Groups want cows corralled to protect jumping mouse habitat

Environmentalists have accused U.S. land managers of failing to keep livestock and wild horses out of streams and other wetlands in Arizona's White Mountains, resulting in damage to habitat required by a rare mouse species found only in the Southwest. The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson said the U.S. Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act and damaging the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse's habitat by failing to maintain fences, round up feral animals and enforce grazing regulations on forest land in southeastern Arizona. The mice live near streams and depend on tall grass to hide from predators. They hibernate for about nine months, emerging in the late spring to gorge themselves before mating, giving birth and going back into hibernation. They normally live about three years. Officials in the Forest Service's Southwest region disputed the allegations in the lawsuit, saying the agency has been working since the mouse was listed as an endangered species in 2014 to use new and existing fencing to control livestock access to riverbank and wetland areas all while balancing water rights. The battle over the meadow jumping mouse has lasted years. The listing of the mouse as endangered prompted the Forest Service to fence off streams and watering holes in some national forests to protect habitat thought to be ideal. Ranchers and others then complained that the federal government was trampling private access to public lands by cordoning off areas important for livestock and other animals that call the arid region home. In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated nearly 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) along about 170 miles (274 kilometers) of streams, ditches and canals as critical habitat in parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona...MORE

The mouse that won't stop roaring

By Ron Arnold

 Why did the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service waste over 100 million taxpayer dollars to save the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from extinction when the little critters are alive and well from Colorado to Alaska?

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm based in California, has asked FWS that question by filing a delisting petition to remove the mouse from the "threatened" list of the Endangered Species Act. New scientific findings confirmed that the mouse, far from being "threatened," is not meaningfully different from other populations of jumping mice with healthy populations in a huge swath of Western North America.

...The previous mouse studies focused narrowly on populations in the Eastern Front Range regions of Colorado and Wyoming. More recent studies have moved beyond that limited territory with new biogeographical techniques, more sophisticated genetic analyses and dramatically wider sampling. In 2013 the peer reviewed journal Molecular Ecology published a comprehensive analysis of North American jumping mouse populations conducted by biologists Jason L. Malaney and Joseph A. Cook. They concluded that the Preble's mouse is "part of a single lineage that is ecologically indistinct and extends to the far north."

One would think the USFWS would recognize, maybe even welcome this new data and take the appropriate action to delist. Apparently that has not been the case. Arnold writes:


Will the Trump Fish and Wildlife Service heed the Pacific Legal Foundation petition and remove this spurious listing? Petitioner Dr. Rob Roy Ramey is the most qualified to answer that. He's the wildlife scientist who first challenged the Preble's jumping mouse as a subspecies. He suffered Inquisition-like intimidation by bureaucrats seeking to silence him and was subsequently forced out of his job. Now that his work is vindicated, he is looking forward to settling what he calls "unfinished business."

Ramey told me, "The Fish &Wildlife Service has consistently demonstrated an inability to reverse listing decisions that they are deeply vested in, even when the data have consistently proven them wrong."

But how can that be?

Ramey said, "The FWS modus operandi on contested ESA listings typically involves three key elements: obfuscation, intimidation, and ignoring contrary evidence. And then, if it looks like they are going to lose badly, they will simply move the goalposts and call for more research. The answer is not to give the Fish and Wildlife Service more money."

Will the Trump administration allow the USFWS to perform this deny-delay dance? Will Congress follow through by utilizing the appropriations process?  We'll be watching to see what kind of dancing partner Zinke and the Republican majority in Congress prove to be and thereby determine if they be Mice or Men on this issue.

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Ron Arnold is executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise

Biologists find jumping mouse in three NM forests

Biologists who spent weeks in three New Mexico national forests searching for signs of an elusive, endangered mouse that looks somewhat like a tiny kangaroo have found what they call irrefutable evidence that it still lives in the state for which it is named. The biologists trapped New Mexico meadow jumping mice and collected fur and fecal samples during summertime surveys in the southern Lincoln National Forest, the northern Santa Fe National Forest and Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests along the New Mexico-Arizona border, Beth Humphrey, a district ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, said Tuesday. With a tail that makes up for most of its length, the rodent is called a jumping mouse because it can leap more than 2 feet into the air when frightened. Super-long tails help the mice keep their balance, especially when they scale plant stems to reach ripening seeds, one their main food sources. The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse was listed as an endangered species in 2014, prompting the U.S. Forest Service to fence off streams and watering holes in the Lincoln and Santa Fe forests to protect habitat thought to be ideal. That spurred criticism from ranchers and others that the federal government was trampling private access to public lands in New Mexico. But last summer’s surveys turned up the first hard evidence that they still live in areas where they had not been spotted in years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in an emailed statement.

