NCA 2009 President's Award Recipient - The Progressive Rancher ...

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By Joe Guild You have all heard the phrase “she must be living in a parallel universe”. To me, this means while I and the other person may be moving or thinking, we are not doing so in a way in which our thoughts or bodies will ever converge so we will arrive at the same place. In one respect, no two minds will ever have the exact same thought or conclude exactly the same way on a given subject. Therefore, we are doomed to live in parallel universes. The best we can hope for is to come to similar conclusions or travel similar paths through life so we have some measure of a mutual understanding. One of the road blocks to such a meeting of the minds is the places from which we start may be so distinct from one another we may never come to a productive consensus. This is one of the problems people in agriculture, in general and federal land ranchers specifically face all the time. This is because there are so few of us occupying our universe and so many others occupying the other universe. In recent weeks two small pieces from the New York Times editorial page caused me to ponder and conclude what I have written above. Both pieces had relevance to the use of federal lands for livestock grazing. Often when I haven’t had an original thought for a while I turn to the New York Times and my blood boils sufficiently that my brain is recharged and I can’t stop thinking. The first editorial was entitled “The Gradual Selling of America the Beautiful”. There were two messages in this editorial; one lamenting the President hasn’t done enough for “conservation and protection” in the public lands in the west and second, a call for outright protection from commercial development of the two thirds of the 640 million acres of public land which is not currently enjoying “ complete or high levels of commercial development” such as that which is attached to National Parks, wilderness, wildlife refuges or National Monuments and National Recreation Areas. Let’s think about that statement for a moment. About 212 million acres of public land is protected forever from commercial development. This includes, of course, national treasures such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, Great Basin National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park and others like Hells Canyon National Recreation Area on the Snake River between Idaho and Oregon, and Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Added to this list of obvious protectable scenic wonders, are hundreds of wilderness areas and hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness study areas which are managed as wilderness. This leaves about 430 million acres of public land which is managed for multiple use. In other words, in addition to potential or current commercial use, recreation is a big component of the use of this land. Last time I checked, no one had discovered a lost or hidden Mount Rainier that needed to be added to our National Treasure list. We have done a pretty good job in finding and protecting these special places. And, lest you get the idea I am a cynical so and so, I support most of the decisions we have made as a people to protect and minimize commercial development at these places so future generations can be as awed as I have been in seeing them during my life. But let’s put 430 million acres into context for this discussion about parallel universes. Nevada is the state with the largest segment of public land in the lower 48 states. There are 110,000 square miles in Nevada. That equates to about 70.5 million acres. Roughly 62 milllion acres is public land. This leaves about 10 million acres of land in private hands. This amount of land in private property in Nevada is about the size of the entire state of Connecticut. I once talked with two Congressional staff members who drove from Las Vegas to Ely, Nevada on US Highway 93. They were on a tour to personally view some of the areas which By the time they had driven about an hour north out of Las Vegas they were overwhelmed by the open space, lack of development and utter silence of the landscape around them. were eventually made wilderness by the Lincoln County Lands Act. By the time they had driven about an hour north out of Las Vegas they were overwhelmed by the open space, lack of development and utter silence of the landscape around them. They stopped at the Pahranagat National Wildlife refuge near Alamo and could not believe how alone they felt less than one mile from the US Highway. They stated 99 out of 100 people in the east have no idea about the absence or minimal impact of the hand of man in much of the west. Most of these people if you placed them on the shore of this wildlife refuge would declare unequivocally they were in a wilderness. This is an example of the parallel universes occupied by most of the people in this country and the comparative few who live in the vast outback of the American west. The protectionists want to lock everything up from commercial use of any kind whether it is livestock grazing, timber harvest or wind farm development to aid in our country becoming energy independent. However, they have, for the most part, very little personal frame of reference to take such a position. They do not understand the great distances or large acreages in question where such commercial activity can occur at the same time they are using the same lands for their personal recreation. They have no concept of what 100,000 acres might look like. A rancher might have a permit to graze 400 cows on an allotment this size. A tourist from St. Louis could pull off the road, have a picnic with family or friends and none of them would know they are sharing this space with a $400,000 commercial investment; an investment not disturbing their picnic or their aesthetic experience in looking at the 11,000 foot mountain peaks in the range across the valley. Thus we have parallel universes not leading to a shared consensus, but a complete misunderstanding. By the way I do not mean a misunderstanding by the rancher. He has been to a picnic before. I mean a misunderstanding by the well-meaning man from St. Louis. A week after the first editorial appeared there was a second in the New York Times. It was entitled “The Daunting Politics Facing Sally Jewell”. Most readers