Western Watersheds Moves To Block Grazing on 256,000 Acres in Colorado

Western Watersheds Moves To Block Grazing on 256,000 Acres in Colorado

Western Watersheds Project has filed an appeal to block the Bureau of Land Management's renewal of grazing leases on 30 allotments covering 256,000 acres of public lands in Colorado.

(PRWEB) February 7, 2002

Western Watersheds Project has filed an appeal and petition for stay against the Bureau of Land Management to block the renewal of grazing leases on 30 allotments covering 256,000 acres of public lands in Moffatt and Routt counties of northwestern Colorado.

The allotments are habitat for sage grouse and listed Colorado River fish species. Darryl Steele, John and Steve Raftopoulos and Rancho Greco hold the grazing permits for the allotments.

The Raftopoulos brothers are among the largest public-lands ranchers in Colorado. One member of the Raftopoulos family, Marianna Raftopoulos, is a Moffatt County commissioner along with rancher T. Wright Dickinson, whose BLM permits also come up for renewal this winter.

WWPÂ’s appeal charges that the BLM has failed to comply with its own resource management plan, or RMP, as well at the Fundamentals of Rangeland Health and Standards and Guidelines for Grazing Administration in Colorado.

The appeal further asserts that the agency has disregarded mandates contained in the National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Taylor Grazing Act, Migratory Bird Act and other federal regulations.

Many areas of the allotments have been significantly damaged by continuing livestock grazing, which the BLM has catalogued in its own reports. The agency’s proposed action would undercut a previous record of decision dictating that the BLM “take no actions nor approve any actions during the interim” which would jeopardize the Yampa River for designation as a wild and scenic river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

In 12 years since the record of decision was made, the BLM has failed to conduct any monitoring studies to determine the availability of forage for all uses of the land.

The appeal marks the first legal involvement of WWP in the administration of public lands in Colorado. It was filed in partnership with Sinapu, a Boulder, Colo.-based conservation group dedicated to the protection of native predators in Colorado.