The Forest Service really slung the bull this time –
eight tons of it.
To improve the vegetation and
watershed of the Ishi Wilderness in northeastern California, agency
officials strapped 13 tranquilized bulls into helicopter cargo nets
and flew them out at the end of a 40-foot cable. The cattle were
the last of a 400-head feral herd produced from strays left by
ranchers. But they proved too wily for conventional roundup, said
Laurence Crabtree, resource officer with the Lassen National
Forest.
The impoundment, which ended with the
butchering of the bulls, cost taxpayers over $11,000 just in
helicopter time, but the effects on the land are already dramatic,
said Dan Wells, a local guide.
“The native
grasses are coming back,” Wells said, “and it’s nice to set up a
campsite without all that bull shit.”
*Jane
Braxton Little
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Operation bullsling.
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