Opinion ID: 6500751
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Clear Lake Refuge

Text: Western Watersheds challenges the Conservation Plan’s continuation of managed grazing on portions of Clear Lake Refuge. President Taft established Clear Lake Refuge in 1911 as a preserve for native birds, including the greater sage-grouse. The Refuge contains a “lek,” or breeding area, for sage-grouse. The lek is located on what is called the “U,” a 5,000-acre peninsula that extends into Clear Lake and that contains sagebrush and native grasses. Sage-grouse depend on sagebrush for nesting. This map shows the U jutting out into Clear Lake with sagebrush habitat depicted in light blue, primarily on the western portion of the peninsula: CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY V. HAALAND 15 Clear Lake Refuge also includes habitat for two species of endangered fish: the Lost River suckerfish and the shortnose suckerfish. FWS listed both species as endangered in 1988. Grazing has taken place in the Refuge area since the 1870s. And for decades, FWS has used “intensively managed cattle grazing” in Clear Lake Refuge “to promote 16 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY V. HAALAND sage-steppe habitat to benefit greater sage-grouse.” 2 The Plan discusses grazing in the context of the IPM plan “because the primary purpose of the grazing program would be to control invasive species.” Grazing is used “to control invasive annual grasses and juniper seedlings, reduce wildfire fuels, and create a mosaic of short-grass habitat to meet wildlife objectives.” The grazing traditionally occurred between mid-August and mid-November. The Conservation Plan included the use of this long-standing grazing tool as part of its no-action alternative for Clear Lake Refuge. In another alternative, which FWS ultimately adopted, FWS considered an additional grazing period between March and mid-April. Roughly 300 to 500 cattle would be permitted to graze in one or two 1,500-acre pastures on east side of the U. The Conservation Plan explained that FWS “would use grazing to control exotic annual grasses and assist with restoration of habitat on the east side of the ‘U’ that was damaged by the Clear Fire in 2001.” The adopted alternative’s proposed spring grazing was conditioned on “monitoring data” that would determine whether both, either, or neither of the planned pastures on the U should be grazed in a given year. To direct cattle away from the shoreline and keep them off the western half of the U (where sage-grouse nesting is more prevalent), the two pastures would also include “flagged, electric wire fencing[,] and water troughs would be installed at the upper ends of the pastures away from Clear Lake.” “Experimental plots would initially be established to fine-tune this strategy (e.g., number of cattle, duration, and timing),” and the “grazing 2 Sage-steppe is a grassland area dominated by sagebrush and other shrubs. CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY V. HAALAND 17 program would be phased out if it reduced the presence of exotic annual grasses to a great enough extent that native perennial grasses, forbs, and shrubs were successfully reestablished.”