County discusses meadow jumping mouse habitat

Former Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employee Dan Abercrombie discussed the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse during the scheduled residents communications portion of the commission’s regular meeting Thursday morning. According to the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, the New Mexico jumping mouse is a rare subspecies found primarily near streams and wetlands in parts of New Mexico, eastern Arizona and southern Colorado. New Mexico listed the species as threatened in 1983 and upgraded it to endangered status in 2006, where it remains today. On March 16, 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for the jumping mouse, with an effective date of April 15, 2016. Abercrombie said he felt irritated with the current habitat for the mice and felt the need to educate commissioners on the species and their habitat. “We wrote a letter recommending that the meadow jumping mouse be listed when I was still with NRCS 10 years ago because it’s a meadow jumping mouse. We recommended that 160 acres of every section be cut and I didn’t hear anything else on the meadow jumping mouse for the next 10 years,” Abercrombie said. “This species has experienced 82 percent reduction in population due to loss of habitat. Part of that is forest fires and part of that is because the forest has 10 times more trees now than we did in 1983.” Abercrombie said the species is thought to have been more widespread in the past during more mesic climate conditions and environments with dense vegetation. He said in his 37 years as a federal employee, he has never found small creatures in these environments. “This species has a fairly tight requirement for moist habitats and has little dispersal ability. It’s associated with permanent waterways that contain dense vegetation. I don’t understand the science behind it, I have a degree in range management. In my 37 years in federal employment I always noticed there was more rats, quail, rabbits and other rodents in overgrazed areas,” Abercrombie said. “I never-ever found little critters in overgrown areas with dense vegetation. They hide there, but they don’t live there. It’s kind of like that spotted owl, it can only live in that dark timber so long then it has to come out and eat.”...more

NAU Team Finds Endangered Jumping Mouse In Arizona, New Mexico

A research team from Northern Arizona University confirmed the presence of the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse in parts of Arizona and New Mexico. It’s the first regional survey in a decade, and the team is using ink to find the mice. They’re using what’s called a “track plate.” It’s a box with an inkpad in the entrance. The mice leave distinct long-toed footprints when they enter the box to eat the bait. “Because the species are listed as endangered, we are very concerned about the population sizes and we’re looking hard this summer to try to find the animals in as many locations as possible,” said Wildlife ecologist Carol Chambers, who leads the projectt. The NAU team found jumping mice in the Santa Fe and Apache Sitgreaves national forests. The mouse lives near riparian areas and hibernates most of the year. It was listed as endangered in 2014. The new data will be used to develop a model of the mouse’s preferred habitat, which will inform land management decisions. The U.S. Forest Service has tried fencing off some sensitive riparian areas to keep cattle and elk out. Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 14,000 acres in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado as critical habitat for the species.  KJZZ

Campers tearing down fences of Lincoln National Forest

A little mouse is the source of a big controversy in one part of New Mexico. The government has been fencing off areas in the Lincoln National Forest to protect the endangered species but now some campers have started tearing those fences down. The forest service is trying to protect the endangered animal’s habitat by fencing off parts of the forest near Cloudcroft. “It’s to try to keep livestock out so that we can have more vegetation there that is required by the mouse, they need quite of vegetation to have forage and then also cover,” said Ciara Cusack with the Forest Service. It seems that not everyone is okay with these fences. People have spoken out against them, saying they are causing problems for local ranchers. Now, the Forest Service says it’s campers who are taking down the fences. “There have been plenty of times where over the weekends people have put the fence down and driven over it to camp in these areas,” said Cusack. New warning signs mark the latest step in the fight over access to the public land. It is a necessary step according to the forest service. “Having these fences up will help the critical habitat by reducing the impact of both camping and livestock grazing in the areas,” said Cusack. The forest service thinks there’s enough room for campers and the meadow jumping mouse to co-exist. “We try to do where we won’t affect people’s experience out here and there’s still places to camp and for people to enjoy the forest,” said Cusack. The forest service also says people caught taking down the fences can be fined up to a $1,000 but they hope it won’t come to that.  KRQE

