo. – An administrative law judge in the Department of Interior has overturned an agency decision to renew grazing permits for 24 allotments within the PonchaVilla Zone of the San Luis Valley, Colorado, spanning 65,273 acres of public lands. Citing the Bureau of Land Management’s failure to take a “hard look” at the environmental impacts of grazing, the judge found that the agency was remiss in considering how the low level of actual grazing use on certain allotments was a factor in the achievement of rangeland health standards, and thus failed to support its analysis of allowing an increase in that use with the decisions.
“We are encouraged that the Department of the Interior’s internal courts saw through the weak analysis on which these grazing permit renewals were based,” said Delaney Rudy, Colorado Director for Western Watersheds Project. “Permitting excessive numbers of livestock on public land opens the door to detrimental impacts to ecosystem health.”
The judge highlighted two of the analyzed allotments, the Kerber Creek and San Isabel Allotments, on which the actual use was 1% and 0%, respectively, of levels authorized by the permits stating, “The EA contains no analysis about what effects grazing would have on these allotments were it to increase. Without some discussion about why basically no grazing has occurred on these allotments and how they could support the active AUMs allotted to them, BLM cannot be said to have ‘conducted a thorough environmental analysis’” (page 9).
These public lands are home to the Poncha Pass population of Gunnison sage grouse, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, emphasizing the need for thorough analysis. Livestock grazing can reduce the hiding cover that protects sage grouse from predators, low-flying grouse can be killed by collisions with grazing pasture fences, and livestock grazing facilitates the invasion of cheatgrass, a major threat to Gunnison sage grouse, so it is vital that the BLM fully consider the environmental impacts of this decision for this listed bird.
