Lemhi Endangered Fish

Advocates for the West filed three new cases in June and July 2009 for client Western Watersheds Project, suing the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management over their legal violations in managing public lands in the Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds of central Idaho.

The Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds offer vital habitat for endangered fish – including salmon, steelhead and bull trout — as well as sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other sagebrush species. Yet the federal agencies continue to authorize livestock grazing and grazing-related water developments and diversions without accounting for the harms they cause to these imperiled species and their habitats. These three cases are the first of a suite of lawsuits aimed at improving habitat conditions in the Upper Salmon basin.

This action challenges Forest Service and BLM violations of the Endangered Species Act in failing to carry out consulations with US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries over impacts of livestock grazing, irrigation diversions, and other management actions upon salmon, steelhead and bull trout in the Lemhi River watershed of central Idaho.

The Lemhi River offers key spawning, rearing, and over-wintering habitat for all three imperiled fish species. Yet BLM and Forest Service have not conducted monitoring and habitat improvements as required by their own 1990′s ESA consultations. Their failure to meet fish habitat requirements or to consult over changed conditions violates the ESA, and perpetuates degraded habitat conditions in the Lemhi.

After lengthy negotiations, the parties reached a settlement in this case that required the Forest Service and BLM to complete new biological assessments before the 2011 grazing season, and imposed interim measures to protect the fish until new consultations with the Services are fully completed.