New Mexico state engineer on dealing with Mighty Mouse

As if being the man in charge of water resources in one of the nation’s driest states were not a0l employees are fencing off areas, such as stretches in the Jemez Mountains in the Santa Fe National Forest, to protect the mouse’s habitat from intrusion by cattle on adjacent federal grazing allotments. “They are fencing off streams that were available to livestock,” Blaine said during a presentation Wednesday morning to business leaders at an Economic Forum meeting at Hotel Albuquerque. “That places me in the middle. The ranchers want me to remove the fences. But that’s not in my playing field. I have no authority to move fences to make that water available to ranchers who are grazing the land. And ranching is a huge industry in New Mexico.” Blaine said that what he can do is pipe water from fenced-off streams to places where the water is accessible to livestock, an effort that was not necessary before the mouse was listed as endangered. “I can make sure the ranchers get the water,” he said. “But environmental issues are becoming more and more constraining on projects. It takes longer and longer to get things done.”...more

University team confirms presence of New Mexico meadow jumping mouse in the Jemez

By Mark Oswald / Journal Staff Writer

 A 10-person team of researchers from Northern Arizona University confirmed that the Santa Fe National Forest is home to New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

Also, U.S. Forest Service crews have built a fence to protect critical habitat for the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse in the Jemez Mountains.

NAU School of Forestry professor Carol Chambers and her crew surveyed 10 sites in or near suitable habitat for the mouse and confirmed its presence in eight of the 10, according to a Forest Service news release.

...Simultaneously, about 50 Santa Fe National Forest employees, students working on Youth Conservation Corps crews and a handful of people representing grazing permittees on the forest’s Cebolla-San Antonio allotment joined forces over three days to construct 2.8 miles of fence in the Road Pasture.

The new Road Pasture fence, approved as part of the May 2016 habitat protection project for the mouse, will help keep cattle out of designated critical habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

“While we have obligations under the Endangered Species Act for the conservation of the mouse, we also understand that the ranching tradition runs deep in New Mexico,” Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor Maria T. Garcia said. “Our intent is to protect the mouse while continuing to allow grazing on the impacted allotments,”

“We appreciate the help of all our partners, particularly the grazing permittees, for working with us to achieve that multi-use objective.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Committee hears from USFS on Meadow Jumping Mouse

ALAMOGORDO – State legislators gathered to listen to both sides of the Meadow Jumping Mouse issue and discuss the impact on the ranchers at the Tays Center Thursday. A group of local ranchers went before the state Legislature's Water and Natural Resources Committee to discuss their side of the issue. "For us, the fences have impacted our operation," said Kelly Goss, of the Sacramento Grazing Association. "They are situation directly across from the pins...the proximity does not allow us to work the cattle and prevents them from encroaching on the enclosures. The electric fences take up a larger area that what we were told they were going to." Another concern Goss discussed was water access. "The federal government has been taking our water for years without due process," she said. "Temporary is never temporary, as we've seen over the years. The federal government is going to continue to take more water in the future. It's going to be difficult in the spring and impossible in the fall to work our cattle. We have continually stated that we must have full use of the Penasco Trap in the fall." Goss said the U.S. Forest Service has stated it is their intent to impede the flow of water in order to spread it out and create habitat. "This is a diversion of water under New Mexico state law," Goss said. "This water belongs to the Sacramento Grazing Association, not the Forest Service."...more

Pearce Statement on Interior Appropriations Bill (wolves & mice)

Washington, DC (July 14, 2016) - Congressman Pearce issued the following statement after the House passed H.R. 5538, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2017: 

“This Administration’s consistent overreach has does nothing but hurt New Mexico’s economy.  Passing this bill is clear evidence that the people’s Congress is pushing back against the Obama Administration’s excessive and unnecessary regulations that threaten New Mexican jobs. This bill balances the need to preserve our natural resources, such as providing funding to fight and prevent forest fires, while simultaneously allowing for the responsible development of American energy resources.  

