BLM Pulls Livestock from Smiths Fork Allotment; WOC Protests Grazing Permit Renewals on Upper Bench Corral and Red Canyon Allotments

by Tom Darin

WOC's grazing program is aimed at ensuring that Wyoming's public land managers implement proper land stewardship principles, as mandated by federal law and regulation. To that end, we have protested proposals by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that would continue failed management practices on three grazing allotments.

Smiths Fork

In our last Frontline, we reported on comments WOC submitted to the BLM concerning its proposed interim allotment management plan (IAMP) for the 90,000-acre Smiths Fork allotment near Cokeville. Our comments on the agency's environmental assessment noted that it had recognized the allotment as one of those in the worst condition in the Kemmerer area as early as 1986. We also stressed that the proposed IAMP was doomed to fail because it offered no reduction in livestock numbers, no serious protection for wildlife forage and fish habitat and no long-term management goals.

In July, the Smiths Fork Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) steering committee reported that through June, range riding was "woefully inadequate" to prevent overgrazing along portions of Raymond Creek, one of the last strongholds in the area for the imperiled Bonneville cutthroat trout. Predictably, due to past failures that have been incorporated into the present "interim" management plan, all range improvements in the area during 1998 and 1999 were obliterated. Vern Phinney, a wildlife biologist for the BLM's Kemmerer resource area, stated that he had not seen Raymond Creek hit so hard since the CRM process began in the spring of 1995.

Matters got worse in July. The CRM steering committee reported in August that the South Fork of Raymond Creek had absolutely no grass due to heavy livestock use. The minutes from the August meeting indicate that in the North Fork, "Everything that was available for use by cattle was taken-grasses, sedges, willows [and] shrubs."

To its credit, the BLM closed the entire allotment to cattle grazing for the remainder of the 2000 grazing season, effective September 15, citing congregations of cattle in trashed riparian zones and the lack of sufficient range riding to control livestock distribution.

In August, WOC filed a protest with the BLM after the agency completed a second environmental assessment that was limited to the impacts of its plan to divide the allotment into a north and south pasture with a fence. Our protest pointed out that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires a single environmental analysis for related actions on a grazing allotment. Because the impacts of the division fence are not, in and of themselves, that severe, we argued that the BLM is trying to make an end-run around NEPA requirements by fragmenting the NEPA process: the division-fence decision will be used to justify the approval of the over-arching IAMP, which, of course relies on the very same division fence to help solve the allotment's serious problems.

WOC argued that the impacts of both the division fence and the proposed management plan must be analyzed in one, not two, environmental assessments. Again, we pointed out that an effective management plan for the allotment must reduce livestock numbers, protect wildlife forage and fish habitat and include long-term management goals. Decisions on the proposed IAMP and the division fence are expected later this fall.

Upper Bench Corral & Red Canyon

In July, WOC, along with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC), protested the BLM's proposed decision to renew 10-year grazing permits for the Upper Bench Corral Common (UBCC) and Red Canyon Common (RCC) allotments. These two allotments are northwest of Big Piney, within the Pinedale BLM resource area. In 1987, the BLM determined that the UBCC allotment was in category "I" (allotments in the worst condition or declining in overall health), primarily due to poor livestock distribution. The RCC allotment showed signs of failing riparian health.

WOC pointed out that maintaining the status quo on these allotments-no reduction in AUMs and utilizing outdated carrying capacity data from the 1960s-would do nothing to improve rangeland conditions. We also noted that the BLM had not consulted adequately with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerning the recently listed Canada lynx and the imperiled sage grouse and mountain plover. In addition, the agency's proposed alternative failed to protect wildlife migration corridors, prevent wildlife diseases or ensure proper monitoring. In short, the BLM seemed more worried about the financial concerns of permittees than about improving rangeland health. A decision regarding the renewal of grazing permits on both allotments is expected later this fall.