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This page last updated July 25, 2002
Images From Our Grazed Range Watch, a citizen watchdog group headquartered in California, monitors the health of our commercially grazed public lands and seeks better range management of these natural resources. To tell the story of what they see on public lands they document resource conditions with video, write reports with still photographs, and speak to groups of interested citizens. Many feel that this collection of haiku poems, written by their director Jane Baxter, is their best effort yet to convey to the American taxpayers what they can experience on our public lands leased by private livestock producers. These poems are a message from the heart of someone who cares deeply about Americas commercially grazed National Forests, National Parks, wildlife refuges and BLM lands. In a very unique way, these poems tap into the reader's imagination and convey Range Watch's concerns. Jane Baxter jokingly refers to her poems as "Cow Pie Poetry" and herself as the "Unofficial Poet Laureate" of the Range Reform movement.
Haiku is a brief non-rhyming Japanese poem form of just three lines. Haiku effectively paints a word picture, capturing and preserving an experience in the natural world. Basho, the great haiku master, said "Haiku is simply what is happening in this place, at this moment." Haiku poet, James Hackett, felt of all poetry, haiku is the form which bests holds a mirror up to nature. He felt that in haiku there is a spirit of "Suchness", wherein nature is reflected just as it is.
With a total of only 17 syllables, the first line of a haiku has 5 syllables,
the next line 7, then a repetition of 5 syllables for the final line. There
is a rhythm created by this subtle format. Like impacts from improperly managed
commercial grazing on our public lands, haiku at first appears simple but
is more complex on close examination.
Fish, wildlife and commercial grazing.
The visible fawn If livestock graze meadows before the fawning season, crucial fawn-hiding cover, needed to shield the new born animals from natural predators is Iost. In this way, the vital balance of predator and prey is disturbed. Also, some biologists feel commercial cattle grazing, with its young vulnerable calves in the spring, provides an unnatural increase in food contributing to increased predator populations (e.g. cougars and coyotes) and depressed deer herds.
Snow and hungry deer. Deer Brush is a type of Ceanothus favored as a food source by both deer and livestock. Deer can suffer from malnutrition when livestock over use their preferred browse species on deer winter range. Over-utilization of vegetation can also affect hiding cover for the deer and reduce thermal cover that provides protection from freezing winter temperatures. Cattle trampling and eating seedlings of these same plants contribute to reproduction problems the plants already suffer, related to alterations of natural fire ptttterns. Commercial livestock grazing contributes to fire-suppression-related ecological problems by reducing fuel loads.
Redberry bushes
Shimmering aspen. Aspen habitat is a very important wildlife resource and is a common fawn birthing site. An aspen grove is actually a single living unit with a common underground root system which reproduces by tender shoot growth. These shoots are favorite foods for wild deer and other hoofed species. When cattle also have access to these groves for too long a period, new aspen shoots plus the lower leaves and twigs are over-utilized, needed wildlife cover is lost, and reproduction of the grove suffers.
Caddis fly larva, Sand and sediments are introduced into streams when cattle trample stream banks and when they consume streamside vegetation that filters out sediments during flood events. Fish eggs and the invertebrates which fish feed on, both die from lack of oxygen when they are covered by sand and sediments.
The man-made stock tank Native animals have a natural, dynamic, balance in arid ecosystems, having adapted to a lack of water. Introduction of unnatural water sources allows cattle and other species to disrupt that balance. Ecosystem damaging installation of stock tanks in the Aldo leeopold Wilderness on the Gila National Forest in New Mexico has been proposed. Development of new facilities in designated wilderness is prohibited by federal law, but the project still moves forward.
A moving rainbow!
This colorful and spectacular species of native fish, found in the
Sierra Nevada, is impacted when livestock graze in or near streams where
fish live. This beautiful fish is one of six native fish species in the Sierra
Nevada officially listed by the federal and/or state governments as threatened
or endangered.
The trail's been so hot! In the Range Reform 94 document, the federal government has stated that the public's recreational experience is lessened by commercial cattle grazing on public lands. In most of the West, cattle grazing has far less economic impact on local economies than recreation.
Clanking cow bells toll
Seeking wild solace,
In the Sierra Nevada mountain range, less than 500 livestock operators
can impact the recreational experience of National Forest visitors from around
the world, who constitute over 70 million "recreation visitor days" annually.
The economics of one forest use affects another. In the Sierra Nevada, recent
research shows water and recreation to be the most important economic resources
of the area. Commercial grazing negatively effects both of these economically
significant public lands resources.
On my special hill Livestock grazing on damp soils can result in permanent watershed damage. When soils dry, compaction leads to increased water run off. Disturbance of the living soil crust, composed of lichens, algae, moss, fungi, and bacteria, can rob the ecosystem of both nutrients and soil stability.
Erosion awaits. Livestock grazing frequendy causes a loss of vegetative cover and organic materials which naturally would build up and become an important, natural part or our soils. In natural ecosystems these substances, prior to their decomposition, act as raindrop interceptors, functioning to dissipate the force of storm events, so water does not run off but is absorbed and later available for use.
