U.S. Forest Service Hit with Lawsuit Over Cattle Grazing Permits

Do we have another Bundy 2.0 case on our hands? Environmental groups seem to think so if a recent lawsuit is any indication. Western Watersheds Project (WWP) filed litigation against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in the U.S. District Court District of Utah on Nov. 20. The complaint claims USFS has been influenced by “threats made by a handful of scofflaw grazing permittees on Monroe Mountain” to allow “excessive stocking rates, repeated trespass and non-compliance with federal regulations,” according to a released statement. The lawsuit asserts USFS “continues to authorize grazing at levels that repeatedly lead to over-utilization of forage vegetation and degradation of other forest resources” and alleges the agency uses prescribed burns in an effort to stimulate regrowth as opposed to removing cattle. “When the Forest Service tried to do the right thing and suspend these livestock grazing permits for multiple willful violations of the terms and conditions, the ranchers responded with threats of violence,” said John Persell, staff attorney with WWP. The lawsuit further asserts livestock grazing permittees have been “stoked by the anti-government rhetoric of Cliven Bundy and other fringe extremists.” WWP claims, “USFS has bent and broken its own laws and regulations, and continues to authorize livestock grazing without any reasonable expectation of permit compliance.” The lawsuit against USFS comes as the result of a WWP member visiting the Kingston, Forshea, and Manning Creek grazing allotments in October 2019. The employee said she witnessed trespassing cattle more than a week after the permitted off-dates, permit and annual operating instructions (AOI) violations, and environmental damage. The damage included over-utilization of forage, unmaintained fences, and degraded natural water features. WWP said several ranchers were issued notices of non-compliance in 2013 for forage over-utilization, further livestock use after the permitted off date, and pasture rotation schedules not followed. According to the complaint document, after USFS cited “safety concerns and verbal threats” from the parties following the drafting of 50 percent suspension letters, USFS did not send finalized suspension letters. The document further reads that in 2014, the ranching parties requested the allotments be managed through deferred-rotation instead of rest-rotation, and USFS accepted the requests even though the process was not authorized under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The suit also said the parties did not follow the rotation schedule outlined in the AOIs, and range improvements were not maintained to standard...MORE

You can view the 57-page complaint here.