Lawsuit Filed to Protect Arizona Endangered Species From Cattle Grazing

On June 1, 2010, Advocates for the West sued the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, Lithobates [Rana] chiricahuensis, from livestock grazing in the Fossil Creek watershed of central Arizona.  Advocates' Senior Attorney, Todd C. Tucci, is representing the Center for Biological Diversity in this lawsuit.

In April 2009, the Forest Service issued a permit to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. - the financial giant, and recent recipient of $25 billion taxpayer bailout - authorizing J.P. Morgan to graze the public lands within Fossil Creek Range allotment.  The Forest Service allowed J.P. Morgan to increase grazing in important habitat for the Chiricahua leopard frog and other sensitive wildlands, despite the Forest Service's own study showing that the forest lands could not support this level of use.  The Forest Service study concluded that much of the area was already degraded due to past grazing and persistent drought.

Files: 

Fossil Creek Complaint