Where hooves don't trample, At Range Watch headquarters in a coniferous forest, natural processes create a soft hued mat of pine needles reminiscent of Japanese tatami floor mats. The scent of this needle-covered forest floor in the warm sun is seldom forgotten. Across a fence line in Sequoia National Forest, where cattle, (which are not a natural part of this ecosystem) come to the snearn to drink, it looks like an electric Mix Master has been employed on the forest soil and the protective pine needles.
Vast, bare soil abuts Fence lines between "grazed and ungrazed" lands can tell a dramatic story, if you look at broad scale comparisons, since cattle have a tendency to travel right next to fences and cause intense damage immediately adjacent to them. The land that is grazed only by native animals is well protected from soil loss. The commercially grazed vast hill area of this poem is at risk from erosion because it has only sparse, shallow rooted, unpalatable species left at the end of the grazing season. Flowers, fruits, and seed-heads of preferred plants are often eaten along with their leaves and stems. The untouched, undesirable plants that are left are thus given the better chance to produce seed and become dominate. Thus plant species composition changes with livestock grazing.
The wind whips cold rain.
Livestock can denude some public lands of vegetation or they can create
conditions with sparse, inadequate ground cover. Soil is then expoed and
vulnerable to erosion. In addition, when cattle break and trample the living
crust of highly erosive, fragile soil types (low in nutrients and therefore
short on root structure), damage can occur to soil orrianisms that are key
to holding these poor quality soils together. When that occurs, soils at
risk on steep grazed slopes can move down hill in heavy rains like viscous
lava flows.
Wisdom of the land. This is a tribute to the Tabatulabal Native American peoples of the Kern Plateau who showed great insight in their management of the resources of Monache Meadows, in the southern Sierra Nevada. Prior to commercial grazing this huge meadow complex, which stretches for miles, must have been an ecological show place.
Sage brush flats replace Protective vegetation on the South Fork of the Kern River has been impacted by commercial grazing. Storm events have eroded the bare, unprotected, livestock denuded river banks. Erosion has cut the river lower. Meadow moisture now is drained down to this new lower level, and meadow vegetation needing moisture is now gone, replaced by sagebrush. Ranchers, fish, fishermen, wildlife, hunters, birds, bird watchers, communities of native plants, and native plant buffs all lose. With proper range management, rest, or restoration they all gain.
Balanced for eons For centuries, the plants and wildlife of Monanche meadows supped the needs of the Tabatulabal peoples without being depleted.
Riding proud horses,
Can we stretch this wounded, but still spectacular place to be both
my wild refuge and their cattle pasture?
Meadows and commercial grazing
The silent meadow When not properly managed, cattle browse on willows, aspen, cottonwoods, and other riparian shrubs and tirtes. The livestock eat and trample young seedlings, leaving no reproduction, especially of the more palatable plants. Livestock also physically bump into and disturb bird nests in meadow and streamside vegetation. Brown -headed cowbirds, associated with cattle, parasitise the nests of dozens of species of songbirds, increasing cattle-related impacts to riparian songbird habitat.
Ungrazed meadows boast A current federal study matches commercially grazed Sequoia National Fbrest meadows with similar meadows in Sequoia National Park that have not been commercially grazed for over seventy-five years. The differences are dramatically obvious.
The land is wounded.
Mountain meadows are one of the most ecological and economically important
public land resources. Meadows support important fisheries in their streams
and, according to a recent California Department of Fish and Game document,
anglers spend $1.7 billion on sport fishing in California alone. Meadows
are also key deer habit. According to a University Of California-Davis study,
deer hunting and viewing in California is estimated to contribitte $455 million
annually to the state's economy (and citizens) and support 10,500 jobs.
There is no beauty.
Sterile, barren, stream. When Range Watch explored McFarland Creek on Sequoia National Forest, they found cattle-trampled bare banks below a granite bedrock area, but above it, in a cattle-inaccessible stretch of stream, was lush, impenetrable, head-high dogwood, alders and Sierra currents.
Once deep and narrow, When riparian plants are eaten or trampled, there is no vegetative canopy left to shade the stream or provide a "living lid" that would reduce evaporating. Direct sunlight on the stream surface can raise temperatures past the maximum tolerable for trout and invertebrate egg hatch.
Stately old alders,
On Poso Creek, where the Range Watch headquarters are located, there
are only old mature alder trees with no young seedlings surviving along the
cattle-grazed parts of the stream. On private stretches of the stream or
in areas where rock outcrops keep cattle from eating seedlings, there is
good regeneration of alden The Forest Service insists that the bare, unvegetated,
grazed areas, where no new alders are surviving, are normal functioning areas
but are just "different" from the adjacent ungrazed ecosystems with lush
vegetation.
With work, one can graze
Sierra sunrise!
