4 ms·

This seems akin to livestock grazing on 155 million acres of BLM land in the United States, by 18,000 ranchers. They generally get 10 year leases. It's a win fo

by progne 3y ago

This seems akin to livestock grazing on 155 million acres of BLM land in the United States, by 18,000 ranchers. They generally get 10 year leases. It's a win for the economy, the ecology, the food system, and the public treasury.

PaulHoule 3y ago
It’s controversial. Around Socorro, NM the dominant plant seems to be the creosote bush but if you drive up to Magdalena, NM (around the VLA) you see really pretty grasslands that turn into shrubs and then trees as you get to the highest altitude mountains. Driving south of Magdalena to the Gila Wilderness you may see herds of antelope and might think you are in an African veldt. The story I’ve heard is that the lower altitude areas looked like grasslands in higher altitudes until white people showed up with their cattle. On a wet year things look pretty green but in a dry year they look brown and it’s frankly astonishing they support cattle but they do. You’d imagine with some kind of ecological restoration the lower altitude areas could be made to look more like the high altitude areas and possibly they could support higher productive grazing in wet years. I saw a photo in a magazine that advocated public lang grazing that showed two sides of a fence one that was grazed and one that was not and said “see, they look the same” but it was clear to me the plant communities were quite different on the two sides though certainly the grazed side did not look like a moonscape. If you took a rancher out there I’d expect them to tell the difference.
- progne 3y ago
  I know a rancher in Catron county who primarily lives off of elk hunting parties on his ranch. He's been a cowboy all his life, but tells me that the elk hunting is far more profitable, so he only runs cattle to improve the forage for the elk, else he wouldn't bother with them. The cows are mobile cultivating, fertilizing and seeding machines, in service to the elk herds. I think he told me that they figure 1 cattle per 10 acres in this terrain. I wonder how that compares to the density of ruminants before we consumed all the buffalo.

by progne 3y ago

PaulHoule 3y ago

It’s controversial. Around Socorro, NM the dominant plant seems to be the creosote bush but if you drive up to Magdalena, NM (around the VLA) you see really pretty grasslands that turn into shrubs and then trees as you get to the highest altitude mountains. Driving south of Magdalena to the Gila Wilderness you may see herds of antelope and might think you are in an African veldt. The story I’ve heard is that the lower altitude areas looked like grasslands in higher altitudes until white people showed up with their cattle. On a wet year things look pretty green but in a dry year they look brown and it’s frankly astonishing they support cattle but they do. You’d imagine with some kind of ecological restoration the lower altitude areas could be made to look more like the high altitude areas and possibly they could support higher productive grazing in wet years. I saw a photo in a magazine that advocated public lang grazing that showed two sides of a fence one that was grazed and one that was not and said “see, they look the same” but it was clear to me the plant communities were quite different on the two sides though certainly the grazed side did not look like a moonscape. If you took a rancher out there I’d expect them to tell the difference.

progne 3y ago
I know a rancher in Catron county who primarily lives off of elk hunting parties on his ranch. He's been a cowboy all his life, but tells me that the elk hunting is far more profitable, so he only runs cattle to improve the forage for the elk, else he wouldn't bother with them. The cows are mobile cultivating, fertilizing and seeding machines, in service to the elk herds. I think he told me that they figure 1 cattle per 10 acres in this terrain. I wonder how that compares to the density of ruminants before we consumed all the buffalo.