TO GAUGE THE EFFECTS OF THIS SHRINKING OVERSIGHT, ProPublica and High Country News toured federal grazing allotments in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Nevada, finding evidence of either unpermitted grazing or habitat degraded by livestock in each state.In Arizona alone, reporters witnessed such issues in two national conservation areas, a national monument and a national forest.
On an allotment within Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, an expanse of desert grasslands and forested streams southeast of Tucson, the BLM lets up to 1,500 head of cattle graze across roughly 35,000 acres. These permits were recently reauthorized until 2035 using the exemption that allows environmental reviews to be skipped.
During a visit in late April, a grove of hearty cottonwoods stood against the afternoon sun, casting cool shadows over a narrow creek. This stretch of green sustains birds, frogs, snakes and ocelots. It’s also designated under federal law as critical habitat for five threatened or endangered species. Cattle are not allowed in the creekbed, but a thin barbed-wire fence meant to stop the animals lay crumpled in the dirt.
A native leopard frog broke the hot afternoon stillness as it leapt from the creek’s bank. Its launching pad was the hardened mud imprint of a cow hoof, and it landed with a plop in water fouled by cow feces and the partially submerged bones of a cow corpse. A half-dozen cattle crashed through the creek and up the steep embankment, tearing up plants that protected the soil from erosion and sending silt billowing into the water.
Cattle forage on a Bureau of Land Management grazing allotment in southern Arizona that is also key habitat for native species.Roberto 'Bear' Guerra/High Country News
“Looks like a sewer,” Chris Bugbee, a wildlife ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, remarked as he took in the destruction. “This one hurts. There is no excuse.”
A 2024 BLM land-health assessment listed the grazing allotment as “ALL STANDARDS MET.” In April, a camouflaged trail camera bearing the agency’s insignia was pointed toward the creek. (ProPublica and High Country News submitted a public records request for images on the camera’s memory card in May, but the BLM has yet to fulfill the request.)
No ranchers paid to graze their livestock in this allotment last year, according to BLM data, so it is unclear who owned the cattle. The Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association, which represents ranchers in the state, did not respond to requests for comment.
Each year for the past eight years, Bugbee and his team have surveyed grazing impacts on the banks of streams and rivers in the Southwest that are designated as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. Half of the 2,400 miles of streams they inspected “showed significant damage from livestock grazing,” according to their March report.
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