Private Citizen Wins Case Against Center for Biological Diversity

The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is no novice when it comes to lawsuits. The CBD has filed numerous lawsuits in the past decade against the federal government and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over perceived endangered species. From tiny fish to frogs to polar bears, if it’s alive, it’s possibly included in a CBD lawsuit.  This tactic does sometimes backfire.

Seems when the CBD decided to sue the U.S. Forest Service about cattle grazing allotments in 2002, it accused Arizona ranchers Jim and Sue Chilton of stewardship abuse. The Chilton’s legally grazed their cattle on a ranching allotment in Pima County, Arizona, according to a report printed last year in Western Farm Press. The CBD sued the U.S. Forest Service to end the Chilton’s cattle grazing allotment and claimed the Chilton’s mismanaged the land where some possible threatened or endangered species resided. Apparently no one at the CBD contacted the Chilton’s, who woke up one morning and read their name and the accusations in a local newspaper.

Experts soon noted the Chilton’s followed grazing guidelines. The Chilton’s filed suit against the CBD for defamation and libel—and won. As a result, the CDB had to pay the ranchers $600,000.