Category Archives: Livestock Grazing

Anti-government ranchers received over $4 million in taxpayer subsidies in 2014

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“Last June, the ranchers in middle-of-nowhere Battle Mountain, Nevada, stuck it to the federal government by herding cattle onto public rangeland which had been closed to grazing to protect it from the West’s blistering drought. Meanwhile, many of those protesting were collecting drought subsidies.

“This final act of hypocrisy ended two years of rancher protests against the grazing restrictions imposed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for thousands of miles of arid federal land in Nevada. The BLM backed down and opened the range.

“By claiming that drought regulations were personal attacks, even as they received hefty checks, the Nevada ranchers got their way. According to Reveal, who obtained records related to the entire ordeal, two ranching families at the center of the protests received over $2 million in subsidies.”  From: deadstate.org

GR:  I just wanted to remind everyone that American ranchers, in collusion with the U. S. Bureau of Land Management and the U. S. Forest Service, have destroyed our public lands in order to line their pockets.  They are not good stewards of the land, they are avaricious abusers that have cost us the lives of our native wildlife and vegetation.  Learn more, search for livestock grazing at http://garryrogers.com.

 

Holistically-managed, grass-fed cows can save the planet! Neat video about how mimicking nature with grazing animals can not only reverse desertification, but also global warming.

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“Holistically-managed, grass-fed cows can save the planet! Neat video about how mimicking nature with grazing animals can not only reverse desertification, but also global warming. Grass-fed . . . ”

From: gardenchic.xyz

GR:  This is nonsense. We know that rotating livestock between two pastures gives each pasture time to recover during its rest period.  The idea was a sparkling innovation when the Romans applied it two thousand years ago. In fact, it was still in use in 1940 when my Range Management textbook was published. However, the idea was never sustainable.  The human population has continued to grow and we now have so many cattle that they are eating up the food needed by wildlife.  I don’t believe any us will claim that extinction of native wildlife is the way to “save the planet.”

“Garden Chic” doesn’t provide a link to the video, but I think it’s probably the phony old Ted Talk that got it’s author a lot of undeserved attention when he used the term “holistic.”  It is truly just BS.

Alberta must move away from oil-based economy, minister says

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EDMONTON — Climate isn’t all that’s changing in Alberta. The province’s NDP government has arguably made bigger moves on global warming in six months than the previous Conservatives made in a generation.  From: thechronicleherald.ca

Thank you Shannon Phillips.  Trudeau makes it all possible.

Great Basin rangeland facing challenges with climate change

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“Fighting the effects of climate change in Great Basin rangeland is drawing together federal, state and private interests to deal with what scientists say is greater weather variability causing big swings in forage available for cattle and wildlife.” More at www.idahostatesman.com.

(The photograph shows an impoverished cheatgrass landscape that native shrub vegetation occupied a century ago.)

GR:  Since people introduced cheatgrass to the region in the late 1800’s, the little weedy Asian grass has replaced native vegetation across millions of acres. A tremendous loss of natural productivity occurred as native plant and animal species declined.
Cheatgrass carries fire better than native plants. Fire frequency has increased, and native plants don’t have time to establish and mature before the next fire. Cheatgrass seeds survive the fires, and without competitors, the plant continues to increase.
For almost a century, range scientists have tried everything they can think of to control cheatgrass. They have failed, and it appears that the plant has become a permanent resident. There are only two reasonable management approaches now. First, remove domestic livestock so that the remaining native wildlife can survive on the impoverished cheatgrass ranges. And second, try to protect and preserve the few remaining areas with no cheatgrass.

Casualties of the Vanishing West

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GR:  Wild horses compete with deer, antelope, and other wildlife. They also compete with cattle, the principal occupant of the western ranges. It is sometimes difficult to manage the invasive species that we’ve introduced over the past 600 years. It is especially difficult when we eliminate potential predators. As things stand, it is impossible to say whether wild horses might merge with native animals/ecosystems if we removed the cattle and allowed wolves and lions to return. I for one would really like to try it.

Exposing the Big Game's avatarExposing the Big Game

Sunday, 27 December 2015
Written by
Sonia Luokkala

By Sonia Luokkala, Earth Island Journal

Chief, a Kiger mustang born in the remote wilderness of Utah, lives with 400 other rescued wild horses and burros in a 1,500 acre sanctuary, hundreds of miles from his original home. Years ago the stallion was captured in a round up led by the Bureau of Land Management. After a long helicopter chase, he ended up in a government-run holding facility for years before being adopted by Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary in Lompoc, CA. Not all horses rounded up by the BLM are as lucky.

Over the past four decades the BLM has eradicated or moved to holding facilities more than 70 percent of the country’s wild horse population.Over the past four decades the BLM has eradicated or moved to holding facilities more than 70 percent of the country’s wild horse population. (Photo: Bureau of Land Management – Utah)

The majority of captured equines remain stuck for years, if not for the rest of their lives, in cramped holding facilities…

View original post 140 more words

Demonstrate for an End to Global Warming

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Climate-change demonstrations show our leaders that we want them to take steps to stop global warming. We must also ask our leaders to change the human activities that are causing climate change.

  1. We want them to block corporate control over our government and the decisions it makes.
  2. We want them to end international sales of weapons and begin to encourage peace and a focus on life style and resource use.
  3. We want them to discourage unsustainable resource harvests.
  4. We want them to encourage human rights and equality.
  5. We want them to speak out for wild animals and natural ecosystems.
  6. We want them to call for restoring the damaged lands and seas.
  7. And finally, we want them to oppose gender inequality and overpopulation.

Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, activities causing climate change would continue. Farming, deforestation, industrial fishing, desertification, construction, and growth of the human population would continue to waste the Earth and release CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

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Overgrazing is a major cause of the horror in Syria

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“In 1958, the vast semi-arid to arid Syrian steppe was made into a free access (unrestricted) commons by the Syrian national government. This overturned the sustainable type of grazing practiced by the Bedouins for centuries. The tribes and clans of the steppe had developed systems of limiting exploitation of the steppe beyond the grazing that would be sustainable. They even had large rest and restoration areas set by tribal custom and decision.

“Turning the whole thing into a commons led exactly to what we should expect, “the tragedy of the commons.” After almost 50 years of this degradation came the 2006–10 drought. Then came the collapse of the economy and great destabilization of society in the rural interior. The rebellion against the Syrian government had its origins there” From: www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  Grazing mismanagement of Earth’s arid lands has eroded the soil, introduced invasive weeds, reduced productivity, and reduced biodiversity in a process known as desertification.  Add climate change droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change, and it is no surprise that people are unhappy.

More ranching propaganda from TNC

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The above link is to an article published by The Nature Conservancy exalting the Malpai Borderlands group in Arizona and New Mexico. You can read the article for a little background on the Malpai g…  www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  There he goes again; what a stickler for the truth.  Excellent article.

A Leading Cause Of Climate Change That No One Is Talking About

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“Raising animals for food consumption uses 30% of the world’s water, 45% of the world’s land, and is responsible for 91% of the destruction of the rain forest. Among these shocking figures, animal agriculture is also the leading cause of the oceans dead zones, the leading cause of habitat destruction and the leading cause of species extinction.”  More: www.collective-evolution.com

GR:  Worth repeating.