PORTLAND – A federal judge’s latest order apparently will let ranchers graze their cows again this season in several disputed parts of the Malheur National Forest, but only to the reduced levels allowed last year.

Area ranchers had hoped for a ruling soon after a March 30 hearing in the cases, when oral arguments were heard.

However, in his April 19 order, U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty said he isn’t ready to make a final decision in the cases challenging cattle grazing on the forest. He cited the “voluminous nature of the administrative record, and the number of claims advanced by the parties” in announcing the delay.

Cattle were scheduled to be released onto the allotments beginning May 15 and continuing into June.

While the ruling is pending, Haggerty said he “expects that this season’s grazing strategy will allow grazing at an intensity not incongruous with last season’s grazing.”

Last year, Haggerty conditionally allowed cattle to graze on seven of the 13 allotments in question.

As part of the recent order, attorneys for ranchers, environmentalists and the federal government were told to discuss grazing plans and file a report about the status of their talks by the end of April.

Ken Holliday, a John Day rancher and one of the Five Rivers Grazing Permittees, said the latest order “leaves the door open for us to have a win.”

“It’s not a win, and it’s not a loss,” he said.

While the permittees would have preferred a final – and favorable – ruling, the order at least lets the ranchers turn out as they did last year, he noted.

The ranchers remain concerned about the streambank alteration standard used to gauge impacts on wild salmon runs.

The Oregon Natural Desert Association, which filed suit in 2007, asked Haggerty to overturn federal grazing plans for the national forest, arguing they illegally harm threatened steelhead.

Ranchers also challenged federal grazing plans on the forest, claiming methods for monitoring steelhead habitat aren’t based on the best available science.

Federal agencies involved in the lawsuit – the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service – urged Haggerty to uphold their grazing plans.

However, the judge indicated he would uphold one of the federal agencies’ methods for measuring steelhead habitat health.

The government requires ranchers to prevent cattle from altering more than 10 to 20 percent of stream banks with hoof prints, depending on the area.

The ranchers claimed these thresholds don’t accurately gauge harm to steelhead, but Haggerty said “the court intends to uphold the bank alteration standard,” according to the recent order.

– Blue Mountain Eagle editor Scotta Callister and Capital Press writer Mateusz Perkowski contributed to this story.