For Immediate Release
July 13, 20005

Contact Information

Denver, CO—Biodiversity Conservation Alliance today successfully overturned a plan to allow domestic livestock grazing and continued watershed degradation on over 62,000 acres of public lands in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.

Authorized last spring, the plan, known as the Upper North Platte Analysis, would have permitted cow grazing in streams and streamside habitats that are already suffering from drought, erosion, and overgrazing. The plan encompassed the Beaver Creek, Big Creek, and Six Mile grazing allotments, which are located on public lands in the eastern Sierra Madre and a portion of the Snowy Range of southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. According to the Forest Service, nearly 20% of all streamside (or riparian) habitats within the allotments—or over 400 acres—are currently in “unsatisfactory” condition because of cows.

According to the Forest Service, only 6% of the entire Medicine Bow National Forest is riparian habitat. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 75% of all wildlife in southeastern Wyoming depend upon riparian areas. While scarce, riparian habitats support a disproportionate share of the region’s wildlife.

“Riparian habitats are critically important to the health and sustainability of wildlife,” said Jeremy Nichols with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “The degradation of even one acre of riparian habitat should be cause for concern, yet the Forest Service seemed willing to sacrifice this irreplaceable resource.”

Because of threats to riparian habitats, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, a Wyoming-based conservation group, filed an administrative appeal of the plan last June. On July 7th, the Supervisor of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest agreed with and upheld the appeal. The decision held:

• Alternative courses of action that would better protect riparian habitats were inappropriately rejected. Specifically, the Supervisor ruled that an alternative that would have required full-time riders to keep cows out of riparian habitats should have been considered;
• Soil impacts were not appropriately analyzed. The Supervisor specifically ruled that the cumulative impacts of off-road vehicle use were not analyzed and therefore it was uncertain whether grazing, in combination with off-road vehicle use, would protect watersheds and riparian habitats from soil erosion.

Jeremy Nichols, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, (303) 454-3370