The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed designating 376,095 acres essential to the survival of the southwestern willow flycatcher. The southwestern willow flycatcher is an endangered bird whose habitat covers the southwestern portion of the United States. Information related to this endangered species was challenged under the Data Quality Act in 2003 and may have helped shape the habitat designation. In March 2003, an Arizona rancher challenged guidance criteria that calculate the effect grazing has on the species. The Forest Service had used that criteria to produce an environmental assessment alternative to prohibiting the rancher's livestock from grazing in potential flycatcher habitats. For more information on the challenge see OMB Watch's analysis. Based on the Federal Register notice, the FWS puts little stock in the critical habitat designation. FWS stated, "In 30 years of implementing the ESA, the Service has found that the designation of statutory critical habitat provides little additional protection to most listed species." Apparently, only 36 percent of species listed as endangered have designated critical habitat. The majority of designations, including the willow flycatcher's, result from litigation. The FWS has had to respond to several lawsuits about the willow flycatcher's habitat designation. While this most recent adjustment to the designations is in response to an environmental group's complaint, concerns emerge about the other influences the proposal might reflect. Even though the designation plan proposes almost 400,000 acres of critical habitat there are significant portions excluded from the mandatory protections of the Endangered Species Act. FWS makes it clear only lands currently occupied by the southwestern willow flycatcher are being proposed as critical habitat. Considering the rancher's complaint focused on restrictions placed on potential habitat, the proposed rule's emphasis on inhabited areas could ease requirements enough to allow grazing. Apparently FWS is more interested in clarifying the exemptions than the protections. For instance the proposed rule would exempt several military bases from critical habitat designation because of the benefits of unimpeded national security training outweighed the benefits of protecting this species of bird. Other proposed exemptions include 19,000 acres in Arizona and 10,000 acres in California.