As our previous newsletter explained, CSERC finally sued the Stanislaus National Forest last year after two decades of unfulfilled agency promises to reduce livestock damage to meadows and to water resources. Sadly, despite assurances, the Forest Service continued to allow livestock violations without consequences.
Last year was especially frustrating because CSERC staff met with Forest Service officials out in the forest at highly degraded sites to show them first-hand glaring examples of resource damage. And still the agency took no corrective actions. Instead, forest officials allowed weeks of extra cattle grazing at one of the most degraded areas.
CSERC’s litigation to protect water quality and meadows has slowly inched forward in the courts -- with legal filings and counter-filings. Pro-grazing interests intervened in the lawsuit on the side of the Forest Service, further stacking the process as “David against Goliath” - with our small center pitted against the powerful federal agency as well as big agriculture.
Despite the stiff odds against us, the months of meadow monitoring and water quality sampling done by CSERC’s biologists last year helped to further justify our lawsuit. In 2017 CSERC documented a total of 57 violations of state and federal water quality standards for fecal coliform and E. coli at seven stream sites in the local national forest. We also found that livestock over-grazed numerous national forest meadows – significantly exceeding the agency’s clear regulations. Stay tuned to see how this uphill legal challenge unfolds in the months ahead.
Map at left shows CSERC’s water quality sampling sites in the Stanislaus National Forest during the 2017 field season.