More than a year after conservation groups announced plans to take legal action regarding cattle illegally trespassing into the Valles Caldera National Preserve, those same groups say the federal agencies have not made significant changes to prevent the damage caused by the livestock.

Cyndi Tuell, the Arizona and New Mexico director at Western Watersheds Project, said that after the groups filed a notice of intent to sue, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service approached them and expressed an interest in working to solve the issue.

But, despite that, Tuell said there are still cattle leaving Forest Service lands and entering Valles Caldera on a daily basis.

Tuell said conservation groups started receiving reports of cattle illegally crossing into the Valles Caldera National Preserve in 2019. However, she said they believe the issue predates 2019 and likely has been occurring since at least 2015.

“A lot of folks who live in the area have been reaching out to the Park Service and the Forest Service, asking them to do something about it for years, and they’re basically told, it’s kind of expensive to round up the cows, the ranchers don’t like when we  do that,” she told NM Political Report in a phone interview.

Legal grazing is allowed in an allotment in the national preserve and Tuell said the cattle grazed on that allotment have not caused problems and remain within the permitted area. Additionally, she said the rancher that grazes in the preserve pays higher rates per animal unit than nearby ranchers who have allotments in the national forest.

According to the Forest Service, crews in the Santa Fe National Forest have worked hard to maintain and rebuild boundary fences with Valles Caldera. Almost all of the northern boundary fence has been repaired, including 300 yards of what the Forest Service describes as critical fence. That 300 yards is where the federal agency believes most of the cattle are crossing into the national preserve.

The boundary fence is between land managed by two federal agencies and, because of that, the Forest Service and the Park Service share the responsibility to maintain the fence and work together to do so.

There are some tools in place that the Forest Service can use to make sure that ranchers keep their cattle on their allotted grazing lands. That includes fining ranchers for unauthorized grazing. 

Tuell said the Forest Service or the Park Service should make the ranchers pay for the forage cattle are illegally consuming outside of the allotments, but the Forest Service says that is not within its authority.

The Forest Service told NM Political Report that it is committed to working with the Park Service, partners and grazing permittees to address the situations.

“We take our stewardship work seriously and strive to cooperate with our partners on this project,” Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor Shaun Sanchez said in a statement.

One thing that the Park Service is doing is keeping track of cattle that are illegally grazing in the preserve.

Related: Groups pressure federal agencies to address illegal grazing in Valles Caldera

Last December, the Park Service and the Forest Service sent a letter to the conservation groups outlining their plans for dealing with the cattle and expressing concern about the livestock’s impact on the habitat in the preserve.

Tuell said that the federal agencies seemed interested in finding a solution to the problem. That letter led to meetings and further conversations between the advocacy groups and the federal agencies.

But solutions are nether simple nor cheap.

Fencing can be expensive. In the letter, the agency stated that it can cost $30,000 to $50,000 per mile on the eastern boundary. Additionally, annual maintenance is needed.

“No fence is impregnable without year-round fence maintenance and repairs,” the letter states.

Repairing even small gaps can cost $10,000 for labor and materials. That includes an area near the East Fork of the Jemez River where cattle were crossing into the national preserve.

The conservation groups say that land managers have failed to coordinate the fence building efforts and are not taking actions to hold ranchers accountable for damage caused by the cattle.

“I’m frustrated,” Madeleine Carey, Southwest Conservation Manager for WildEarth Guardians, said in a press release. “What started out as promising negotiations earlier this year seem to have stalled. By allowing the continued destruction of headwater streams, the agencies have lost sight of the issue at hand and are failing in their public duty to protect fragile natural resources. Due to their inability to coordinate and cooperate, trespass livestock continue to damage waters that should be protected because they are on Park Service land.” 

From their perspective, the activists have held up their end of the bargain with the federal agencies. They have had people out in the national preserve monitoring the situation with the trespass cattle and alerting the federal agencies when they saw livestock on the national preserve outside of permitted areas.

Tuell said one good thing that has come out of their conversations with the federal agencies is that the National Park Service is not only monitoring the number of cattle, but it is also monitoring the impacts that these trespass animals have on the ecosystem. That includes destruction of habitat and consumption of forage. She said the report has not yet been finished but the conservation advocacy groups are hopeful that they will receive a copy once it is complete.

Tuell said that the cattle coming onto the preserve eat vegetation that species the preserve is working to protect rely upon. Additionally, the cattle pollute the water in part by causing more erosion, which leads to more sediment in the streams. The cattle also lead to changes in temperature in the water, in part due to their grazing removing vegetation.

“There’s a whole host of problems in addition to the cow pies themselves contaminating the water,” she said.

The conservation groups have not decided if they will pursue legal action. Tuell said they are gathering more information, including about the impacts of the cattle on the ecosystem.