Livestock grazing began in the “Wild” West over 150 years ago. Today, cows wander all over Utah – from the redrock canyons to deep within our national forests, perpetuating a legacy of environmental devastation that few industries can match. Aldo Leopold once said that to be an ecologist is to live “alone in a world of wounds.”  The wounding of our natural world is ongoing, although some wounds are more conspicuous than others.  Recognizing a clearcut or an oil spill is easy but the destruction caused by livestock on public lands is so pervasive and has existed for so long that it frequently goes unnoticed by the untrained eye.

Supported by more than $100 million each year in taxpayer subsidies, ranchers have allowed livestock to devour native grasses and trample riparian areas, destroying the rivers and streams which represent most of the habitat for the wildlife and plants in the arid West. In fact, both independent and government studies have identified livestock production to be responsible for more endangered species in the West than any other human activity (logging, mining, or residential development). One very small but politically powerful industry is destroying our public lands and we are paying them to do it. 

Cattle in Dry Mesa on the Manti-La Sal National Forest

Many individuals, government agencies and even environmental organizations peddle the idea that healthy ecosystems and grazing can co-exist with “properly managed grazing on public lands.” This position doesn’t work – in fact, the phrase is an oxymoron. The UEC is opposed to all forms of livestock grazing on public lands.   We hold this position for the following three reasons:

·         Evolution – plant and animal species of the Great Basin are not adapted to intense grazing by large animals

·         Ecology -  Livestock grazing is neither a suitable nor sustainable use of our public lands. It negatively effects biodiversity, riparian and stream health, soil, nitrogen cycling and radically speeds the progression of noxious weed invasion.

·         Economics – Public land grazing requires heavy subsidies from American taxpayers.

The Economic Cost

Public land livestock grazing is simply a huge waste of money.  Last year, the Forest Service and BLM lost twice as much money on grazing programs as they spent to restore endangered species habitat. In one year, they spend over $100 million on managing livestock grazing and receive only $15 million in fees from ranchers.  To put this into perspective, it costs a rancher $1.35 per cow/calf pair per month (a sheep pair is only 27 cents).  That means it costs more to feed your hamster than it does to feed a 1000 lb. cow!!  Compare that with the private land market value of a cow/calf pair at $11.10 and the disparity is obvious. In addition, half the $1.35 fee is given back to ranchers in the form of “range betterment funds” to pay for fences, water tanks and equipment.

 These subsidies act against both the environment and the ranchers themselves.  Subsidies encourage ranchers to raise more livestock than the land can actually support because they can ask for “emergency” aid. Emergency subsidies have become more of an annual entitlement than a fund to fall back on in times of crisis.  In turn, by encouraging ranchers to overstock, the program results in an abundance of meat on the U.S. market, driving down consumer prices, which means less money for the ranchers. 

Livestock ranching also doesn’t make much sense in the arid lands of the west. Productivity is low, and the environmental impact is high, mostly due to the lack of water.  For example, a cow raised in the eastern United States can live on only 2 acres while a cow in the West needs over 100 acres to find enough forage to sustain itself. 

Where’s the Beef?

Even if western cattle ranching disappeared tomorrow, America’s appetite for beef would still be met. According to the Dept. of Agriculture, only 3% of the nation’s beef is grown on Western public lands.  Widespread damage to the West’s riparian areas, irreversible loss of native species, and spiraling taxpayer subsidies add up to an extreme price to pay for such a relatively thin piece of meat.

The Ecologic Cost

Our environment is suffering even more than our bank accounts and sadly, the damage is much more long term.  Livestock grazing leads to arid grasslands, noxious weeds, flammable forests, massive soil erosion, unstable hydrology, desertification and species extinction.

It All Comes Down to Water

The West is dry and arid. Water is the life-blood of this parched region and every kind of wildlife habitat depends on it. Unfortunately, grazing has the most widespread destructive influence on precious streams and rivers.  This is especially true during times of drought. As water levels go down, the concentration of pollution from livestock goes up.

Cows wreak havoc on riparian and wetland areas. Elk and deer have evolved to roam from one water source to the next to avoid predators but cows congregate on one water source and stay until all stream vegetation is completely gone.  By eliminating this vegetation, the life of the stream is effected – fish no longer have hiding cover and without shade, the stream temperature rises. Constant trampling, in combination with loss of vegetation causes the stream banks to erode and sediment fills up the stream. Vegetation provides this necessary stabilization of stream banks, and serves as food for the insects that the fish feed upon.  In fact, out of 170 native fish species in the West, 20 are extinct and over 100 are imperiled.

A trough stands out on a landscape made

barren by grazing. - Awapa Plateau, Dixie

National Forest

Stealing from Wildlife

According to one study, livestock grazing consumes 88% of available forage, leaving only 11.2% for wildlife. If livestock grazing was eliminated, given this statistic, our public lands could support 1,077,155 more deer or 230,818 more elk.  Not only does livestock invade and deplete habitat resources but they also transmit diseases and increase persecution of our native carnivores by government agencies for “livestock protection.” This is yet another unneeded use of taxpayer money.  Each year the government spends over $14 million dollars on predator control, but predation only accounts for 3% of livestock deaths.