“I am pleased to see key provisions vital to New Mexico were included in this bill.  For example, President Obama is trying to take control of ditches and farm ponds through the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.  This bill stops him. The legislation also includes amendments that would block the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) venting and flaring rule and the BLM’s Hydraulic Fracturing rule, which would both be devastating to New Mexico energy production and jobs.  These provisions will help lower energy prices, meaning New Mexicans will not have to pay more for their electricity and at the gas pump.  They also will ensure that schools, local law enforcement, and hospitals have the funding they need to provide essential services for local communities.

“Overall, this bill will support local economies and start to make government agencies work for the American people not against them,” said Congressman Pearce.

Included in the final House passed version of the bill are both of Congressman Pearce’s amendments that are significant for New Mexico’s economy. 

The first would protect ranchers’ water rights in New Mexico by prohibiting funds from being used to treat the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse as endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.  Essentially, this means the government would no longer be able to construct fences around the mouse’s habitat, ultimately opening up water access for cattle. 

“Access to these water rights is essential for the survival of ranching in New Mexico.  Despite the lack of scientific evidence that the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse still lives in these designated areas, the Forest Service began fencing off and restricting access to these privately held water rights, threatening these ranchers’ livelihoods,” continued Pearce.  

The second amendment effectively de-lists the Mexican Wolf from the Endangered Species Act and will allow the states to manage the wolf recovery independently. 

“FWS has consistently proven its inability to manage the Mexican Wolf program in New Mexico. This is clear in the recent Inspector General (IG) Report substantiating claims from Catron County that those at the top levels of the program at FWS tolerated a culture of lies, falsification, mismanagement, and manipulation of scientific data, ultimately at the cost of public trust and species recovery.  I am pleased that the House passed this amendment, it is time to give this program back to the States,”  added Pearce.   

 

USFS promises to meet area ranchers halfway

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and State Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, travelled to Cloudcroft Thursday to advocate for area ranchers with the goal of providing the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) with a first-hand look at how restrictions on water rights affect the industry and the state’s economy. The legislators, along with members of the U.S. Forest Service, met with ranchers Spike and Kelly Goss in the Penasco Pens electrified fencing area in the Sacramento Ranger District to discuss potential solutions to ranchers’ concerns over grazing allotments and restrictions to water access points that resulted from the closure. Pearce told the Daily Press Thursday the meeting, which lasted approximately three-and-a-half hours, was positive overall. “I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome from it all,” Pearce said. “I think we will be able to reach an agreement where the ranchers will be given enough flexibility to do their work and stay in business, and also preserve the habitat. “There is literally no way to make a living if these restrictions continue to stay in place.” Townsend, along with fellow area legislators Yvette Harrell, Candy Spence Ezzell, Bob Wooley, Gay Kernan, Carroll Leavell, Cathrynn Brown and David Gallegos drafted a letter signed by 50 lawmakers that petitioned the state engineer and Gov. Susana Martinez to “take a more aggressive role in protecting New Mexico water rights from, in this case, federal government overreach, for lack of a better word.” Both Pearce and Townsend pointed out the Forest Service hasn’t spotted mouse activity near the streams affected in the most recent closure and blocked some areas due simply to their habitat potential. Pearce said the legislators asked the service to provide its findings on the subject. “We need to make real decisions based on real science,” Pearce said. “I’m asking the Forest Service, our office, and the ranchers to produce their idea of agreements and the things that still need work after today’s meeting. Our office will correlate all of these, we will continue talking via conference calls, and we will keep this thing moving until we have reached a final solution.”  The Forest Service reiterated Thursday a need to keep the mouse’s habitat low-intensity in terms of livestock and wildlife traffic in order to facilitate the recovery of the species but agreed to do what it could to meet the ranchers halfway.  Pearce says the service agreed to reposition the location of fences today or Monday...more

A longer, more complete article from the Alamogordo Daily News is here.

