Several environmental groups have joined in a lawsuit alleging that federal agencies are wrongfully killing predators on public lands across the Mountain West, including Utah, to protect livestock.
The suit was filed last week in a federal court in New Mexico by WildEarth Guardians, the Western Watershed Project, and Wilderness Watch.
It argues that the killing of predators like coyotes, wolves, bears, and mountain lions in wilderness areas violates the 1964 Wilderness Act — even if the elimination of predators is meant to protect livestock.
"What Congress did not do was allow predator control on behalf of private grazing operations," said Jennifer Schwartz, an attorney representing the environmental groups.
The Wilderness Act states dictates that certain remnants of the American landscape remain "untrammeled" and free from commercial exploitation.
For more than a century, the United States has subsidized the killing of wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and bears in the name of protecting livestock, said Schwartz.
Today, much of that work is carried out by Wildlife Services, a little-known program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is a defendant in the suit.
The lawsuit aims to halt federal predator control operations in wilderness areas across the Tenth Circuit, which includes Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Additional defendants in the case include the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
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