Anti-Grazing Activists File
Yet Another Southwest Suit

ALBUQUERQUE — Anti-grazing activists have instituted yet another in a long string of lawsuits intended to drive livestock off public lands in the Southwest.

Two activist groups filed over grazing on El Malpais National Conservation Area, citing its "important geological, ecological, cultural, scenic, scientific and wilderness resources."

Forest Guardians and T and E Inc. filed their lawsuit last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe, contending the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to conduct required environmental studies before issuing grazing permits on nine allotments on the conservation area.

The activists say 2000 cattle currently graze the area, which includes the York Ranch allotment, traded to the BLM by former Gov. Bruce King. The BLM halted some of the grazing on the York allotment in 1996 to rest the land.

"We're asking that the cows be removed until the (environmental) analysis is done," said attorney Clay Clarke, who filed the lawsuit. "We say that until you've complied with (the National Environmental Policy Act), it's only right that you take the cows off."

Hector Villalobos, area manager for the BLM, said Friday the BLM is still resting the land in question. He said the cattle are on other parts of the allotment, "not the area that was impacted by previous grazing."

"We've deferred grazing for almost three years on parts of that allotment," Villalobos said.

And he said that deferment continues until environmental studies are completed.

"We're working on a coordinated resource management plan for the York Ranch and several other areas out there," Villalobos said.

The York permittee is FNF Properties of Inverness, Ill. Forest Guardians provided The Associated Press a copy of a letter from Villalobos to FNF Properties in 1996 congratulating the group on acquiring the ranch, which includes more than 135,000 acres of BLM land.

The conservation area includes the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, La Ventana Natural Arch, Indian petroglyphs, and a place called Hole in the Wall where lava surrounds a large ponderosa pine parkland.

Villalobos' letter serves notice on the Illinois group that BLM's duty is "to institute the best management practices which will insure healthy, sustainable rangelands."

"We desire that the entire allotment be rested for the 1997 growing season. We also would like to have an allotment management plan in place before grazing resumes," the letter says.

There is no telephone listing for FNF, and Villalobos refused to reveal names or contact numbers of any members of the group, which Forest Guardians said is comprised of doctors and lawyers from the Chicago area.

"The BLM does not have a single shred of paper that demonstrates they're complying with the mandate of the National Conservation Area," said John Horning of Forest Guardians. "They don't have a programmatic general management plan, and they don't have any site-specific management plans or NEPA documents that have allowed the public to participate or give us a voice. Yet, they're willing to bend over backward to accommodate a group of hobby ranchers from Chicago."

Of the 2000 cattle on the conservation area, Horning said, about 1000 are on the York allotment.