| Environmentalists, ranchers
renew battle over grazing - Group asks court to cancel permits issued by
BLM
(Note: Those 'environmentalists' never mention to the public that desert grazing ranges look different that golf courses or grassy lawns. Pastures in Ohio look very different from pastures in Nevada. Of course, what Eastern whitetail deer forage on looks far different from the diet of mule deer in Utah -- it is REAL biodiversity at work! The self-proclaimed 'environmentalists' never mention the condition of the cattle, sleek and fat and healthy, could not happen if there were not enough forbs. Like buffalo, cattle range -- that means, they travel, they don't just stand in one place and eat -- and the forage regrows. Self-aggrandizing 'environmentalists' would have the unknowledgeable general public believe that once an animal -- domestic OR wild -- has eaten a mouthful of grass, that that grass never regrows! Grass depends on ungulates to thrive! It does not thicken or remain healthy when nothing munches on it. Real biodiversity is variety, not 'chosen species.' Real 'sustainable' living is self-reliance and resource providing, not the decimation of America's generational land/water stewards and the pillage of countries on the other side of the globe -- which is where the so-called 'environmentalists' would have us getting ALL our food/fuel/shelter materials from. We need to have food that is grown near to us, using our stewardship methods, not food that is shipped from thousands of miles away, and grown by no-one-knows what methods and chemicals.) April 4, 2003 By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret News staff writer 801-237-2106 Salt Lake City, Utah To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@desnews.com Five years ago, the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project came into Utah with the idea it would outbid ranchers for northern Utah grazing permits. By and large, the ranchers won. Now the environmental group is back, this time waving legal briefs instead of cash bids. And its goal is to end grazing on 1.5 million acres of public lands in Tooele, Rich and Box Elder counties. "The science is in, and it is clear: Grazing in arid places such as Utah takes a heavy environmental toll," said John Carter, an ecologist for the environmental group in Utah. Western Watersheds Project filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, seeking to cancel 149 grazing permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management to northern Utah ranchers in the summer of 2001. The motion was part of a pending lawsuit filed in May 2002 against the BLM over grazing. That lawsuit alleges that BLM violated federal environmental laws by failing to monitor the impacts of livestock grazing on a variety of wildlife. Fighting the lawsuit has been expensive for ranchers already struggling due to extreme drought conditions. They have been paying their own attorney to represent their grazing interests in the federal lawsuit. In the end, the combined effects of drought, low beef prices and high attorneys fees may force ranchers into selling their grazing permits. "They are in a Catch-22," said Wes Quinton, vice president of public policy for the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. "This is a lawsuit against BLM, but ranchers are incurring the costs of the lawsuit, whether they win or not." If they are forced to sell, environmental groups like Western Watersheds Project stand in the wings ready to buy the permits and not use them. Some groups have been offering up to four times the market rate for the permits, a tempting offer to cash-strapped ranchers. "It's like having a gun to your head," Quinton said. "They may consider it." Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, expressed his disappointment in the latest action. "I am disappointed that the Western Watersheds Project, a self-appointed group from outside Utah, has decided to engage the BLM and ranchers in my district in yet another costly and frivolous lawsuit," Bishop said in a prepared statement. Western Watersheds Project is part of a group that has launched a national public lands grazing campaign to persuade ranchers to voluntarily sell their grazing permits. The group maintains the arid deserts cannot support grazing, and the BLM has done little to make sure grazing is done in an environmentally friendly way. "When we look at the existing vegetation in the range, what we see in grazed areas is that the grass has been reduced by about 90 percent, and yet we continue to see continued grazing," Carter said. "It's like growing corn in the same field without fertilizer and without rotating it." BLM officials largely dispute the allegations. "If we find a problem, we try to rectify it," said Glen Carpenter, the Salt Lake field office manager for the BLM who is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. "I've got fewer than a dozen people working on grazing in northern Utah covering well over 3 million acres. Our folks are spread so thin." The lawsuit is a disappointment, said Don Banks, BLM spokesman. "I think it's counterproductive," he said. "I wish WWP would work with the agency and ranchers on solutions. Unfortunately, they don't want to fix the problems, they want to abolish grazing, and that's unacceptable." Carter said lawsuits are a last resort. "The bottom line is we have to file a lawsuit to get something done," added Carter. "I wish it would be otherwise." |