USCA encouraged by New Mexico governor's outreach on water, ESA issues

Following the producer-driven success of the non-listing of the greater sage grouse, the United States Cattlemen’s Association remains actively engaged on issues concerning species and livestock interaction. USCA is encouraged by a recent visit from New Mexico Gov. Susan Martinez’s to local producers in order to discuss solutions on both water policy issues and endangered species concerns affecting the state. Recently, Gov. Martinez, State Water Engineer Tom Blaine, State Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte and Director of Game and Fish Alexa Sandoval met with New Mexico producers to discuss the ranching community’s concerns regarding the listing of the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse as an endangered species and associated water use concerns that result from critical habitat designation. USCA Public Lands Committee Chair Bert Paris commented on the issue, “USCA encourages Gov. Martinez and state officials to continue the conversation, and involvement, of the livestock sector on issues affecting both public and private land users. New Mexico’s current concerns regarding the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse are similar to those of the greater sage grouse and lesser prairie-chicken. We are confident that there are ways to protect critical habitat without limiting livestock watering, nor affecting private water rights. “Through working together on the ground, knowledgeable parties can develop solutions that balance these multiple interests. Successful conservation of species habitat starts with on-the-ground users, including ranchers. However, it is difficult to create solutions that fit each impacted sector when working in an office far removed from the issue. Through hard work and cooperation, we are confident a solution can be reached. It is critical that people not only work together, but that they do so with an objective of reaching solutions that work for both habitat and land users...more

State Rep. Jim Townsend on Governor Martinez's visit to Sacramento Mountains

 Rep. Townsend posted this on Facebook today:

Good Morning. Yesterday Governor Martinez and three of her Cabinet members, State Engineer Tom Blaine, Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte and Director of Game and Fish Alexandra Sandoval spent the whole day in the Sacramento Mountains. The purpose was to investigate and address the issues caused particularly by the United States Forest Service. I am hopeful and supportive of the Governors comments supporting the ranchers and the agriculture industry yesterday. I can't remember a time that I've known of the Governor and three of her cabinet members to spend the entire day investigating and openly talking to constituents in such a manner. I am very appreciative to her and staff, as well the 50 Legislators, from both parties from all over the State, that signed the letter of support to these ranchers. This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue, it's a New Mexican issue potentially affecting every water user in the State of New Mexico. It was refreshing to see such genuine interest by Leadership in the issues confronting an industry in distress. One other thing that I thought remarkable and absolutely refreshing, at the end of the meeting, that at points might be described as pointed and emotional, State Engineer asked that we pray and thank God for strength and wisdom as we address the issue. So on the side of a dirt road in the Sacramento Mountains we prayed, and to that I say. AMEN.

Governor Martinez visits the Goss Ranch

The Goss Family posted this on Facebook Wednesday evening:

We were honored to meet and spend the day with Governor Susana Martinez. She was genuinely concerned about the water and jumping mouse issues. The governor, State Water Engineer Tom Blaine, Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte, and Director of Game and Fish Alexa Sandoval understood the issues and were sympathetic to the impact the electric fences are having on our cattle operation. They truly appear to want to help find a way to alleviate the problem. We look forward to the governor taking the appropriate action.

I've been critical of Governor Martinez's lack of engagement on federal land and water issues, so this is heartening to see.  Let's hope this effort wasn't to just "calm the waters" and the Governor and her staff will seek an equitable solution to this troublesome issue.  I hope she follows through and that similar problems faced by rural New Mexicans will be addressed in the future.

video - Ranchers claim the U.S. government is stealing their water and using an endangered animal to do it.

CLOUDCROFT, N.M. (KRQE)- A battle is brewing in New Mexico over water. Ranchers claim the U.S. government is stealing their water and using an endangered animal to do it. The forest service has fenced off land where the Goss family says they own the water rights. They say it’s all to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, an endangered species but many people believe it’s about more than a mouse. “It’s not about the species and the water specifically, it’s the fact the federal government is using these animals as tools to get us off the land,” said Megan Richardson with Protect Americans Now. The Goss family says that by fencing off these areas, the forest service has made running their cattle operation nearly impossible, because their cows now have to walk way too far for water. “They really have no clue of a cattle operation and how my husband runs a cattle operation and how this is going to impact it,” said Kelly Goss. The Goss family says the forest service has made them promise after promise that they would work with them but that hasn’t happened. They are taking legal action in hopes of getting these fences taken down and are calling on the governor to help them. “We would like to have the State of New Mexico step forward ,and most particularly the state engineer and help us with this, not only do the Goss’ have the rights to these waters. They also have the right to access these waters,” said Michael Van Zandt, the Goss’ attorney. The forest service insists it’s been working with the ranchers for a solution to make sure there’s water for their cattle. KRQE

Here is the KRQE video report:

