After a five-year Forest Service study found that
cattle have eaten 94 percent of their allotted grass on the east
slope of Boulder Mountain in southern Utah, Dixie National Forest
ranger Marvin Turner made a decision. On June 1, Turner told
cattlemen to reduce their grazing levels by 42 percent. Ranchers
cried foul, and three months later, Turner’s superior, Deputy
Regional Forester Jack Blackwell, delayed the order until an
outside committee can review the Forest Service data. Blackwell
agrees that one look at the trampled vegetation on Boulder Mountain
justifies cattle reduction, says agency spokeswoman Cindy
Chojnacky, but the new study will “clear the air.”
After Turner cut grazing, irate ranchers alleged
the Forest Service falsified data to support fewer cows. Ranching
advocate Carol Greer of Boulder, Utah, says she found five copies
of the Forest Service report, each with a different set of numbers.
“The Forest Service is caught in a fib so blatant it will be pretty
difficult to deny-but they will,” says Greer. On behalf of the
ranchers, state Rep. Met Johnson appealed Turner’s decision and
asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for a federal investigation
into the Forest Service study.
Environmentalists
believe a new study is a waste of time. Says Ken Rait of the
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, “the Forest Service kowtows to
local cattlemen while Boulder Mountain gets crapped.”
*Heather Abel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Deals and delays for Dixie.
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