Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[me <ken@wildlanders.com>]

Actually, I live in Ellensburg and am right in the middle of things 
here. The article in the Seattle Times was spot on.

I am a range ecologist and now run a native plant seed company.
As a range ecologist I am educzted to manage land (plants and the native 
ecology) for livestock production. Actually, I had a wildlife emphasis 
so I am actually a range and wildlife ecologist.

Here are some of my comments in regards to the issue.

1) it is a political issue and funded by corporate ranchers. The effort 
is supported primarily by big corporations not sentimental mom and pop 
small ranchers. Most of these guys were corporate execs who have now 
used their money to buy out the real cowboys so they can play cowboy 
themselves.

2) The cattlemen first abused their own private lands until they became 
decadent with noxious weeds including cheatgrass, knapweeds, etc. A half 
century ago they started permitting with land management agencies like 
the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), BLM and US 
Forest Service. But state Fish and Game lands were always off limits as 
these lands were purchased with hunter and fishing license fees for 
winter elk habitat (sagebrush steppe). Now that the surrounding DNR 
lands, BLM lands and such have been degredated, the cattlemen want 
access to the last of the prime lands (also the last of our very 
impressive wildflower displays in spring - which drives a recreational 
economy here). And so this is the worst of rape and pillage in that they 
abuse until the range becomes undesirable and then move on to the 
"greener pastures" on the other side of the fence. It is not unlike most 
of these aholes that treat their women in divorce. They just dump them 
and move on to "greener pastures". It is common in the corporate 
mentality of today. It is a commodity to them to be used and thrown away.

3) Not all the ranchers are bad. Some actually understand the issues here.

4) Jeff Tayor - I know him and have worked with him in the Big Game 
Management Roundtable. He is one of the upper administration in the 
state Fish and Game and this is a political issue for him to advance his 
political career in my opinion. He is a politician first and concerned 
wildlife manager second, or third... or maybe tenth... Maybe not at all. 
His job is to sway public sentiment to the side of the politically 
correct ranchers through lying and deciet as he does so well in his 
comments in this article. It would do him good to look for a new career 
because the IT industry is soon to be involved here on behalf of the 
environment. As I understand it, the Gates Foundation etc have been 
informed of this issue. So this is going to get heated in the future.

IT verses the cattle industry. Both are corporates though so one never 
knows what will happen.

5) These lands were set aside for elk habitat. The grasses cure and dry 
during the summer. The elk are in the mountains on the Wenatchee 
National Forest during the summer. They come down to these sagebrush 
lands in the winter when snows force them down to lower elevation. They 
are thus dependent upon the dried, cured grass for forage and to see 
them through the winter. Elk and deer are compatible in that the elk are 
grazers (eat grass) and deer are browsers (eat shrub twigs). But cows 
are grazers too and compete with elk for forage. The cows of course get 
the forage first in the spring when the elk are up in the mountains. 
When the elk come down in the winter, there is nothing left for them.

6) Our sagebrush country is very hot. All of the grasses and plants have 
evolved to go dormant after spring. All the above ground materail dries 
up by June and the plants go into summer dormancy. The dried grass 
retains much of its nutrition through winter (if it is not removed by 
cows).They like to make you think the cattle are only out there in the 
spring and are "quickly" removed from the range so that there will be 
more growth for elk. But the truth is, the time the cattle are out there 
is during the short growing period. And so the cows eat EVERYTHING and 
it is a bald faced lie that the next 4 months of summer produce forage 
for the elk. The plants in fact do not grow anymore but go into summer 
dormancy to survive our summer heat and drought.

7) The fish and game lands were fully purchased with hunting and fishing 
license fees years ago. The threat from housing developments are not a 
threat to fish and game lands. True, the Fish and Game might be able to 
garner some support from ranchers to buy NEW tracts of land, but then, 
lets limit the grazing to these new tracts instead of opening all the 
traditional lands (hunter paid for) to grazing. This point is 
politically smoothed over in this Seattle Times article. Besides, there 
is NOTHHING to stop the housing development. It was happening long 
before the ranchers, it is happening even now after they are given 
access to grazing.

8) Elk are on these lands in winter when the plants are dormant. Cattle 
are on these lands during the growing season. They trample the hell out 
of the plants where the elk do not. Elk use these land temporarily in 
winter to survive and then move up to the forest and alpine regions 
following the greening cycle up the mountains and far fewer in numbers.

9) As a range ecologist, about half our native plants are given the 
title "decreasers" in range ecology terms. They die off quickly when 
cattle grazing is introduced to pristine areas during the growing 
season. And so, our biodiversity and incredible flower displays in these 
limited and last of our pristine habitat will suffer irreversibly. With 
continued abuse, as has been the case in all situations, essentially all 
of the flowering plants are removed from the site.

