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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 19 Commentary... A million cows in the National Forests By Hobbs Magaret Correspondent Was there ever an age where the forests didn’t burn? Where soil water reten- tion was so great and energy transfer so effective that fires weren’t necessary to keep woody biomass at bay? It turns out there was. The beginning of the Pleistocene around two mil- lion years ago exhibited lev- els of biodiversity we can only dream of today. Just a cursory glance at Pleistocene history reveals what our scle- rotic public landscape is miss- ing: massive herds of grazers. I’m talking millions and mil- lions of animals on annual migration circuits. Compared with the Pleistocene, the number of grass and grazers on the landscape is sinfully low, and the few that we have are mostly grazing the wrong way. Yes, it seems counterin- tuitive to put more animals on a degrading landscape, but in the words of Nate Chisholm, “what humans find coun- terintuitive, nature finds innovative.” Here is the crux of the issue: Grass wants to be grazed in a very specific way — severely with long rest periods — and we are letting it down. Grass grows quickly and dumps its root system into the soil when grazed. Then it uses energy stored in the remaining root reserve to grow new solar panels that kick off a new period of rapid growth. Rinse and repeat. If the stem and blades are nipped off again before completely rebuilding its root structure, you have classic overgrazing and the plant dies. But undergrazing is just as bad, if not as obvious. The plant must be defoli- ated to allow new growth to spring back. A collection of moribund grass waving in the breeze may have a cer- tain beauty, but it’s a sign that energy is not flowing on the landscape, water is not being retained, and fire dan- ger increases. If it doesn’t burn, the existing grass even- tually chokes itself to death, and new seedlings can’t take root or sprout due to a lack of soil disturbance and repack- ing. Grazing densely, herds of herbivores consume and knock down moribund grass, and their hooves prepare the seedbed for new grass. In fact, our invention of the plow and hoe are crude implements designed to imitate what herd animals already do naturally. Quality Truck-mounted CARPET CLEANING Quality Cleaning 16 years in Reasonable Prices Sisters! — Credit Cards Accepted — ENVIROTECH 541-771-5048 Licensed • Bonded • Insured • CCB#181062 RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL Serving Sisters Since 1976 For all your building needs right here in Sisters! Lumber • Hardware • Paint • Siding Doors & Windows • Fencing & Decking FREE Local Delivery Hours: M-F 8 to 5, Sat. 8 to 4:30, Closed Sundays 440 N. Pine St. • 541-549-8141 • www.hoyts.net er y gs t s l pho rea Ru & U t • t • A nite e p Car Grou • Gra ng • ood ishi e l i T ardw e Pol H Til Look for us on the Web at Thank you for your business! BendCarpetCare.com LOCAL FOR 24 YEARS Licensed, Bonded & Insured 541-549-1175 541-815-1208 “How little note is taken of the deeds of nature,” said John Muir. Indeed. Per unit of mass, grass transfers more organic material into the soil than any other lifeform if grazed according to its genetic expectation — a huge deal considering that every pound of organic material in the soil holds four pounds of water. I would be remiss not to mention a tiny but mighty force in this eco-drama: microbes. Microbes digest grass in ruminates’ “first stomach” (the rumen). Microbes also make nitrogen usable in plants by convert- ing it into ammonia. So grass and ruminates need microbes, and microbes need grass and grazers cycling organic mat- ter into the soil. Each relies on the other two. If one is missing, the cycle doesn’t function properly. You might be thinking, PHOTO BY HOBBS MAGARET Without grazers, this nicely curated section of National Forest will need to be burned or brush-hogged again very soon. “The Forest Service and BLM already administer grazing leases, so we should be good, right?” We are graz- ing, yes, but our scale is far too small, and how we graze is most often disharmonious and destructive. So we have to increase the number of animals and change the way we graze. Some ranchers do a great job moving their cattle frequently (my hat is off to them), but the majority graze traditionally. Traditional grazing flips nature on its head by taking the hands-off approach, allowing animals to graze selectively at their leisure. This method advo- cates a conservative stocking rate resulting in better per- formance per animal at the expense of overall ecological See GRAZERS on page 25
