08/06/07 Grazing supporters urged to attend LPO court hearing

Washington Ag August 6, 2007 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife's decision to essentially remove cattle grazing from the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge in northeast Washington will be challenged during oral arguments this Wednesday, August 8th in federal court in Richland. The Washington Cattlemen's Association joined the legal challenge to the federal agency's decision and its executive vice president Jack Field says Wednesday's hearing gets underway at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea. Field: "The case goes before the judge and we will have an opportunity to see if science will prevail and if so we will have an opportunity to revisit that management plan and hopefully interject some sound science and hopefully get some cattle back on the ground." Since removing cattle from the wildlife refuge managers have utilized burning and mowing as management tools. The Defenders of Wildlife and the Friends of the Little Pend Oreille Refuge sent out solicitations to their environmental friends encouraging them to attend Wednesday's hearing and cattlemen are urging grazing supporters to attend to offset that showing of support. I'm Bob Hoff.