Friends of Idaho Watersheds Project

Thanks to Kieran Suckling of the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity for this news from the desert:

FORMER DEPUTY FOREST SUPERVISOR BLASTS SOUTHWEST GRAZING SUBSIDIES

Douglas Barber, former Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest, has written a letter to Senator Pete Domenici (R, NM),
calling for an end to the grazing allotment permit system and
subsidized public lands ranching.

His 3/11/96 letter states:

"I have been convinced for a number of years that the existing term grazing permit system is broken beyond repair...What we have is a comatose patient on life support, and it's time turn the machine off.

There is no question that grazing has damaged Southwestern streams and riparian habitat. The Forest Service recognizes that, but it can't seem to realize that managing it better costs too much and leads to marginal solutions. For legal, political and agency reasons, it seems incapable of doing the right thing, which is often to eliminate it.

Barber cited a $100,000 fencing project, paid for by Arizona Game and Fish, to "help" the threatened Apache trout:

"Did we build the fences to protect the streams, or to protect the cows? After all, if the cows weren't there, the fences wouldn't have been needed ...the taxpayers are taking a tremendous beating. For their trouble, they get an additional 20 miles of fence which hampers their access to the streams."

Fencing streams so cows can remain on the National Forest is simply not a good investment. And the situation is getting worse...the agency has the mindset that if a piece of land can be grazed, it must be grazed. It's as if the cows have an inalienable right to be there. So, the taxpayers continue to spend far more than we take in...and then spend a small
fortune to mitigate the damage...The term 'welfare ranchers' is really untrue, but not for the reasons ranchers would like us to believe. Welfare would be far less expensive.

My experience tells me preserving public land grazing is not in the public interest.