| Ranchers ordered to move cattle
March 1, 2003 By Chuck Mueller Staff writer, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin 2041 E 4th Street Ontario, California 91761 760-252-5723 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@dailybulletin.com (100-word limit) Barstow, California - Livestock ranchers are expected to remove their cattle from six federal grazing allotments in the Mojave Desert today in accordance with a court order, a federal land official said. But another legal challenge from concerned environmental groups looms on the horizon. The present grazing ban, which prohibits cattle on 248,000 acres of critical desert tortoise habitat, will continue through June 15. Tortoises are most active during this period. "Area ranchers are aware of the restrictions, and I don't expect any problems," said Tim Read, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees grazing on public lands. Now in its second year, the ban was imposed after a federal judge ruled that livestock grazing threatens the tortoise, a threatened species protected by the Endangered Species Act. "Livestock are very damaging to the Mojave Desert," said Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist for the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild. "Tortoises cannot and should not have to compete with animals that have mobility and appetites of cattle." Last year, the grazing exclusion covered nearly 500,000 acres. The agreement, reached in the wake of a lawsuit filed against the bureau by three environmental groups, was an interim measure until the federal agency completed several regional land management plans. "Grazing restrictions are no longer in effect for 252,000 acres with completion of two plans (for the north and east desert regions)," said Michael Connor, executive director of the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee. An opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the two plans were not likely to jeopardize the tortoise or seriously affect its habitat. But Patterson disagrees. "Seasonally moving cattle so tortoises can eat and mate is not a lot to require of permitees who are using the public lands for private gain," he said. The three environmental groups that filed the original lawsuit in March 2000 may return to court to challenge the reduction of the area excluded from livestock grazing. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility gave a 60-day notice Feb. 19 to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and state and regional directors of the bureau and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the three groups intend to sue the three agencies for violating the Endangered Species Act. In the notice of intent to sue, the three groups claim that the Endangered Species Act requires a five-year review of the status of listed species, including the tortoise. "(But) the desert tortoise has been listed as threatened for over 10 years, without any such review being conducted," the organizations contend. The groups also claim that no annual report has been submitted to Congress, as required, on state and federal expenditures to conserve endangered species. Nor has a recovery plan been prepared for every listed species, and submitted to Congress to show how goals of these plans will be carried out to conserve endangered species. The notice, which cites other alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act, advises the three federal agencies that the three environmental groups will return to federal court if steps to correct the alleged violations are not started within 60 days. http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203%257E21481%257E1212744,00.html?search=filter |