[cdt-l] Cattle Thread

[cdt-l@mailman.backcountry.net (cdt-l@mailman.backcountry.net)]

In a message dated 04/12/2001 1:32:31 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
ROYROBIN@aol.com writes:


> stock ponds and 
> tanks are there for him to benefit from only because the cattle are there

Another consideration is that cattle sometimes ruin springs, cause the loss 
of riparian forest (over a long period of overgrazing) and brush (willow) 
that helps a stream recharge even in the hottest months (because of shading, 
water absorption by vegetation, etc). My main point being that if there were 
not cattle in the area, you'd likely find pockets of water (and it might even 
be CLEAN!) where you don't find it anymore because of solar heating and 
evaporation in summer. 

The sad thing is that overgrazing on our public lands still occurs to this 
day, and ranchers do not want to change their ways because they feel they 
have the right to do whatever they think is best despite land managers. I 
always love hearing "Well this is the way it's always been ever since I was 
little and my pappy grazed this land!" and they claim they practice good land 
stewardship... Then I think back at the times I've walked desert streams and 
all that is there is a dry little ditch, and I wonder why there are huge old 
downed aspen logs rotting next to where a trout creek once flowed... ya I 
guess the stream always has been a ditch... I just wish I could go back in 
time to ask that rancher's grandfather what it looked like back then...

Toby Bakos


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