Me? What?
Mary O’Brien of the Grand Canyon Trust says it is like doing a study on obesity and not considering what people eat. The BLM is spending $40 million of taxpayer stimulus funds to do a “ecoregional assessment study” but ruling out ahead of time the impact of grazing. The regulators are afraid of upsetting the regulated. Regulatory capture at it’s worst. Are we Alice at the Mad Hatter’s table? Here’s Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman with more.
The Colorado River does not make it to the sea. It’s all used up 70 miles before it gets there, leaving the Colorado River Delta parched. Over 75 percent of the water extracted goes to agriculture. Whenever something about water use comes up in the press, watering lawns always comes up. That is the wrong grass. It’s not lawns draining the river, it’s hay. Buying up the virtual property right of water rights from farmers and ranchers is called “water ranching.” I’ll try to find more on that in the future. In the meanwhile, here’s a piece from the New York Times on the river, and another interesting blog from a recent author on the subject, Jonathan Waterman (great name.)
If these otherwise well intentioned folks are taking out the trees so that the cows can get back in, they will find themselves going in circles. Other than that, way to go! . . . more>>
It’s the time of year ranchers bring their dwindling herds down from the mountain and green the road up. New West meets Old West as the cows come through town, a beautiful yoga instructor out Zens a stampede, a cowboy whomps a Cadillac and the boys at the cafe take it all in stride. . . . more>>
Good news comes in clumps. Mike Leahy reports in Writers on the Range that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking at moving some long-time quarantined Yellowstone bison to up to four different locations across Montana. “The state operates two of the sites as wildlife management areas; the other two are on American Indian reservations. This is great news for bison conservation, which has essentially stagnated in recent years without more places to put Yellowstone’s recovering herd. Descendents of just a couple of dozen bison saved from poachers in Yellowstone in the early 1900s, about 3,500 bison now thrive within the confines of the park, and they are among the few that have never been crossbred with cattle. All these bison are long overdue for fresh stomping grounds.” . . . more>>
Earlier I made a post referring to an article about grazing and land management in the Los Angeles Times. Now here is one from The Atlantic, featuring 21st century ranchers, one even wearing Tevas. Tevas on a Suburu driving rancher is not something you see every day. The Atlantic has picked up on the critical idea that managing range land to optimize grass growth can make a significant impact on global carbon sequestration. It’s good to see that deceptively benign appearing grazing practices are being seen in the national press as a globally important issue. But, once again, it is the local “way of life” that stands in the way. Can Wall Street actually help? . . . more>>
The main argument for grazing cows on public land in the West is that it is and has been a “way of life.” Even the ranchers admit it is not economic. The rugged cowboy is a favorite modern day icon for the West and we all often feel a fondness for the idea he is still out there. Until you see a creek or meadow after the cows have been through. Here’s an article in the Los Angeles Times where allotments are being rested from cows, and allowed to recover. Will the National Forest Service make the right decision to keep the cows our, save a landscape and a rare trout species, or will “way of life” prevail? . . . more>>
Kirsten and I had dinner with Soren and his wife Kristen while we were in Steamboat Springs last week. Soren is the son of my old Wasatch Advisors partner, Roy Jespersen, and it was good to catch up with Soren and find out what he was working on for The Wilderness Society. I was disappointed to learn that public land grazing is considered a third rail by The Wilderness Society, but encouraged about the work they were doing, along with ranchers, on protecting land that ought not to be drilled and mined. Soren published this about Salazar’s visit to the West recently. . . . more>>
The first time I thought I ought to get involved in conservation was on a hike up to Meeks Lake on Boulder Mountain in southern Utah years ago. Meeks is a should-be shining jewel of a pristine mountain lake, but in the summer it is treated like a stock yard. There was cow shit everywhere, cows in the water, the grass was hammered and the place stank. Ed Abbey called it “cow burnt.” In fact, fire might be better for the land than over grazing. I noticed that the livestock gates were open all the way up the mountain, the grass was gone everywhere, and when I got home I wrote the Forest Service. They said, “Oops, sorry about that, thanks for writing.” It is still like that years later and I have learned to my dismay that, indeed, livestock rules – and ranchers break the rules with impunity. What’s up with that? Here’s a lively conversation amongst the residents around Sun Valley, Idaho who have a similar experience. . . . .more>>