I do not like to see ranchers private livestock grazing in public lands. It actually disgusts me to be driving through our national forests only to see bovines trampling through the streams and destroying plant life.
Hikers and backpackers are warned to not “trample” on cryptobiotic soil (and so you should see me and Tom jumping from rock to rock where possible in such places), yet ranchers are permitted to have their herds of cattle and sheep walk all over the sensitive soil just so they can get food to get fattened up more in preparation for their ultimate demise in the slaughterhouse.
However, I was glad to see in today’s Utah news that ranchers have banded together to allow the Utah Nature Conservancy to purchase conservation easements on their ranches instead of selling off land to developers. The land will reamin open in perpetuity, which is a good thing.
Then there is another article about two “conservationists” who have purchased land near the Grand Staircase Escalante as part of a public-private land purchase deal with the Forest Service and the BLM. The deal calls for the new owners to purchase and begin grazing 800 head of cattle by next spring. The new owners say they will graze their livestock in environmentally friendly ways, which is becoming a trend.
There is also some worry from local family ranchers that they will not be able to compete with these out of towners and will be run out of business.
I’m going to keep my eye on this one.
I still think it is a bad idea to continue the track of raising livestock to feed people. It takes 7 times more the amount of land to feed one person than it would to grow grains on the same amount of land. All of our world’s hungry people could be fed more easily if people would stop eating beef.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 