Anti-Grazing Radicals File
Yet Another Federal Lawsuit

SANTA FE — Management plans for two so-called "wild and scenic" rivers in New Mexico are more than five years overdue, claims an anti-grazing activist group that has filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Santa Fe National Forest to do them.

It is only the latest in a long string of suits the organization has filed over the last couple of years seeking to end grazing and other productive uses of public lands.

Forest Guardians of Santa Fe, which filed its lawsuit in federal court here earlier this month, claims the U.S. Forest Service must prohibit grazing along the designated rivers to comply with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

It said the absence of the required management plan has allowed ranchers to continue grazing livestock along the river corridors.

"Cows are polluting water and ruining the biologically rich streamside zone," said John Horning of Forest Guardians. "The Forest Service is bending over backwards to accommodate a few ranchers, and sacrificing a wild and scenic river, a wilderness area and Rio Grande cutthroat trout habitat."

Pat Jackson, who works in litigation for the Forest Service's Southwest Region in Albuquerque, declined to comment on the lawsuit because he hadn't seen a copy.

"We haven't been served (with the lawsuit) as far as I know," he said.

The lawsuit asks the court to order a final management plan and environmental assessment for the East Fork of the Jemez River within one month of the court's order. It also wants a draft plan and environmental analysis for the Pecos River within two months of the order and final documents within six months.

Congress designated 11 miles of the East Fork and 20.5 miles of the Pecos as wild and scenic rivers on June 6, 1990. The federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act requires agencies to complete management plans within three years of a river's designation to protect the river corridor, making the plans more than five years overdue, Forest Guardians said.

The Santa Fe National Forest issued a draft management plan for the East Fork in 1994 and issued a final plan about three years later, in June 1997, the activist group said. Forest Guardians successfully appealed that plan, arguing it failed to protect the river from grazing.

The agency has not issued a new plan since, and has not issued even a draft plan for the Pecos River, Forest Guardians said.

The lawsuit charges that the Forest Service has not prepared the management plans, failed to establish detailed boundaries for the designated rivers and failed to protect and enhance their "natural values" by allowing continued livestock grazing, related upland water development and recreational development.