10th Circuit Upholds $23 Million Estimated Cost for Ranchers in Jumping Mouse Habitat

Amanda Pampuro, courthousenews.com

The 10th Circuit upheld the dismissal of a complaint filed by New Mexico ranchers claiming their economic burden was inadequately considered when the federal government designated critical habitat for the state’s endangered meadow jumping mouse.

“We conclude the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) method for assessing the economic impacts of critical habitat designation complied with the Endangered Species Act,” wrote Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich in a 40-page opinion.

“The service adequately considered the effects of designation on the ranching association members’ water rights; and the service reasonably supported its decision not to exclude certain areas from the critical habitat designation,” continued the George W. Bush appointee.

A small rodent with a long tail, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse can jump three feet, nearly 10 times the length of its body. Because it hibernates most of the year, the mouse depends on a riparian habitat during summer that is vulnerable to loss from cattle and wildfires.

The mouse was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. In March 2016, the FWS issued a final rule designating critical habitat for the rodent across 14,000 acres and 170 miles of streams in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The Northern New Mexico Stockman’s Association and others sued Fish and Wildlife in 2018, claiming the agency designated critical habitat for the jumping mouse without proper economic analysis. A federal judge dismissed the complaint in 2020, finding the agency properly considered economic impacts as part of the designation and in upholding the protections for the mouse. The ranchers appealed.

The ranchers trace their lineage on the land back centuries, according to legal documents, before the establishment of the Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Santa Fe and Lincoln national forests at issue.

Based on a contractor’s estimate, the federal government estimated the designation would amount to $23 million in regulatory costs for the ranchers, including building fences and changing grazing ground rotation.

In its brief, FWS emphasized a ceiling of $100 million in costs and broke down its estimate with $15 million authorizing and regulating grazing alongside $24,000 borne by ranchers in three locations.

U.S. Circuit Judges Gregory Phillips and Carolyn McHugh, both appointed by Barack Obama, rounded out the panel and joined the opinion. ▫

New Mexico to Receive $9.8 Million for Rural Areas Near National Forests, Grasslands

Source: The New Mexican

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service will allocate $9.8 million to rural areas in and near national forests and grasslands in New Mexico.

A form of the program has existed since 1908, and it has been reauthorized through 2023 by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The program, typically called Secure Rural Schools, provides money for schools and roads, county initiatives and projects on federal land. The program has assisted rural communities that had limited tax bases because of increasing amounts of nearby federal land.

“It covers a gamut of rural community needs,” said Larry Moore, a spokesman for the federal Agriculture Department. “It’s for a full range of services.”

Among the projects and programs that can receive money are emergency services such as law enforcement and firefighting, public schools, forest-related educational programs, expanded broadband telecommunications, roads and restoration of fish and wildlife habitat.

The infrastructure law will provide $238 million to 742 counties in the United States and Puerto Rico. The Forest Service has distributed $2.6 billion over the past 10 years through Secure Rural Schools. ▫

Williams

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