New Mexico water official orders investigation

New Mexico’s top water official has ordered his staff to investigate complaints from ranchers about the fencing of watering holes on some national forest lands. State Engineer Tom Blaine made the announcement Thursday after receiving a letter from dozens of state lawmakers who are concerned about the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. The lawmakers have asked Blaine to use his authority to stop the federal agency. Blaine says New Mexico continues to be concerned with federal mismanagement of public lands and effects on farmers, ranchers and their livelihoods. He says he’s committed to working with lawmakers and local communities to ensure access to needed water.  AP

New Mexico lawmakers challenge feds over rare mouse

Nearly half of New Mexico's Legislature is stepping into the fray between ranchers and the federal government over the fencing of watering holes on national forest land to protect an endangered mouse found in three western states. The 50 lawmakers say the government has overstepped its authority and is trampling private property and water rights. They've sent a letter to State Engineer Tom Blaine, asking that he use his authority as New Mexico's top water official to stop the U.S. Forest Service from limiting access to springs, streams and other riparian areas. The Forest Service first began ordering closures and installing fences in 2014 on the Santa Fe and Lincoln forests. The mouse also is found in Arizona and Colorado, and federal wildlife officials recently set aside nearly 22 square miles in the three states as critical habitat.  AP

Feds to set aside land in Western states for rare mouse

The federal government is setting aside nearly 22 square miles across three western states as critical habitat for a rare mouse that has already pitted ranchers against the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that areas in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona will be covered by the designation for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. The management of vegetation along 170 miles of streams throughout the region will be affected. The designation stems from an agreement with environmental groups that had pushed for the federal government to do more to protect the mouse and dozens of other species. Federal biologists say 29 populations of the mouse have been documented in the three states since 2005, and all are small and isolated. Nearly a dozen of the populations have been affected by drought, wildfire, flooding and grazing. The meadow jumping mouse — which depends on tall grass along streams and in other riparian areas — was first recognized as being in need of federal protection in 1985. It was placed on the waiting list in 1991 and again in 2007 and then listed under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2014...more

Rancher Lucero enters race for U.S. House

Jemez Pueblo rancher Michael Lucero, whose family has fought with federal land-use agencies for more than a year over the fencing off of a creek where his cattle graze, is running for Congress. If he wins the Republican primary, Lucero likely would face Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Luján for the 3rd Congressional District seat. Luján is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lucero, 39, is the only Republican so far to formally announce plans to seek election as the representative for most of the northern half of New Mexico. Running in that district is a challenge for any Republican. According to the Secretary of State Office’s website, as of Nov. 30, 51 percent of registered voters in the district are Democrats. Only 28 percent are Republicans. Lucero’s family owns an allotment in the the Santa Fe National Forest. The allotment originally was part of the San Diego Land Grant. Last year, Lucero became a spokesman for the San Diego Cattlemen’s Association after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse as an endangered species and the U.S. Forest Service started talking about protecting the mouse’s habitat by fencing off the Rio Cebolla, where Lucero grazes cattle twice a year...more

Federal Judge - Mouse Sí, Ranchers No

A federal judge has thrown out most of a lawsuit filed by New Mexico ranchers seeking to reopen areas in the Santa Fe and Lincoln national forests that have been closed to cattle grazing in order to protect the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. The decision by federal District Court Judge Robert C. Brack leaves in place the Forest Service’s October 2014 closure of about 224 acres in the Jemez Mountains, barring both grazing and recreational activities. The stretches of mouse habitat are along the Rio Cebolla and San Antonio Creek, with 188 acres fenced off to keep cattle and people out. The complicated order by Brack apparently keeps alive for now the ranchers’ claims seeking reopening of a smaller amount of mouse habitat that the Forest Service has blocked off in Otero County, although parties on different sides of the case are still sorting out the order. Blaire Dunn, attorney for the ranching groups challenging the land closures, said the ranchers will likely ask the judge to reconsider the key points in his Nov. 3 ruling. Dunn also said the plaintiffs possibly could still get a permanent injunction against the closures, although a motion for a temporary injunction has been rejected. WildEarth Guardians, a Santa Fe-based environmental group that says the jumping mouse is “the canary in the coal mine” when it comes to assessing the condition of New Mexico streams and rivers, has intervened in the litigation. “It is a relief that the Santa Fe National Forest will continue to protect this little mouse’s grassy habitat as permanent protections are considered,” said Bryan Bird, an ecologist with WildEarth Guardians. “The cattlemen’s lawsuit has no legal basis and is a waste of resources.”...more