Each generation
Good decisions now
Use some ...and save some
Today I saw hope
Sequoias...meadows. Few members of the public realize that commercial grazing often takes place in their National Forest Giant Sequoia Groves, our public wildlife refuges, designated wilderness areas, National Parks, in coastal redwood groves along Big Sur, high alpine meadows, or fragile desert habitat where it can take over 300 acres to suport just one cow or steer.
Forest Service staff There are millions of acres of public lands that have been and are currently being damaged by poorly managed commercial livestock production. However there is a small group of ranchers out there who are good examples to others about balancing their economic needs with the needs of the public resources they graze. This particular rancher in the poem grazes on the Plumas National Forest. Ranchers like this should take the lead in helping educate other ranchers about how it is to their economic benefit to heal damaged lands and use improved science based management techniques to keep rangeland resources healthy.
Resilient resource.
Healing raw steep banks
Subtle but severe..... This poem depicts the oddity that most grazing damage needs an "up close and personal" look while the impacts from logging can be seen from outer space. We are used to seeing grazing impacts because nearly all the uplands, streams and meadows we visit have been commercially grazed at some time. Thus, grazing impacts often escape the uneducated eye at first glance. We need to look for what is not there (like missing vegetation and complex species composition) as well as what is there which should not be there (like stren sediments, and plant species that indicate disturbance).
The public must learn
In the West, we hardly ever see natural ungrazed ecosystems. The public
needs to understand that poorly managed livestock grazing has caused the
loss of healthy meadows, fast flowing shaded streams, once lush riparian
forests, irreplaceable soils, fish species, generous numbers of big horn
sheep, and habitats with dense native plants, and much more. The public deserves
proper science based management of our commercially grazed public lands in
the future.
Jane Baxter lived briefly in a small Japanese village when she was seventeen. She has been writing haiku poems to express thoughts and feelings ever since. Now, her concern for the health of our commercial grazed western pubic lands has been captured in haiku form. She grew up steeped in western traditions, with a deep love of our western public lands. Her grand-mother's family homesteaded a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. She was the daughter of the historian for Rancheros Visitadores, a group of horsemen interested in keeping the early California cattle ranching traditions alive. At the age of eight, she watched as her very own calf was born on a ranch where she begged the family to vacation each year. Her alder smoked beef ribs, cooked in her remote, streamside, mountain home are famous among beef lovers. Despite her love of the "old west" she works doggedly, within the system, to seek a sustainable "new west" where commercial cattle and sheep grazing is properly managed on public lands and provides a fair financial return to the public.
She is a B&B Innkeeper in a remote area of the southern Sierra Nevada,
next to Sequoia National Forest where her property is surrounded by a commercial
cattle grazing allotment. Disturbed by grazing impacts she saw on public
lands, she founded Range Watch, a grassroots organization of taxpayers from
throughout the country. Range Watch documents damaged resources found on
commercially grazed public lands and shares what they find with the public.
The images in these poems were first captured on video, a medium Range Watch
uses to monitor the health of our public lands.
According to the federal government's Range Reform 94 Environmental Impact Statement, sheep ranchers and only about 3% of American beef producers graze 270 million acres of western public lands. The same document indicates Federal lands account for only 11% of the overall annual feed requirements for sheep operators. Each year, commercial grazing on public lands costs the American public, economically as well as ecologically. Estimates of the annual costs of this program to the US Treasure vary. The Committee On Government Operations place the costs for just basic operations at $150 million a year. According to a recent report by the House Committee on Natural Resources, beneficiaries of the program pay only 25% of program costs. American taxpayers pay the other 75% of the expenses. Costly repair of resource damage is accounted separately, as well as other expensive federal programs designed to support public lands grazers. According to Range Reform '94 documents, in 1993 the average monthly cost to graze private lands in the west was $10.03 for 5 sheep or a cow plus her calf. Government records show livestock operators grazing our public lands paid only $1.86 in 1993 and just $1.61 in 1995.
The public suffers a substantial economic and environmental loss each year
to allow fewer than 23,000 livestock operators to graze vast acreage of our
western public lands. Range Reform is necessary for the public to get a fair
return for their tax dollar. Our land managers must start to hold ranchers
responsible for utilizing the latest and best scientifically based range
management practices. They must also protect our public natural resources
from further livestock damage.
Public Lands Need Your Help Now! The "Livestock Grazing Act" being considered by congress is a travesty to American taxpayers and public land users. It is an ill conceived and lopsided proposal which will lead to continued overgrazing and will prevent public participation in sound management of our public lands. It must be opposed. It undermines the public's ability to use and enjoy public lands. It will make grazing the dominate use of our wesern public lands, overriding public use policies. It will cause an already unaccptabie situation to rapidly grow worse. Urge your senators and congressmen to oppose this bill. This is a very important time for your western public lands which belong to all Americans and are not just the turf of a few thousand livestock operators. Send a message to President Clinton that Americans don't want to see dangerous, poor management direction for commercial grazing on our public lands established in this bill. If passed by congress, President Clinton must veto this bill. Call the White House Opinion Phone line: (202) 456-1111 or Fax: (202) 456-246l. Please get involved in preserving our public land legacy.
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