Environmental group threatens lawsuit over cattle grazing along Arizona's Verde River

Cattle grazing along the Verde River and its tributaries continues to damage sensitive riparian habitats in Arizona’s national forests, according to a report released by the Center for Biological Diversity on Monday.

With the report, the group filed a notice of intent to sue the Forest Service, alleging that the agency is violating the Endangered Species Act and its own grazing management guidelines, resulting in widespread damage on the Verde. 

Robin Silver, a co-founder of the center, called the damage to the Verde found in the survey "heartbreaking" and said the government is shirking its duty to protect the river. 

"In 1978, Maricopa Audubon Society was raising this issue because we were losing the habitat for the desert nesting bald eagle," Silver said. "That's 40 years ago, and it's worse now." 

Over the last year, field biologists and surveyors with the conservation group walked more than 145 miles of rivers and streams on public lands in the Verde River watershed, from the river’s headwaters in the rural community of Paulden, southwest of Flagstaff, to the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation northeast of Phoenix. They also surveyed a number of the river’s tributaries.

The center concluded that nearly 70% of the surveyed rivers and streams had evidence of cattle grazing, despite a 1998 Forest Service agreement to install fencing and take other measures to keep livestock off the Verde and other central Arizona waterways.

After that lawsuit, the Fish and Wildlife Service produced seven biological opinions with suggestions from the agency about whether a federal action, in this case allowing grazing in riparian areas on public forest lands, would negatively impact protected species.

In those opinions, published between 1995 and 2016, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that livestock grazing negatively impacted protected species in many of the allotments.

'The results are grim'

The center launched its survey in fall 2019 after receiving increasing reports of cows along the rivers and streams, said Joe Trudeau, who supervised the project. The group wanted to determine if cattle were in riparian areas that had been closed to grazing through prior legal agreements, or that contain habitat for species protected under the Endangered Species Act, and to quantify those impacts.

Surveyed streams were within or adjacent to 22 public lands grazing allotments, 10 of which were part of the 1998 settlement. Most of those allotments contain critical habitat for federally protected species that may require special management and protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Surveyors walked the riparian areas and adjacent uplands, photographing and geolocating degradation from cattle and other ungulates. They rated segments with an "overall impact score" that combined ratings of 1 to 4 for observed impacts like patchy, grazed vegetation; cow feces, tracks and wallows; and chiseling of stream banks, which is when portions of the soil are dislodged by heavy, hooved animals. 

“The results are grim,” Trudeau said. “Supposedly cows have been kept out for years, but it’s still a significant, widespread, persistent problem.”

The group documented that fencing, the Forest Service’s most common method of keeping cows out of many of the riparian areas surveyed, was in disrepair in dozens of areas and, at times, totally absent.

The Forest Service did not respond to specific questions from The Republic about fencing, but ranchers in the area noted it has been a particularly wet year and flash floods may be a contributing factor. 

Feral cattle have long been a problem in the national forests and, under federal regulations, the Forest Service is responsible for the management of the animals. The Forest Service is also responsible for developing management plans with ranchers who run cattle on public land grazing allotments, as well as monitoring whether those plans are working.

The environmental group said the survey illustrates that the Forest Service’s livestock management practices are not working. The survey also suggests the agency is not adequately maintaining fencing that keeps both feral and authorized cows out of the riparian areas, that it is remiss in monitoring ranchers whose grazing allotments include the Verde River and its tributaries, and that it has not done enough to round up or eliminate feral cattle in the region.

“They never inspect. We inspect,” said Robin Silver, a co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We pay their salaries as a public. We do their jobs for them and we subsidize the cowboys that are destroying our public lands without supervision.”

Forest Service cites other impacts

The Forest Service says it is working closely with ranchers and other stakeholders to improve the conditions of the Verde River and the creeks and streams that feed it, the agency wrote in a statement.

The agency did not answer specific questions about monitoring and enforcement, or what its specific plans are for addressing the impact of feral cattle in the Prescott, Coconino, and Tonto national forests, which encompass the areas surveyed by the center.

“The Forest Service Southwestern Region is taking steps to improve riparian areas and works extensively with partners in this effort,” wrote Dorilis Camacho Torres, a spokesperson for the agency’s southwestern division, in response to emailed questions from The Arizona Republic.

The Southwestern region oversees national forests and grasslands in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.

“Riparian areas are very important components of ecosystems in the Southwest, and these systems can be influenced by a variety of factors including drought, conditions in the surrounding uplands, human development, invasive species, wildfires and livestock grazing,” Torres wrote.

Field surveyors for the Center for Biological Diversity documented cow feces along the Verde and its tributaries, trampled and eroded river banks, and muddy sand and overgrazed vegetation in areas that otherwise would be covered by lush deer grass and other plants.

The biggest concerns are local contamination of water from fecal matter and the destruction of habitat necessary for the survival of rare fish, reptiles, and birds, the group says.

Approximately 63 miles of surveyed rivers and streams had moderate to significant grazing impacts, and about 43 miles had no signs of damage from cattle, according to the survey. About 27 of the 101 miles of the Verde, one of Arizona’s only Wild and Scenic Rivers, had significant cattle damage. 

The group found that damage was the most severe in areas near the confluence of the Verde and East Verde rivers and Fossil Creek in Tonto National Forest.

“Our riparian areas are beloved by people and wildlife because of the cottonwood trees, the willow trees, ash, box elders,” Trudeau said. “One of cows’ favorite things to eat is the seedlings of these trees."

The trees provide habitat for endangered birds like the southwestern willow flycatcher or the yellow-billed cuckoo, and help keep the banks from eroding away, he said. 