Currently, there are many wildlife species that are listed as endangered or threatened due to any number of the ills brought by livestock, such as transmitted diseases, habitat degradation, or persecution by ranchers.  These species include the Utah prairie dog, Black footed ferret, Sage grouse, Big horn sheep, wolf, bear, Swift fox, Desert tortoise, Southwestern willow flycatcher, and two species of trout – the Bonneville cutthroat and the Colorado cutthroat. The list goes on….

Noxious Weeds – A Cow’s Trusty Sidekick of Destruction

Invasive, nonindigenous plants, also referred to as alien, exotic or introduced weeds are spreading through the West at an alarming rate (almost 5,000 acres a day according to one study).  Cheatgrass, starthistles, and knapweed take over after an area has been disturbed and outcompete native plants, dramatically altering the biological landscape of an area. Noxious weeds increase fire frequency (because of their extreme flammability), reduce biodiversity, reduce forage for wildlife, disrupt nutrient cycling, hydrology and soil stability.  This epidemic has become virtually impossible for management officials to stop and long-term monitoring suggests that plant communities infected with these weeds are never able to recover. Joy Belsky, a scientist who devoted her life to studying the effects of livestock on Western lands has published multiple volumes of information on this topic and following facts are drawn from her research.

Livestock bring weed invasions in multiple ways.  They transport the seeds on their fur, feet and in their gut. They prefer grazing native plant species over weed species, creating patches of bare, disturbed soils that act as weed seedbeds, and they destroy the microbiotic crusts and special soil enzymes that stabilize soils and inhibit weed seed germination. One study in Alberta, Canada, found that a herd of cows redistributed over 900,000 viable seeds in one grazing season. Although many wildlife species are also grazers, native wildlife graze in a pattern that is “evolutionarly and ecologically usual,” according to Belsky.  This is obvious when you consider the simple fact that for thousands of years prior to the arrival of livestock, native ungulates and native plants were ecologically stable.   Livestock remain as the single largest factor in the spread of exotic plants.    

Fueling Forest Wildfires

Cows cause wildfires? You bet. Livestock grazing increases tree densities and the build up of woody vegetation, making our forests ripe for massive wildfires. Consuming and eliminating small grasses that would otherwise compete with tree seedlings for space, water and nutrients, livestock literally stock our forests with conifer trees. (They eradicate aspen trees also, as aspen shoots are not only a favorite delicacy of livestock but are outcompeted by evergreens).  By removing the green leafy understory, livestock remove the fuel for ‘cool’ surface fires that kill regenerating trees.  As with fire suppression, the Forest Service is in denial that their management strategy with regards to livestock grazing is setting our forests ablaze.

Costly Cowboys

A common perception by many is that ranches out West are run by rugged individualists; chap-wearing workers whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers ranched the land.  But this movie-style image is no longer. In reality, grazing subsidies, like most agricultural subsides, disproportionately benefit large landholders.  The ranching industry is largely run by “corporate cowboys” – wealthy “hobby ranchers,” agribusiness giants, and million dollar corporations. For example, 10% of grazing permit holders control 49% of all livestock on Forest Service lands – permit holders like J.R. Simplot and Ted Turner. In comparison, the small family-owned ranchers own 50% of the grazing permits on National Forest lands and control only 3% of the livestock.  Hardscrabble family ranching is vanishing. 

This has not come from pressure from environmentalists, as the ranchers would like us to believe. Lest we forget, the west is rugged and arid. A lousy place to raise a cow.  Ranchers have had to spread over large areas of cheap land in order to compete. This is why public land ranching is relied upon so heavily.  But long-term grazing, along with drought, has taken its toll and the land is slowly becoming unable to support its bovine invaders.  Global competition has also become a factor. The number of working ranches is in steep decline – the occupation presents a challenge to financially survive and the next generation is fleeing to the city to seek their fortune.

Grazing a Privilege, not a Right

No matter what kind of damage grazing may inflict on our environment, ranching is fiercely defended. Federal officials rarely remove cattle to restore the environment because of local backlash. Also, public land ranchers, along with the Forest Service and BLM are bolstered by the knowledge that their activities have strong support in Congress, despite the fact that public land ranchers make up only 2% of America’s 1.1 million cattle operators. 

However, the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals established that grazing is ONLY a privilege, NOT a right. “Planitiffs (cattlemen) do not now hold and never held a vested property right to graze cattle on federal public lands. At the time the plaintiff’s predessors began ranching, grazing on the public domain was a privilege tactily permitted by the government by an implied license.  This license is revocable at the government’s pleasure and conferred no right to graze a specific allotment of land.”

Traditional ranching and folklore die hard.  But science is showing that the “sun is setting on a way of life that overstayed its welcome on public lands.”

Conclusion

Our lands, not cows and cowboys, shape the character of Utah’s National Forests and deserts.  These lands supply habitat for wildlife, which already struggle for the lack of healthy, functioning ecosystems.  More and more these lands are being seen as places for wildlife viewing and recreation.  Less and less do they meet the forage needs of livestock and financial needs of ranchers. 

The UEC believes that public land ranching should be entirely eliminated in order to inhibit any further damage.  We do not believe that “proper grazing management” exists in the arid West, nor do we believe that buying back grazing permits from ranchers is the answer. They should be held responsible for the damage incurred and be paying back the public – not the other way around.

In the simplest terms, it’s time our National Forests and the wildlife, the true natives here in Utah, have more of a voice than a herd of uninvited cows.