ELR Citation: ELR 20059
No(s). s. 04-181, 02-521 (D. Idaho Feb 26, 2009)

A district court ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to maintain or enhance existing and potential populations of the sage grouse, pygmy rabbit, and slickspot peppergrass on a 1.4-million acre tract of BLM land and to ensure that wildlife goals and watershed needs are satisfied prior to allowing increased livestock use on that land. An environmental group filed suit after BLM authorized livestock grazing and fence rebuilding following a catastrophic wildfire that destroyed a massive amount of habitat for the three species, which are currently being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. It argued that BLM failed to adequately take into account the interests of the imperiled species when it decided to authorize grazing in key remaining habitat, repair fences, and adopt the criteria for reopening burned areas to grazing. The court ruled that the resource management plan for the area is more protective of sensitive species than has previously been interpreted by the BLM. The BLM, therefore, must correct its interpretation as it considers authorizing grazing for the 2009 grazing season and beyond. Although a ban on grazing is not required, going forward the BLM must abandon the grazing-as-usual model used in the 2008 authorizations and modify grazing levels and seasons-of-use in the unburned areas to maintain or enhance existing and potential populations of the sensitive species within the planning area and ensure that wildlife goals and watershed needs will be satisfied prior to allowing increases in livestock use.