Santa Fe National Forest faces lawsuit for allowing trespass livestock into Valles Caldera National Preserve

WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project and Caldera Action are taking legal action against the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing livestock to illegally graze in the Valles Caldera National Preserve located in northern New Mexico.

The lawsuit follows years of inaction by the Forest Service to prevent livestock authorized to graze on adjacent Forest Service lands from illegally entering the preserve. The preserve is managed by the National Park Service and does not currently authorize any cattle grazing.

Cattle have illegally entered the preserve from neighboring Forest Service grazing allotments, damaging fish and wildlife habitat, water sources and posing a risk to visitors to the preserve for over a decade, the suit alleges. Habitat for the endangered Jemez Mountain salamander, New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, and the threatened Mexican spotted owl have been damaged by the trespassing livestock, putting these species in jeopardy of extinction, it notes.

“This has been going on too long and the impacts are getting worse. People who care about the Caldera are frustrated, especially when they see dozens of cattle wallowing in riparian areas and fens — fragile ecosystems that are supposed to be protected,” says Andrew Rothman, Wild Places program director for WildEarth Guardians. “The Forest Service authorizes livestock grazing even when they know it leads to trespass on the neighboring preserve and is pushing threatened and endangered species to the brink of extinction in the Caldera.”

More than 850 trespass cattle were observed on the Caldera in 2023. Because the Forest Service failed to ensure fences were functional and sufficient to prevent trespass prior to the grazing season this year, conservation organizations felt compelled to take their case to the courts.

“We have asked the Forest Service and the Park Service to do something about these trespassing cows for nearly 10 years,” said Tom Ribe, executive director of Caldera Action, a nonprofit focused on the Jemez Mountains. “The Park Service took action after our first Notice of Intent to Sue in 2022. While we appreciate that, it isn’t enough — we need the Forest Service to take responsibility for the cattle that are from their grazing program. They need to keep those cattle on Forest Service lands, according to their agreements with the ranchers.”

After the Park Service documented natural resource damage in the preserve caused by livestock coming from Forest Service allotments, the Forest Service failed to make changes to its grazing authorizations. Neither the Forest Service nor the Fish and Wildlife Service re-initiated consultation — a requirement under the Endangered Species Act — to analyze if and how trespass livestock grazing is harming threatened and endangered species.

“When livestock run out of grass on the authorized allotments, they will find food elsewhere, and a poorly maintained or cut barbed wire fence won’t stop them from finding that food,” said Cyndi Tuell, Arizona and New Mexico director of Western Watersheds Project. “The Forest Service is responsible for putting these cows on the land. They need to be held accountable for their poor management decisions and refusal to enforce their own rules. When we have species so close to extinction like the Jemez Mountain salamander, we need swift action, not agency foot-dragging. If they would simply do their job, we wouldn’t have to sue them.”