know by now Ms. Jewell is President Obama’s choice to be Secretary of the Interior and by the time you read this, she probably will have been confirmed by the US Senate. The gist of the editorial was a criticism of the Obama Administration’s apparent push to use the public lands as the key to our energy independent future by drilling for oil and gas and creating vast wind and solar farms. The writer of the editorial believes the true value of these lands is for national parks, wildlife refuges and sources for clean water. Of course, no mention was made of the potential of these lands for all of these uses plus supplying our nation with forest products and food and fiber. The reason, I believe, can only be one of two things. Either the author is ignorant of the potential for the public lands to be commercially developed, where possible, not sacrificing the great places that deserve our protection because the author is in a parallel universe of misunderstanding; or, the author knows what we know; that development and protection can co-exist, but there is a larger protectionist agenda here to shut down all commercial activity on the public lands. In any case, the editorial was an example of the existence of parallel universes regarding the use of our public lands. We in the west know best how to deal responsibly with all of the issues facing all of the uses of the public domain. Those in the east especially, but really in every urban area think they should dictate the way in which these uses should occur and how much we should use our public lands and for which purposes. Most have never seen a grazing cow, a timber harvest or an oil well but they know best how to do these things in their parallel universe. I only hope Sally Jewell can find a way to build a bridge she can use to walk between the two universes. I’ll see you soon. 10 April 2013 The Progressive Rancher www.progressiverancher.com
Flying In the Face of Common Sense If one were to ask almost any rancher in the inland west to name the three most pressing and or threatening issues to their livelihood in the spring of 2013, their responses would undoubtedly include sage grouse, drought and the federal regulations which spawn therefrom, wildfire, and intrusion from the federal and state agencies into their ability to make a living. Because the 2015 target date for a decision as to whether or not the sage grouse will be placed on the threatened or endangered species list is rapidly approaching, this issue commands primary concern. One has only to look to western Owyhee County in Idaho where several ranchers are facing massive cuts of their grazing permits due to sage grouse to realize that the threat is real and imminent. Armed with “shaky” science and revisionist history, the anti-domestic livestock grazing forces have appropriated the sage grouse as their primary weapon much as similar forces exploited the spotted owl to cripple the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest several decades previous. There have been literally hundreds of studies and comment documents prepared by individuals, sportsman’s groups, livestock and farming associations, as well as local and state governments to mitigate the negative effects of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Status Review and Petition to List the Greater Sage Grouse as an endangered species. Central to all considerations for a listing decision are total population and trend information of a targeted species relative to potential threats. The Owyhee Cattlemen’s Association/Idaho Cattle Association document using the data of noted researcher W. F. Price who has relied extensively on diaries and journals of early explorers most notably Meriwether Lewis in 1805, Peter Skene Ogden in 1824-29, John Work – 1830-31, concluded that the factual historic record clearly shows that the birds were relatively scarce or absent over much of the range they occupy today, and that current populations and occupied habitat is significantly greater than during pre-settlement times, indicating a net positive outcome, which is diametrically opposed to the position taken by the USFWS in their listing petition. According to Price, the pre-settlement claims are “at best a misstatement of fact and at worst a deliberate misrepresentation of the historic record…the fabrication of a pre-settlement history, which did not exist, must cast doubt as to whether any of the purported documentation of information in the petition is accurate, legitimate, and presented without deception or bias.” The “Status Review and Petition” claims an adverse relationship between livestock grazing and sage grouse populations. This is of course the position of several environmental groups whose mission is to eliminate livestock grazing entirely on federal lands. This assertion is completely at odds with the historic data. Livestock grazing on the public domain generally began in the 1860’s and reached its peak in the early decades of the 1900’s. Perhaps not coincidentally, those figures parallel the sage grouse populations of the same period. Historic journals indicate relative scarcity of sage grouse in the Intermountain West during the period from 1820-1850 and vast flocks of sage grouse from the 1870’s to the 1950’s. There has been a major decline in numbers of livestock and in sage grouse populations from the 1950’s to the present. This data does not support the theory that there is an adverse relationship between livestock grazing and sage grouse. To the contrary, it actually suggests a positive relationship. Most studies agree that there are several contributing factors to the decline in sage grouse numbers. Near the top of the list are wildfires, disease (West Nile Virus), and predation – raiding of nests and killing of chicks in the spring, and killing of adults mainly by raptors and coyotes during the winter. A series of late, cold wet springs can also have a significant detrimental effect on chick hatch and subsequent survival. At the top of the predator list is the raven-which just happens to be a protected species – followed at some distance by the coyote. Many experts also point to habitat destruction as a primary threat to sage grouse populations. I am sure that all agree that the massive wildfires which have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of sage grouse habitat in Owyhee County, Idaho, and throughout northern