Street roots., July 21, 2017, Page 8, Image 8

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Public
lands for
private
enterprise
Special Report
Street Roots • July 21-27, 2017
Special Report
Page 9
Continued fro m page 7
he federal government owns about half
grazing permits, although fewer, for up to
of Oregon, and much of that public land
91,300 head of cattle on 625 allotments in
is broken up into grazing allotments where, national forests across Oregon.
ecologists and biologists say, cows are acting
To understand how damaging cows can be
as an invasive species.
in these areas, you have to understand the
They trample the
importance of riparian zones.
earth and devour
“Riparian zones are defined as those areas
vegetation, posing a
that are associated with streams and lakes
danger to already
and other wet areas,” said Boone Kaufman, a
threatened species
professor and senior researcher at Oregon
in sensitive areas,
State University’s Department of Fisheries
and they act as a
and Wildlife.
significant
While these areas only make up 1 to 2
contributor to the
percent of the landscape, he said, “82
rising temperatures
percent of the wildlife in the state of Oregon
and dropping levels
depend upon riparian zones for all or part of
of the state’s
their life.
waters.
“These small areas function as incredibly
P H O T O F R O M "R E S T O R A T IO N O F R IP A R IA N A R E A S
There are 1,657
important water filters for cleaning water
F O L L O W IN G T H E R E M O V A L O F C A T T L E IN T H E
N O R T H W E S T E R N G R E A T B A S IN "
grazing allotments
and giving us fresh water. They store water
H art M ountain
on U.S. Bureau of
and slowly release it late in the year, and
National Antelope
Land Management land in Oregon,
they have important aesthetic values for
Refuge is shown
occupying roughly a quarter of the state’s
tourism,” he said. “They are far greater in
during cattle
landmass. Up to about 930,000 livestock are
value than almost any other area of land in
grazing.
permitted to graze these areas, although
the state.”
that number represents the limit, not
The problem is, cows love hanging out in
necessarily the number that are actually
them. There’s water, shade and fresh
grazing, said Robert Hopper, BLM rangeland vegetation for them to munch on.
manager.
“More stream miles or riparian zones are
He said that while rangeland managers
affected by livestock grazing than any other
periodically check to make sure the cows
land use,” Kauffman said.
aren’t overgrazing or trampling sensitive
He conducted a study to determine how
areas on these allotments, the frequency of
the compaction of soil by cattle was
visits varies significantly, with smaller
impacting stream flows on the Middle Fork
allotments going unchecked.
John Day River. He found that in areas
Right now there are about 30 rangeland
where cows had compacted the earth, the
managers in Oregon, Hopper said. Offices
soil’s ability to absorb and store water was
that had seven managers when he started
diminished. This meant that when it rained
with BLM three decades ago now have three in the spring, rather than that water
or four.
replenishing groundwater stores that would
“There are a lot of vacancies,” he said,
slowly release into the stream later in the
adding that budget cuts have been a factor in year, it was running off into the stream.
staffing.
But areas where cattle had been removed
The U.S. Forest Service also grants
for the previous nine years showed great
Waters of
the state
Street Roots • July 21-27, 2017
T
W ; rhile dairies and feedlots aren’t
regulated by air quality programs, the
Oregon Department of Agriculture does
permit and monitor
manure
management for
water quality.
But most cattle
ranching operations
don’t require a
permit because they
don’t meet the
definition of
confinement, said
Wym Mathews, who
oversees the
program.
N O R T H W E S T E R N G R E A T B A S IN "
For cattlemen
H art M ountain
Rich and Michael Butler, protecting their
National Antelope
watershed on private property was a top
Refuge is shown
priority, but they said it was voluntary.
after cattle grazing
The married couple is raising 25 head of
was halted and
organic, grass-fed Angus cattle on their
vegetation returned.
property in Muddy Valley. While they pasture
feed their herd in the summer, they keep
them in a covered barn area with a small
outdoor lot during the winter where the
waste collects. They store it in a pile on
concrete nearby.
They noticed that when it rained,
contaminated water full of nitrates was
running off of their manure pile and into
nearby Muddy Creek. It was easy to see
because the grass where the water had flowed
was much greener and extended all the way
to the creek. When asked if the Department
of Agriculture had noticed the problem, Rich
Butler said, “Nobody comes out and looks. We
called them actually to ask for suggestions.”
They won a grant through their local
water conservation district that helped pay
for a roof on their manure storage area that
solved the problem.
But, Michael Butler added, “It’s
completely optional.”
Nitrate levels exceed the safety standard
in many of Oregon’s watersheds. In some
areas, livestock manure is the main source,
and in other areas it’s crop fertilizers, mainly
synthetics made from petroleum byproducts.
