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.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 