Babbitt Finally Gets It Right
Parting Words from outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, reported in the Wyoming Star-Tribune : Speaking at Yellowstone National Park, Babbit stated that the American public won't stand for ranchers forcing wolves and bison from public lands where they graze their cattle. And if the beef industry forces a confrontation, it will lose.
"Livestock will not have priority," Babbit told a crowd of about 75 people at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. "The grazing of livestock will and must be subordinated to the natural values, including the bison and the predators, who will and must have first place in the ecosystem."
IWP and CIHD File First ESA Lawsuits Against Ranchers Over Water Diversions in Upper Salmon River Watershed
On December 20, 2000 Idaho Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert filed three lawsuits with the federal district court in Boise challenging water diversions in salmon, steelhead, and bull trout habitat near Challis, Idaho. The cases charge violations of The Endangered Species Act and seek a halt to irrigation practices which trap fish in ditches, block migration, and de-water sections of streams.
The groups sent out over 50 notices of intent to sue to irrigators, the Forest Service, BLM, and Idaho Department of Lands in October. The groups are represented by Laird Lucas and the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.
Salmon, steelhead, and bull trout in Idaho are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Act prohibits "take" of protected species, which includes killing or harming them by modifying habitat.
In many Idaho streams, irrigation diversions are not screened, and fish become trapped in ditches and ultimately die. Some diversions dry up streams entirely, or pose impassable barriers to fish migration.
"These are just the first three of many cases that we expect to file challenging these antiquated diversion methods," said Jon Marvel of Idaho Watersheds Project. "If ranchers and farmers are not willing to begin protecting endangered fish from the impacts of their water diversions, they can expect to face similar ESA enforcement cases from us."
The cases target diversions on Mahogany Creek (in the Pahsimeroi River basin), Lake Creek (in the East Fork Salmon River drainage), and Otter Creek (tributary to Panther Creek and the Main Salmon River). In each case, individuals and corporations are named as defendants. One case also targets the Forest Service for failing to protect bull trout in Otter Creek.
"These three cases each involve very clear violations of the Endangered Species Act," said attorney Laird Lucas, "as well as `problem ranchers' who do not want to admit they are part of the problem. Our hope is that other ranchers will see that it's in their best interest to work with us, not against us, and do what's right for the fish."
As part of a continuing legal campaign to end dewatering of critical habitat for listed fish species Idaho Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert filed a motion for a preliminary injunction today which, if granted, could have farreaching impacts in determining whether the Endangered Species Act can trump state water law.
Conservationists Seek to Halt Irrigation Diversion to Protect Bull Trout
On February 16, 2001 Idaho Watersheds Project and the Committee for Idaho's High Desert filed for a preliminary injunction in federal court to bar irrigation diversions on Mahogany Creek in the Pahsimeroi Valley under the Endangered Species Act. The motion names Judd Whitworth, a rancher in the Pahsimeroi area, as responsible for killing bull trout, a fish species which is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The conservationists state that Whitworth operates a diversion on Mahogany Creek that kills fish both by dewatering the stream and by having no fish screen on the diversion. The court filings include photographs showing water running into a road from a ditch operated by Whitworth, while the streambed is completely dry.
"Bull trout and other fish are killed every year across central Idaho by irrigation diversions that are not screened and that dry up streams and rivers. That violates the Endangered Species Act, and cannot continue if we are going to save these fish," said Pam Marcum, chairperson of Committee for Idaho's High Desert.
"Judd Whitworth and his partners have been killing bull trout for years by taking all the water out of Mahogany Creek," said Jon Marvel, executive director of Idaho Watersheds Project. "Wasting water and not screening diversions violates Idaho laws; and killing bull trout in the process violates the ESA. Our lawsuit intends to hold these private parties responsible for their flagrant disregard of federal and state law."
The motion is the first in a series of lawsuits brought by the conservation groups under the Endangered Species Act to improve stream flows and fish populations in the Upper Salmon basin. The injunction motion will be heard in Boise on May 3 by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
The groups are represented by attorney Laird Lucas and the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.