Jim Eischeid’s letter to HCN in the November 24th edition
pointed out the irony that “the large majority of those ranchers get sweet
subsidized deals on the use of the public lands for grazing, and yet they
vilify the efforts to restore the wolf on those very same lands.” Eischeid then
goes to the heart of the reason why public land grazing is environmentally
destructive. It is the failure of ranchers to maintain the tradition of riding
the range and moving the herd that results in these cattle hanging out in
riparian areas where they munch willows and aspen as well as grass, deposit
their waste directly into the streams and trample stream banks.
This is also true of Northern California where I live. In the old days, ranch teenagers spent
months in the mountains each summer moving the herds and protecting them from
predators. Often they were alone in the wilderness for weeks on end. These real
cowboys developed a deep bond with the wild lands – the very bond which livestock
organizations still talk about but which is increasingly rare in ranching
communities. If the government agencies required range riding and other active
management practices necessary for grazing to be done in an environmentally
responsible manner we would not need to buy out grazing permits because many
ranchers would abandon their permits as not “penciling out” – i.e. not worth
the cost of management. Undoubtedly those ranch families which really cherish
the Old West lifestyle would once again begin riding the range – or having the
teenagers in the family take on the job. Perhaps this would result in a new generation
of ranchers who value wild lands and wild critters like those old timers who
have now mostly passed on.
One of Jim Eischeid’s suggestions that would not work in Northern California, however, is replacing cattle with
bison. Bison were not native here but elk where. While they survived on the coast, elk were
wiped out in most of interior Northern California
during the gold rush when they were hunted to provide meat to the mining camps.
It was only when the elk were wiped out that enterprising former-miners began
bringing in cattle to feed the mining camps.
Elk were reintroduced to the Klamath Mountains
in the 1980s and they are now flourishing in areas that are not in cattle
allotments. These elk support a solid sport hunting economy. But elk have not recolonized those parts of
the Klamath Mountains where cattle grazing
dominates.
Economic studies comparing the costs and benefits of cattle
grazing v elk hunting in the Klamath
Mountains have not been
done. And I have never heard of elk ranchers running elk on the open range; I
suspect that would not work well. But studies have been done demonstrating that
public land cattle grazing in Klamath Country is having a significant impact on
biodiversity. A bird presence-absence
study financed by the Forest Service and Partners in Flight some years ago
found that certain species – one was the Willow Flycatcher – were almost always
present in mountain meadows that were not grazed but were completely absent in
nearby meadows that were grazed. That study was conveniently forgotten last
year when the Forest Service considered whether to continue a grazing allotment
in the area of the Marble Mountain Wilderness where year after year the most
conflicts between recreators, cattle and the ranchers which run the cattle
occur. The grazing allotment was reauthorized even though recreator-rancher
conflicts have at times verged on violence.
A voluntary buy-out program will likely prove the most
effective way to end destructive public land grazing. But getting the agencies
to require range riding and the other active management practices needed to
protect western backcountry might provide the extra incentive needed to
convince ranchers to accept buy-outs. Requiring backcountry cattle management might
also reduce opposition to grazing by recreators. I know my reaction as a
backpacker has been much more positive when I hiked the one allotment in the Klamath Mountains where the rancher still rides
the range and moves the cattle regularly than it is when I hike allotments
where the ranchers put the cows in and then forget about them until late fall. Finally, requiring range riding could help
produce a new generation of ranchers who don’t exhibit the “sheer hate” of
predators and all things wild of which Jim Eischeld writes. And that may lead in
turn to the survival of public land grazing where it is ecologically
appropriate and where ranchers are willing to ride the range on a regular
basis.
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