Oregon cattlemen urge changes to BLM sage grouse management plan
While the Trump administration has reopened western sage protections for further review, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is renewing its call for more grazing and rancher-friendly provisions on the range.
In a letter sent Jan. 10 to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, OCA President Nathan Jackson and Executive Director Jerome Rosa said the Bureau of Land Management ignored key local findings when it approved the 2015 Oregon Greater Sage Grouse Resource Management Plan.
Specifically, they argue the BLM eliminated grazing from many research natural areas and neglected how grazing can actually improve the landscape for sage grouse — namely reducing wildfire fuels and controlling invasive weeds.
Rosa said the letter also reiterates that Oregonians want to see changes in the plan, despite seemingly contrary public comments from Gov. Kate Brown.
“There is some confusion in Washington, D.C., that Oregon is the only western state that is not supportive of amendments to the sage grouse plan, which is tremendously worrisome,” Rosa said.
Brown has said in a statement last October that the decision to reconsider sage grouse plans last year was “reckless,” adding the administration “is playing fast and loose with two things that make Oregon special — proud rural communities and diverse wildlife.”
The OCA speculates, however, whether Brown understands that the BLM did not adopt Oregon’s own sage grouse assessment, which was adopted by the Department of Fish & Wildlife in 2011.
“With all due respect to our governor, unfortunately, she appears to have been misinformed that the BLM (plan) adopted the ODFW Oregon sage grouse strategy. It did not,” the OCA states in its letter to Zinke.
The BLM plan needs to be amended to harmonize with the state strategy, the letter continues.
“The ODFW Oregon sage grouse strategy was state driven, Oregon-based, and was an outgrowth of collaboration that considered the unique conditions in Oregon,” the OCA writes.
According to the ODFW strategy, “ranching as a land use generally supported greater biodiversity as measured by native plant species and shrub/grassland nesting birds than exurban developments or reserves.”
Yet ranchers claim the BLM eliminated livestock grazing in many suitable areas, such as 8,282 acres in the Rahilly-Gravelly allotment in southeast Oregon, which was previously determined to be in good health.
On Nov. 27, 2017, both the OCA and Oregon Farm Bureau submitted nine pages of written comments to the BLM in Portland, seeking to remove what they described as overly restrictive components of the federal sage grouse plan. One request was to allow “proper grazing and compatible grazing practices.”
Tom Sharp, president-elect of OCA and a cattle rancher near Burns, Ore., explained how grazing is compatible and sometimes beneficial to the landscape, which in turn supports sage grouse habitat.
Not only does livestock reduce the fuel load that can spur devastating rangeland fires, but in springtime the cattle eat still-green species of common weeds such as cheat grass and medusahead.
The slogan among ranchers, Sharp said, is “good for the bird, good for the herd.”
“When utilized properly, (grazing) can be used to do good things across the landscape,” he said.
Sharp acknowledged that, when done carelessly or abusively, grazing can have negative impacts and strip the land bare. But responsible grazing is increasingly being recognized by science as beneficial, he said.
“It’s those good practices that are being recognized not only by science, but by the U.S. Fish ad Wildlife Service as being compatible and sometimes beneficial to sage grouse,” Sharp said.