Gartersnake protection lawsuit to cite grazing (Az. & NM)

It has been four months since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared two southwestern aquatic snakes threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity has announced that it intends to sue the federal agency over its management of livestock grazing permits, saying they threaten the two listed snakes, the northern Mexican gartersnake and the narrow-headed gartersnake. The snakes are native to New Mexico and Arizona. In a letter to the Forest Service issued Tuesday, the Center argued that livestock grazing threatens the narrow-headed gartersnake and the northern Mexican gartersnake by damaging the riparian areas those species call home. It continues that the Forest Service has failed to consult federal biologists in its management of those allotments, a process that is required because the snakes are now listed as threatened. But while grazing may be one factor in the snakes’ decline, scientists who have studied the species for years say it’s much less of a threat than invasive species that eat the snakes’ babies and alter their habitat. “The overwhelming effects (to the snakes) have to do with nonnative species,” said Philip Rosen, an assistant research scientist at the University of Arizona who has studied the snakes since 1985. “(Grazing is) definitely an impact but compared to the exotic species problem I would say it’s almost insignificant.” But the potential impacts of livestock grazing are imminent, the Center said in a press release about its intent to sue. Cattle trample and eat streamside vegetation and degrade water quality, the Center argued. Its letter names 170 permits that cover parcels where livestock grazing occurs within, adjacent to or immediately upstream of the snakes’ habitat. The parcels span six national forests across Arizona and New Mexico, including the Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Prescott national forests...more