10) The cattlemen graze their cattle on their degraded private lands 
first filling their bellies with knapwees and cheat grass seeds. Many 
noxious weeds benefit from what is called acid scarification - the seeds 
are not destroyed by the digestive system but acutally break the 
dormancy of the seeds and are pooped out ready to grow. After grazing 
their cattle on their depleted range, they then turn them loose on these 
pristine areas and the cows go about pooping out the seeds in their 
bellies with fertilizer of their poop. THAT is the dirty little secret 
the cattle industry does not want you to know about... the reason most 
of our rangeland are so infested with noxious weeds today.

And now the cattlemen are after the last lush pieces of pristine land 
that are the last of our remnant biodiversity including plants that are 
edible and most that have not yet been researched for medicinal benefits 
to society. From Quinine (malaria) to aspirin, these plants hold many 
secrets and when we destroy them those secrets are lost forever.

This is rape and pillage at its worst. They grazed the hell out of their 
own private lands until they only get half an AUM per month. So they 
turned to the lush DNR and BLM lands some half century ago. Now those 
agency lands are destroyed and so the cattlemena are again looking over 
the fence for the last of our pristine areas. It is a travesty and an 
outrage for those, including hunters and cattle people like myself, and 
for those who truly understand the ecological issues and politics 
involved here.

Ken Boettger
Ellensburg, WA
Range Ecologist





livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Grazing on public lands (Dan Conine)
>    2. Re: Grazing on public lands (su do)
>    3.  Re:  Grazing on public land: helpful to ranchers, but
>       harmful to ?habitat? (mdnagel@verizon.net)
>    4. Re: Grazing on public lands (Dean)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:36:54 -0500
> From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <488F5536.4010105@bertramwireless.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:37:05 -0600
> > From: "Dean" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public land: helpful to
> >
> > What????  I live in Montana and have an elderly parent in Wyoming, 
> > consequently travel the road between fairly often.  Every year I see the 
> > pastures get smaller and sage brush patches get bigger.  Oh yeah, now that 
> > prairie dogs are protected their towns keep getting bigger and bigger as 
> > well.
> >
> >  
>
> They need some elephants. "Elephants make grass, cows make bushes." -an 
> old African saying.
>
> Dan C.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:52:57 -0700 (PDT)
> From: su do <speakingbeareturns@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
> To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
>         <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <825248.42845.qm@web56011.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Perhaps they can bring the elephants. I don't thinK they would stand the 
> COLD! :+)
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1:36:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
>
>
> > Message: 3
> > Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:37:05 -0600
> > From: "Dean" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public land: helpful to
> >
> > What????  I live in Montana and have an elderly parent in Wyoming, 
> > consequently travel the road between fairly often.  Every year I see the 
> > pastures get smaller and sage brush patches get bigger.  Oh yeah, now that 
> > prairie dogs are protected their towns keep getting bigger and bigger as 
> > well.
>
> They need some elephants. "Elephants make grass, cows make bushes." -an 
> old African saying.
>
> Dan C.
>
>
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>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:27:32 -0500 (CDT)
> From: <mdnagel@verizon.net>
> Subject: [Livingontheland]  Re:  Grazing on public land: helpful to
>         ranchers, but harmful to ?habitat?
> To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
>         <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <15556265.866431217381253093.JavaMail.root@vms229.mailsrvcs.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> > From what I've been reading in The Stockman Grass Farmer, THE method that's 
> > most beneficial is high density grazing.
>
> This sounds like low density grazing, which doesn't really do much to help 
> build up soils.
>
>
> Mark Nagel
> Everett, WA
>
>
>
> > From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
> >
> > Grazing on public land: helpful to ranchers, but harmful to habitat?
> > http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008076883_grazing28m.html
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:58:17 -0600
> From: "Dean" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
> To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing"
>         <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <014101c8f1f8$82d48b90$030aa8c0@travler>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Well, if we had the elephants that would be one less thing for me to "beef" 
> about with the government.  Getting kinda bad here.  hehehe
>
> Keeping Your Memories Alive while
> Creating Family Keepsakes
> www.scrapbooksupplydepot.com
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>
>
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: su do 
>   To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing 
>   Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:52 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
>
>
>   Perhaps they can bring the elephants. I don't thinK they would stand the 
> COLD! :+)
>
>
>   ----- Original Message ----
>   From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
>   To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>   Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1:36:54 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public lands
>
>   >
>   > Message: 3
>   > Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:37:05 -0600
>   > From: "Dean" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
>   > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Grazing on public land: helpful to
>   >
>   > What????  I live in Montana and have an elderly parent in Wyoming, 
>   > consequently travel the road between fairly often.  Every year I see the 
>   > pastures get smaller and sage brush patches get bigger.  Oh yeah, now that 
>   > prairie dogs are protected their towns keep getting bigger and bigger as 
>   > well.
>   >
>   >  
>   They need some elephants. "Elephants make grass, cows make bushes." -an 
>   old African saying.
>
>   Dan C.
>
>
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> End of Livingontheland Digest, Vol 153, Issue 3
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