One study of the Southern Willamette
Valley, for example, found 20 percent of well
water exceeded the EPA’s benchmark for
safe nitrate levels. Another study of the
Umatilla Basin found that nitrate
contamination is increasing in 33 percent of
the wells tested and that five public water
systems required nitrate treatm ent
Elisabeth Holmes, an attorney with Blue
River Law in Eugene, pointed out that the
EPA’s benchmark for nitrates, which is 10
milligrams per liter, was set in the early
1990s. “That level was based on studies from
the 1950s,” she said. “There are a lot of
resilience.
lawsuits it brought against the U.S. Forest
“We were getting 60,000 extra liters of
Service for allowing grazing near sensitive
water just in the top 10 centimeters,”
habitats that the cows kept trampling in the
Kauffman said. “So we’re thinking, for the
Fremont-Winema National Forest in
entire John Day River we were sampling, it’s
Southern Oregon.
something like the equivalent of 200
Each of the three lawsuits dealt with the
households of water use.”
degradation of a different species’ habitat.
But compaction is just one of many
While they lost their cases for the bull trout
problems cows create in riparian
and short-nosed sucker, they won
areas.
their case for the Oregon
As they eat down the
spotted frog, a recently listed
vegetation, they cause the
threatened species.
stream banks to erode.
She said winning these
grazing allotments j |j |j | cases is tough because
Over time, this can
transform a clear, deep
' judges are very
in Oregon’s
and narrow meandering
cognizant of the fact
national forests,
stream into a wide and
|g |k their judgment will
shallow murky stream
managed by the
affect the rancher’s
that warms quickly in the
livelihood. Oftentimes her
U.S. Forest Service
sun.
law firm will win a grazing
Compounding the
allotment case on its legal
temperature increase, cows
merits, but rather than
also eat or otherwise destroy plants
stopping the grazing, the judge will
and young trees providing the shade that
tell the land management agency to do a
keeps the waterway cool.
better analysis of the impacts.
All of these effects are detrimental to
“There’s a lot of BLM land out there. It’s
Oregon’s many threatened and endangered
a huge part of the state, and there’s not a lot
salmon and other fish species, said Laurie
of people really looking at what’s going on
Rule, senior staff attorney at Advocates for
out there and paying attention to grazing
the West
impacts,” she said.
Before becoming an attorney, Rule worked
“When you win and don’t see any changes
as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest
on the ground - that’s frustrating,” she said,
Service and for private consultants who .
when asked why so few environmental
surveyed state land in Oregon and
groups target grazing. “I think there is some
Washington.
fatigue, some frustration, some feeling like
She said she realized no matter what
you are just beating your head against a wall
research was being done, land managers
by trying and trying to make change, and not
were going to do what they wanted despite
much change happens.”
the science.
Rule said wildlife that live on the west side
“I thought that maybe a better way to
of the state have it easy.
create impact was to go to law school and try
“The species that live out in Southeast
to incorporate science and law together,” she Oregon? Man, they have it rough! They have
said.
these small niches that are highly dependent
In January, her firm won one of three
on water and riparian areas - that have good
625
P H O T O S F R O M "R E S T O R A T IO N O F R IP A R IA N A R E A S F O L L O W IN G T H E R E M O V A L O F
C A T T L E IN T H E N O R T H W E S T E R N G R E A T B A S IN " IN E N V IR O N M E N T A L M A N A G E M E N T
This pa ir o f photos from Oregon’s H art M ountain National Antelope Refuge shows
riparian conditions in the same spot before the removal o f cattle in 1984-91 (top)
compared to after the removal o f cattle in 2013-14 (above).
studies that have come out that talk about
various effects of nitrates - thyroid
problems, blood circulation problems,
diabetes, reproductive problems, birth
defects, central nervous system defects and
cancer.... Some of these studies show levels
as low as 4 or 5 milligrams per liter are
associated with certain health problems.”
The state’s Watershed Protection Program
requires the Department of Agriculture to
work with local communities on watershed
management plans, said Don Butcher, a DEQ
water quality manager.
He said that while there are many
ecological dangers to cows stomping around
in streams, “the plans vary from basin to
basin - some have prohibitions on that sort
of thing, and some of them just say: Try not
to do that, or plan not to do that, or
preferably don’t do th a t”
Butcher said when he drives around the
state, he often sees damage from cows that
he finds troublesome.
“I’ll see areas where cows have completely
eroded the stream banks and clearly are in
the stream and there’s no fencing, and all the
riparian vegetation is gone. But it’s kind of
scattered,” he said. “There’s places where
we have bacteria problems in streams
because of accumulations of manure that
gets hurled across fields, and they flood-
irrigate next to the John Day River.”
OREGON'S TOP COMMODITIES
For 2016:
But dont rural
communities
on cattle?
PHO TO BY A R K A D Y BRO W N
S O U R C E : O R E G O N D E P A R T M E N T OF A G R IC U L T U R E
n irony ecologist George Wuerthner likes
to point out is that many of the very
same ranchers who decry the federal
government’s regulations protecting public
lands are more than willing to take taxpayer-
funded subsidies to keep
them in business.
Wuerthner, who sits on
the board of the Western
Watersheds Project, also
wrote a book titled
“Welfare Ranching: The
Subsidized Destruction of
the American West.”
