Trespassing cattle stand in the grass north of the Hereford Bridge in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in 2021.

 Robin Silver, Center for Biological Diversity

Livestock could continue to graze along a protected stretch of the San Pedro River near Sierra Vista for the next decade at least, but federal regulators are promising fewer cows, better fences and other management tools to limit harm to sensitive areas.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has issued a 10-year extension for four grazing leases in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, where ranchers will be required to reduce their herds by 50% until range conditions improve.

The agency plans to do its part by installing and maintaining boundary fences that can be used to keep cattle out of the conservation area when necessary.

Approximately 15 miles of fencing eventually will be built, according to bureau spokesman Rem Hawes. “The BLM is currently evaluating budget and staffing resources, which will determine the future timeline,” he said.

The final decision on the leases was announced on Dec. 20, despite objections from conservationists and an analysis by the BLM showing some livestock damage along the 47-mile-long river preserve.

According to the agency’s own land health evaluations, none of the four grazing allotments is meeting federal rangeland standards, and at least one of them is significantly contributing to E. coli contamination in the San Pedro and its tributaries.

“It just keeps breaking my heart,” said Tricia Gerrodette, a Sierra Vista resident and conservationist. “For 27 years, I’ve been learning about the San Pedro River Valley ecological values and the harm to those values from livestock grazing. And yet BLM continues to authorize grazing. It’s very disheartening.”

Hawes acknowledged that the bureau’s own evaluation of the allotments showed substandard conditions, but for three of the four “this was caused by factors other than current livestock grazing, such as climate and drought,” he said.

“As such, the BLM determined that grazing is still an appropriate land use when managed to achieve desired resource objectives,” Hawes said.

Legal wrangling

Federal land managers have already been sued several times by environmentalists who oppose the presence of any livestock in the conservation area. Critics accuse the bureau of failing to properly manage permitted grazing or address ongoing issues with trespassing cattle along the river.

“As we’ve noted for over a decade, the agency is supposed to be conserving, protecting, and enhancing this conservation area,” said Cyndi Tuell, Arizona and New Mexico director of Western Watersheds Project, an Idaho-based environmental group. “Despite our best efforts to get them to do their job, the bureau has ignored the science about the adverse impacts of livestock grazing in the SPRNCA, as well as the long-term public interest.”

These cows were photographed near the Hereford Bridge in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area on Nov. 5.

The decision to renew the leases came after an Aug. 1 court settlement with Western Watersheds Project and two other groups, under which the BLM agreed to reconsider grazing in and around the preserve.

The four leases cover just over 6,900 acres inside the conservation area, including 208 acres directly along the San Pedro and the Babocomari rivers.

A total of 180 cows would be allowed on the BLM’s portion of the four allotments — two allotments on the east side of the San Pedro, one on the west side and one straddling the waterway.

According to BLM documents, one of the four renewed leases includes seasonal restrictions that will keep livestock away from the Babocomari River from April 1 to Oct. 31 to “limit impacts to riparian vegetation during the growing season.”

New management?

Robin Silver is co-founder of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity and one of the BLM’s most vocal critics when it comes to management of the San Pedro River.

He called the 10-year extension of the grazing leases “pathetic” and “an incredible insult” to those who have fought to preserve the river.

“Cow grazing was supposed to be phased out after creation of the SPRNCA. Local BLM officials ignored this fact and renewed the leases in 1996 and are now trying to perpetuate them,” Silver said.

Hawes said the extended leases will be subject to “an adaptive management process,” under which the BLM will systematically reduce the number of livestock on the land “until either the (resource) objectives are achieved or no livestock remain on the allotment.”

The agency also plans to improve resource conditions on the allotments with “integrated vegetation management treatments” designed to reduce shrub cover and increase the presence of perennial grasses.

But as far as Silver is concerned, no amount of proposed “adaptive management” is enough to protect such a sensitive riparian area from the impacts of grazing, because the understaffed BLM cannot be counted on to properly monitor the area and protect it from harm.

For proof, Silver points to a settlement the Center for Biological Diversity reached with the agency earlier in 2022 aimed at keeping unauthorized cows out of the conservation area. Since then, he has personally lodged 11 complaints about wayward cattle there.

“There is no evidence whatsoever that local BLM officials are doing anything to address the widespread trespass grazing in SPRNCA in spite of our settlement and in spite of our 11 complaints documenting the ongoing widespread trespass,” he said.

The almost-57,000-acre conservation area 80 miles southeast of Tucson was established in 1988 to protect a portion of the last free-flowing river in Arizona. The imperiled ribbon of water supports marshlands, grasslands and groves of cottonwood, willow and mesquite that attract more than 530 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

It took the BLM until 2019 to finalize its first, comprehensive resource management plan for the preserve.

Conservationists are vowing to fight the renewed grazing leases, first by formally protesting the decision and then filing suit in court if necessary.

“Despite the bureau’s issuance of this proposed decision during the holiday season and with two federal holidays taking away from the already short timeframe we have to respond, we will never stop fighting for the future of this river,” Tuell said. “We will continue to demand the land managers do their job in compliance with the law.”

Conservationists complain that trespassing cattle are causing problems at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean