Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Grazing Mismanagement

May 14, 2024 — Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for failing to ensure cattle grazing on the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana’s Centennial Valley does not harm wildlife.

The Refuge was established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 to protect the largest wetlands complex in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is home to grizzly bears, sage grouse, wolves, wolverines, and more than one hundred species of birds. The namesake lakes and their tributaries contain one of the last remaining native adfluvial population (reside in lakes, spawn in streams) of Arctic grayling in the contiguous U.S. Over the last decade, that population has declined from several thousand fish to just 73 fish in 2022.

At least as far back as 1994, FWS has recognized that livestock grazing poses a significant threat to the Refuge’s abundant wildlife. At that time, FWS claimed that the grazing program was compatible with its duty to conserve and protect wildlife, but only so long as strict conditions were in place to monitor and scrutinize grazing impacts; and that regular adjustments to the program would be made. Despite assurances made over three decades, FWS has not engaged in meaningful monitoring, evaluation, or adjustments to the grazing program. As a result, commercial grazing continues on the Refuge with little to no analysis of its impacts. With species like Arctic grayling hovering on the brink of extirpation, not understanding the impacts of grazing may have serious consequences.