One subsidy is the low
rate ranchers pay to let
their cows loose and
unsupervised on public
lands. Ranchers pay $1.87
per month per animal. It’s a fee that’s gone
up only 64 cents since 1966.
They also get a giant break on property
taxes in many states, including Oregon.
The Hammond family in Harney County,
who was used as rationale by the Bundys for
holding the Malheur Wildlife Refuge hostage
last year, collected $325,644 in livestock
subsidies between 1995 and 2014, according
to an online database of farm subsidies that
Environmental Working Group manages.
Theirs was just a small portion of the
$11.5 million in federal subsidies paid out to
A
vegetation. When those areas that they are
“The Fish and Wildlife Service claims that
highly reliant on are damaged by livestock?
grazing will be used to prevent fires and
They don’t have a chance.”
target invasive plants like cheatgrass,”
While taxpayers fund fence
Ruprecht said. “But that justification
building on public lands to
is not scientifically sound
protect some riparian
because livestock are in fact
areas from cows, many
the major cause of
areas are unprotected
cheatgrass that causes
grazing
allotments
or protected by
s
more frequent fires in
on public lands
fencing that fails to
sagebrush habitat. Grazing
is a cause of the degraded
keep cows out.
managed by the 9 H
I . sage grouse habitat - not
“The majority of
I U.S. Bureau of
riparian areas are still
the solution to i t ”
Land Management
totally accessible,”
Bill Marlett is a
Rule said.
hydrologist and former
in Oregon
But the fencing also
director of the Oregon Natural
poses problems.
Desert Association, which in the
“Fences fragment habitat and
past was the primary initiator of lawsuits
harm many species of native wildlife;
aimed at protecting sensitive areas on public
including sage grouse, which collide with it,
lands in Eastern Oregon from grazing. He
and pronghorn (antelope), which may not be
said that while there are many ranchers who
able to cross it,” said Paul Ruprecht, a staff
are doing good work, such as protecting
attorney for Western Watersheds Project.
wolves and keeping their cows where they
Western Watersheds Project launched a
are supposed to be, there is still a pervasive
legal challenge in January against the U.S.
mentality among others that the land is
Department of Fish and Wildlife for
theirs to do with as they please.
expanding grazing allotments into a wildlife
“The holding out with (Malheur occupier
refuge in Southern Oregon and Northern
Ammon) Bundy, that was classic,” he said.
California’s Klamath Basin, which houses the “A lot of this is cultural, because cows were
last sage grouse breeding area in the region.
out there before the laws and regulations
Cattle are known to destroy sage grouse
existed.”
habitat by eating the sparse
But, he added, “if there were no cows on
bunches of forbs and grasses
public lands today, and someone
where the birds hide their
came up with a bright idea and
eggs and brood from
said, let’s consider putting
predators.
livestock on public lands.
In wildlife
Just think about that and
refuges, a land
do an environmental
management
impact statement, and
agency must
make a decision. I
show its plans
predict if that happened,
value of Oregon’s
will improve the
we would probably not
habitat, not
cattle, hay and dairy
have public-lands grazing
degrade i t
today.”
products in 2015
HR9
9
BILLION
livestock owners in Harney
County alone during that time.
In all, farmers and ranchers in
Oregon have received $2.1 billion in subsidies
between 1995 and 2014, with $62.4 million in
the form of livestock subsidies.
Critics say using taxpayer dollars and
offering huge tax breaks to keep ranchers’
businesses viable and the price of beef low
masks the true cost of what should be a
luxury product that’s not sustainable at
current levels.
That many rural communities are
dependent on the cattle industry is not an
indication of the industry’s economic
strength, but of the economic weaknesses of
those communities, Wuerthner said.
“The irony was during the Malheur
takeover, people were all up in arms about
how ‘We hate the government,’” he said. “If
government jobs were to disappear from
Burns, there would not be a Burns left
because the contribution from things like
ranching is so small in the employment.”
According to Oregon’s Employment
Department, in 2016, the government was
the largest employer in Eastern Oregon,
employing more than 17,000 people, while
raising cattle accounted for just 1,600 jobs
across the entire state.
When you combine all the jobs in beef and
dairy, including slaughter and processing, it
accounts for just 6,700 jobs
across Oregon - more than three
times that number of people work in real
estate, and twice as many work in retail
department stores, according to Oregon
Employment Department data.
While the overall population of the state
might not be reliant on ranching, however,
some small communities are, said Rule, the
Advocates for the West attorney.
“You have the ranchers themselves, then
you have the people who own the stores
where they buy their feed and their
equipment, the grocery stores,” she said. “A
lot of these local economies are still relatively
dependent on ranching.”
But Wuerthner thinks a complete
economic overhaul would be more beneficial
to rural communities than sustaining the
cattle industry.
“They think because their economies are
not in good shape to begin with, they can’t
afford to have less ranchers. But probably in
many cases, it would actually get better,” he
said. “Because without the cattle there, so
many things would improve - the wildlife and
the fisheries and so forth. That would be
attractive to people who would be interested
in moving to some of these rural
communities, and who would bring jobs with
them and other ways of living.”
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