Advocates for the West
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This case challenges a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to roundup and remove nearly all of the wild free-roaming horses within three horse areas in northeastern Nevada. BLM claims that it needs to remove these horses because they are overgrazing the public lands, although BLM's own documents show that cows - and not wild horses - are causing the degradation of public lands.
This case challenges BLM decisions allowing grazing and construction of numerous livestock watering troughs and fences in the Grouse Creek, Meadow Creek, Trail Creek, and Rock Creek allotments, located in the Pahsimeroi watershed of central Idaho.
The Burnt Creek allotment is located in the Upper Pahsimeroi watershed, which is occupied by bull trout and sage grouse; and extends over much of the Burnt Creek Wilderness Study Area.
Our prior litigation in 2002-03 forced BLM to close the allotment to grazing for 4 years, although repeated livestock "trespass" occurred during that time, continuing to harm bull trout habitat.
The Granger and Carter Lease allotments encompass 720,000 acres of prime sage grouse habitat in BLM's Kemmerer Field Office of southwestern Wyoming.
BLM previously approved oil and gas drilling on the Moxa Arch project here, which has already harmed the sage-grouse population. And BLM is planning to expand the Moxa Arch field, which will further fragment the sagebrush habitat and displace sensitive species, including pygmy rabbit and sage-grouse.
The Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming has only a relic population of bighorn sheep, which die when they come into contact with domestic sheep grazing on the public lands. Yet the Forest Service continues to authorize sheep grazing in bighorn habitat, and did not evaluate grazing alternatives to the status quo when it recently revised the Bighorn Forest Plan.
This administrative appeal before the Office of Hearings and Appeals in the Department of Interior challenged BLM's authorization of grazing on the Squaw Valley and Spanish Ranch allotments of northern Nevada, where Barrick Goldstrike -- a major gold mining company -- has purchased several ranches and is running livestock on them.
This case challenged BLM's proposal to clearcut and mulch some 50 square miles of old growth pinyon-juniper forest around the Mt. Wilson area of central Nevada.
BLM claimed that the logging was needed to reduce wildfire risks in the "urban/wildland interface," even though there is no urban area in this remote part of Nevada -- and even though its plans would actually increase fire risks by cutting down live trees and leaving their shredded remains on the ground.
The 70,000-acre Nickel Creek allotment has the most riparian habitat of any allotment in BLM's Owyhee Resource Area of southwestern Idaho. BLM's 1997 grazing permit for the Nickel Creek allotment was held unlawful in the IWP v. Hahn litigation. BLM determined in 2001 that grazing was violating all applicable rangeland health standards -- yet under pressure from the permittees, BLM issued a new 2003 permit that continued excessive livestock numbers.
This large case challenges several hundred grazing permits, oil and gas leases, and other land management decisions approved by BLM during the last years of the Bush Administration, which individually and together harm the Great Basin core population of greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Nevada.
We won an injunction in 2004 preventing the Clearwater National Forest from proceeding with two adjoining timber sales in the Lolo Creek watershed of central Idaho, to protect habitat of imperilled fish -- including salmon, steelhead, and bull trout.
Even though the Forest Service developed the two sales -- called "White/White" and "Brick/Trout" -- at the same time and they would affect the same watershed, it refused to analyze their cumulative impacts. After we won the injunction, the agency agreed to withdraw the sales.