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February 22, 2000

Idaho ranchers say new grazing practices can help save streams

By ROCKY BARKER
The Idaho Statesman

BOISE -- Broken Wagon Creek south of Challis once was touted by conservationists as an example of all that was wrong with public lands grazing policy in the West.

Now, seven years later, ranchers are holding up Broken Wagon Creek and other streams on Mountain Springs Ranch as examples of how innovative grazing practices can meet conservation goals, too.

The livestock industry now is embracing programs to improve the thin green oases that flank the streams that meander through Idaho's arid country. The Idaho Cattle Association now offers ranchers a free booklet about how to prevent cattle from overgrazing the wetland areas along streams, called riparian areas.

The Idaho Rangeland Commission, a state panel funded by ranchers' dollars, promotes riparian health in radio ads.

"We want to be on the cutting edge of range management," said Shane Rosenkrance, manager of the 98,000-acre Mountain Springs Ranch. "We want to improve the resource."

Activists such as Jon Marvel, director of the Idaho Watersheds Project, say there is no economic way for ranchers to protect these critical streamside habitats across the public lands of the West.

Ranchers, many of whom balked at earlier efforts to fence off miles of streams, dispute Marvel's assertion. They are seeking ways to increase production at the same time they reduce damage caused by more than a century of heavy grazing.

Nearly 12 million acres of Idaho, about 20 percent of the state, is public rangeland. Riparian areas cover less than 1 percent. But they are home to 75 percent of the area's wildlife, they are filters that purify water for people and animals, and they are instrumental in restoring stream health for fish and other aquatic species.

Riparian areas also increasingly attract hikers, hunters, anglers and campers. While ranchers are proud of the changes in their industry, conservationists remain wary.

Linn Kincannon of Ketchum is the Idaho Conservation League central Idaho program director. She sees improvement in a few areas, but she credits most of the transformation to changes in grazing management forced by the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.

"Basically, I don't see much change on the ground," she said. "There are more ranchers trying to do better, but in this steep, dry country, conditions are not good for raising livestock."

Broken Wagon Creek runs through 90,000 acres of public range controlled by Mary Hewlett, daughter of William Hewlett, co-founder of the electronic giant Hewlett-Packard. Mountain Springs was known as the San Felipe Ranch in 1993 when it was owned by Hewlett and David Packard.

The poor condition of its riparian areas and low grazing fees made it a prime target for public grazing controversy -- and placed it on the front page of the New York Times. Ranchers universally saw the singling out of the San Felipe as misleading and unfair.

Dave Nelson, the former manager, pointed out the dramatically improved conditions on the ranch's uplands. And he blamed environmentalists for preventing him from building watering sites away from streams to lure cattle out of the riparian zones.

In the end, he, Kincannon and the Bureau of Land Management reached an agreement that led to an aggressive program of herding, changing the seasons of use and the establishment of a stubble height standard. It required Mountain Springs to move its cattle when the grasses along the stream were grazed down to 6 inches.

In 1993, after seven years of drought, aging aspens stood on pedestals of dirt where the constant trampling of hooves had worn away the surrounding soil along Broken Wagon Creek. The stream flowed several feet below the surrounding landscape because of erosion. Alien grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass had replaced the sedges and other wetland plants.

Today, wetland plants such as sedges are taking over as the banks stabilize and the down-cutting has been reduced. Young aspens are regenerating, providing shade and habitat for birds and other wildlife.

"Over the years, there has been a very positive trend in the riparian areas on Mountain Springs," said Bill Diage, Challis BLM range ecologist. "There is still a problem controlling the livestock in that kind of topography. It requires a commitment of the livestock handlers to control."

Kincannon questions whether enough recovery is taking place fast enough so the land can survive a dry year.

"When you get out of the key areas, things aren't quite as good," she said.

Nelson received an award from the Idaho section of the Society for Range Management. He retired, and now Rosenkrance, a lifelong resident of Mackay, manages the ranch.

"I'm not going to rest on our laurels," he said.

Restoring the vegetation of riparian areas is the first step toward restoring the health of the streams themselves, said William Platts, a Boise fisheries biologist who pioneered riparian research. With good management, the vegetation can come back a few years with enough moisture, he said. But bringing back the water ecosystem to conditions of sustainability with fish and other aquatic life can take decades.

"We've been grazing these systems pretty hard since the 1870s," Platts said. "What took place over 130 years isn't going to come back quickly."

Platts has seen improvement since the 1980s, when riparian areas across Idaho generally were in the worst condition in history, he said.

"There's a lot more progressive ranchers out there now than there were 10 years ago," Platts said. Still, in many areas, ranchers have not even begun to make the changes necessary to restore riparian areas to functioning condition, Diage said.

"I think we're still on the uphill climb," he said. "We have too many areas where modifications to current practices need to occur."

In the BLM's Owyhee Resource Area, which covers 1.3 million acres of public land along Idaho's southwestern corner, 469 miles of streams with fish and another 238 miles of streams without fish were in unsatisfactory condition in 1997, BLM scientists said. Only 43 miles of fishing streams and 36 miles of others were in satisfactory condition.

Since then, the BLM has required ranchers in the area to leave 4 inches of stubble height in the flood plain along streams. It has a 10-year schedule to develop detailed grazing plans.

On the entire Boise BLM District, covering 5.5 million acres, the BLM has evaluated 1.2 million acres of range and put in place new grazing systems designed to protect riparian areas and species of special concern, such as redband trout.

"We try to strike a balance between achieving improved conditions and our multiple-use mission," said Kate Kitchell, BLM Boise District manager. "For some people, we're not doing it fast enough; for others, they think we're being too aggressive. Our goal is to be evenhanded and balanced."

A common complaint among ranchers is that environmentalists and agency officials tie their hands, preventing more creative solutions.

"I know very few people who don't have something they want to do differently, but they can't get it done because they're frittering away their time and money on counterproductive requirements," said Ted Hoffman, a Mountain Home rancher and veterinarian.

Kincannon said she and ranchers rarely have a common view of the problems: "No matter how much we talk and how many studies there are, they don't see what we see on a stream."

The changes she has seen have been driven by agency action, often due to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act or other federal laws, she said.

Several of the streams on the Mountain Springs grazing allotment are salmon spawning or rearing areas, and Rosenkrance acknowledged that federal rules have contributed to the ranch's timetable for repairing the riparian areas. The rub for many ranchers is the lack of flexibility.

"The range grows differently every year," said Margaret Soulen Hinson of Weiser, chairwoman of the Idaho Rangeland Commission. "Livestock producers can't be adjusting their (herd) numbers up and down."

Cattle prices are rising after several years of being low. That should help many small ranchers who would have been unable to survive if they had to cut the size of their herds. Kincannon is working with ranchers on the East Fork of the Salmon River, seeking a solution that can reconcile their different views of the land.

"I see their personal dilemma. I love the family relationships. I love their culture," she said. "But they're hurting the land, my land, my kids' lands."

Hinson, who raises sheep and cattle with her father, Phil, and brother Harry, said face-to-face communication is the only way to resolve the issue.

"You've got to be open to listen to new ideas, and that's got to go both ways," she said.




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