"Then we can't forget the water pollution issue of them defecating and urinating directly into the water," Trudeau said. "Wildlife need clean water too.”

Issue headed for the courts

Earlier this year, the Center for Biological Diversity filed two lawsuits against the federal government over this issue. The suits alleged that the Forest Service is violating an agreement to exclude livestock from grazing along stretches of waterways where critical habitats for endangered species exist throughout the Gila and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests in New Mexico and Arizona.

On Monday, the center filed the notice of intent to sue over the issue for a third time, in the Verde watershed.

At issue is whether the Forest Service has adequately enforced rules that exclude cattle from grazing in certain riparian areas of the national forests, including along the Verde and many of its tributaries, which the agency agreed to in a settlement in a similar lawsuit brought by the center in 1997.

That case was decided in 1998 with an agreement that led to fences along hundreds of miles of rivers and creeks in Arizona and New Mexico and a promise to remove cattle from the vast majority of riparian habitats within public land grazing allotments, including 14 in the Verde River watershed.

In authorizing grazing permits for allotments in the national forests, the Forest Service must abide by the Endangered Species Act, which requires the agency, in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, to first assess the impacts that grazing will have on endangered species and their habitats in the area.

According to Torres, the Forest Service spokesperson, since the 1998 lawsuit, the Forest Service and its partners have used additional strategies to keep livestock out of riparian areas. Among the strategies are fencing, developing alternative water resources away from the Verde and its streams, and formulating management plans for grazing and recreation within specific riparian areas.

Torres emphasized that management options are different in every forest.

“To look at them across multiple landscapes, zones or boundaries and make an aggregate judgment on current status wouldn’t paint an accurate picture,” Torres wrote. “Each location has its own unique concerns and should be evaluated as such.”

Trudeau and Silver of the Center for Biological Diversity said the Forest Service is simply not doing enough.

“The Forest Service is right when they describe riparian areas as ‘conduits for life.’ It is life in the desert," Silver said. "And the more you get in tune with the place, even if sometimes it’s just a trickle in the summer, it's life.” 

'We need to close all riparian areas'

Most research has shown that livestock grazing, particularly when poorly managed, is harmful to riparian areas throughout the arid southwest. 

Grazing on riparian plants reduces cover for species like the threatened northern Mexican garter snake. Heavy livestock can worsen erosion on the riverbanks and disturb sensitive aquatic environments for certain fish species. 

Cattle often eat cottonwood saplings, Trudeau said, which can lead to the elimination of an entire generation of trees that are essential habitat for migratory birds and to maintain the integrity of the river during major flooding, an important part of the cycle of desert waterways.

The center argues that eliminating all cows, horses, and burros from riparian areas on public lands is the best way to mitigate the documented damage. 

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Of the 3 million acres of land that make up the Tonto, nearly 95% of it is open to grazing. In its 1985 forest management plan, the Forest Service limited grazing in riparian areas “to not exceed 20% of the annual growth of woody species.” The 2019 draft management plan increases that use to 50%.

“We need to close all riparian areas to any form of livestock grazing permanently,” Trudeau said. “There is no excuse under the threats of climate change and drought and invasive species and the extinction crisis why we should be opening available forage in such sensitive and, in many cases, endangered habitats.”

Studies have shown that removing livestock has helped with the regrowth of riparian tree species, but in some cases closely managed grazing can coexist with maintaining species diversity and tree cover.

There have been several studies in specific areas where removal of cattle coincided with the decline of endangered native fish species, but researchers disagree on the conclusions of those studies, said George Ruyle, who specializes in ecology and rangeland management at the University of Arizona. Ruyle has worked on these issues on both public and private lands in Arizona since the 1980s.

“Mismanaged or unmanaged grazing in riparian areas can be devastating,” Ruyle said. “Most of these riparian areas that are overgrazed or mismanaged can recover. Riparian grazing by livestock has to be managed very carefully and you have to really keep your eye on it or you can overuse it.”

Ranchers say they want to protect land

Monitoring is one of the most crucial aspects of making sure the management practices are working and that strategies continue to evolve with what's needed for the area, Ruyle said. The Forest Service did not respond to specific questions from The Republic about monitoring.

“I can tell you it's happening, it just may not be happening everywhere,” Ruyle said. “There isn't enough of it, but in my experience it’s not because these federal employees are sitting around not doing what they're supposed to be doing, it's just there's so much of it. It's not an easily solvable problem.” 

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The Republic spoke with three ranchers who had grazing allotments in the Prescott, Coconino or Tonto national forests that were identified as problem areas in the Center for Biological Diversity survey. All of them described themselves as environmentally minded and said they were conscious of not wanting to negatively impact the land. Their livelihoods depend on not overgrazing, they emphasized.

They all said they do not graze or water their cattle along on the Verde and if cattle do manage to get around fencing and into the river area, the ranchers do their best to round them up as quickly as possible.

They described strategies like developing water sources miles from the river in the uplands to keep the cattle from being straying toward the river, and said they no longer use most of the pastures in their allotments that are near the river.

"We are not using any pastures that are connected to the Verde River at this time,” said Warren Smith, Sr., whose grazing allotments in the Tonto include the confluence of the Verde and East Verde Rivers, as well as Red Creek, one of the Verde’s tributaries that was fenced from grazing in the 1998 settlement. 

The Center for Biological Diversity says that, intentional or not, something is not working and that management is failing at a large scale.

“We have 140-something miles we surveyed with 22 allotments in which 20 are problems,” Silver said. “We have objectively documented evidence that the habitat is being trashed. The management is not working.” 

Erin Stone covers the environment for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send her story tips and ideas at erin.stone@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @Erstone7.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.