Nevada since 1999 could not have helped but have had a negative impact on sage grouse numbers. So what is the answer? Yes, of course remove the cattle and sheep! I am sorry, but not only does this approach violate all historical evidence and research, it just by Linda Drown Bunch For What It ’s Worth Many people confuse crows with ravens. Crows are smaller, have squared-off or fan-shaped tails, and more slender bills. Ravens often soar; crows never do. If the bird does a barrel roll, it’s a raven. Crows caw; ravens croak and mutter. Raven voices are more varied and much deeper and throatier than the crow’s monotonous nasal call. Common ravens grow to about 25 inches in length and weigh more than 2 pounds. They can live for more than 20 years and survive almost anywhere. By some estimates, raven populations nationwide have grown by 300 percent in the past 40 years. In Nevada, the increase is thought to be more like 600 percent. Ravens are protected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the “Migratory Bird Treaty Act” flies in the face of common sense! The Sage Grouse Conservation Plan adopted in September 2012 by the Elko County Commissioners includes the following provision: Develop a Pilot Project to monitor the effects of historical grazing, predator control and range management methods and their impacts on the Sage Grouse Populations and Habitat. Issue: Lack of current specific data concerning the effects on Sage Grouse Populations and Habitat when utilizing historical Livestock Grazing, Predator Control and Range Management policies and measures. Actions: 1) Propose the identification of a specific Pilot Project area of approximately 72 square miles to 216 square miles in size to implement historical livestock grazing, predator control and range management polices to develop scientific data related to the Sage Grouse populations and habitat. 2) Implement and develop the Pilot Project using historical livestock grazing, predator control and range management polices to develop scientific data related to the Sage Grouse populations and habitat. 3) Funding through the State of Nevada Department of Wildlife & BLM from Ruby Pipeline Sage Grouse Conservation funds. In March 2013 the Elko County Commission instituted the first known Pilot Project. The ranch chosen is the 15,000 deeded acre Devil’s Gate Ranch, owned by the Ken Bowler family, located about six miles north of the Elburz Exit on I80 as the crow, or should we say raven, flies. Central to the project are sensible livestock grazing which will manage the fuel load and reduce the risk of massive wildfire and predator control. The primary target will be the large resident raven population and the goal is to obtain permitted poison-laced eggs which are very effective in destroying the target species – ravens. Also hunting and trapping of coyotes and other predators will be encouraged. In the forty year history of the Endangered Species Act, this is the first known privatelocal government agreement with action on the ground to stave off a federal listing, commissioners said. It is a long-term project, and even if the sage grouse is listed, the project will continue to demonstrate that the bird numbers will improve if the federal government will increase, rather than decrease, grazing to prevent massive fires, and engages in reasonable predator control. The aim of the project is not to convince the USFWS, but to show the public and Congress that there is a direct correlation between federal land management policies since the 1950’s and the decline in sage grouse numbers. It is encouraging to see local entities and individual stakeholders taking matters into their own hands to come up with creative common-sense solutions to a major problem rather than relying on the agencies and their “scientific” studies. The USFWS and some environmental groups who will automatically close their eyes and plug their ears when confronted with any information that runs contrary to their stated agendas, are already criticizing the pilot project. Since they are not the target audience, the Elko County Commission, and hopefully the people and Congress, will not be deterred by this criticism. The goal of the originators of the Elko County Pilot Project is for this pilot project concept to increase sage grouse to spread to not only other counties in Nevada but to other states as well. A county in Utah is already considering its own pilot project. It is also hoped that other ranchers will start looking at their operations to see if the Devil’s Gate Model could be adapted to them. Anyone interested in developing a pilot project should contact Randy Brown, Assistant Elko County Manager, at 775-738-6816, former Nevada Assemblyman John Carpenter at 775-738-9861, or Elko County Commissioner Grant Gerber at 775-738-9258. (Linda Drown Bunch, a fourth generation Elko county native, was raised on the family ranch on the South Fork of the Humboldt River near Lee, Nevada, at the foot of the Ruby Mountains. Her parents later ranched in the Three Creek area of Owyhee County, Idaho. Linda began her teaching career at the Three Creek School where she taught for six years. She and her husband Randy then settled in Independence Valley where she taught at the Independence Valley School before retiring to raise horses and buck bulls.) www.progressiverancher.com The Progressive Rancher April 2013 11
Page 1 and 2: NCA 2009 President’s Award Recipi
Page 3 and 4: As we look forward to spring and tu
Page 5 and 6: The Progressive R ancher newly earm
Page 7 and 8: Cooperative Extension Announces Wee
Page 9: OFFICE: 775-423-7760 JACK PAYNE Cel
Page 13 and 14: You can’t make this stuff up!!!!!
Page 15 and 16: Invited Property Rights Editorial N
Page 17 and 18: Nutrition & Health Your success dep
Page 19 and 20: 4 control of public lands in Nevada
Page 21 and 22: Table 2. Vegetation Cover by Treatm
Page 23 and 24: Selecting Alfalfa Varieties: Fall D
Page 25 and 26: Federal Coordination with County Pl
Page 27 and 28: Handling and Stockmanship Skills Fl
Page 29 and 30: Shaw Cattle Co. Production Sale Rep
Page 31 and 32: The Return of an Uphill Domestic Ho
Page 33 and 34: Range Plants for the Rancher By Pau
Page 35 and 36: Canada Thistle Background Photo: UA
Page 37 and 38: Spotted Knapweed appeared near Miss
Page 39 and 40: The Progressive Rancher Coloring Pa

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