The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the U.S. Forest Service.
The environmental group filed notice Wednesday, saying the Forest Service violated a 1998 legal settlement. Back then, the service agreed to keep cattle away from streams in eastern Arizona.
Brian Segee is an attorney with the group. He told Capitol Media Services the group conducted a survey and found cows, trampled stream banks, and water polluted with feces on nearly every mile of stream in the upper Gila River watershed and the Gila National Forest.
"It's been a foundation of their overall compliance in relation to domestic livestock raising to say that the cows are off the river," Segee said.
He said when livestock trample rivers and streams, it destroys wildlife habitat and threatens rare species. There was no immediate response from the Forest Service.
