From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)
Subject: Waste of the West (Review)
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 18:43:38 GMT

LIVESTOCK GRAZING; BOOK REVIEW
 
 
Waste of the West:
Public Lands Ranching
 
By Lynn Jacobs; Self-published (P.O. Box 5784, Tucson, AZ 85703;
602-578-3173)  1991; 362 pages, *softcover, $28.00 post-paid.
 
Before reading this book, I had no idea of the extent of damage cows could
do to an ecosystem.  Certainly I was aware of the destruction of tropical
forests for cattle ranching and the desertification of parts of northern
Africa.  But, as Jacobs makes abundantly clear, the destruction of large
portions of the western U.S. is equally serious and urgent.
 
Jacobs demonstrates in meticulous detail the effects of stock raising on
soil, water, plants, and wildlife.  Cattle in particular he calls "roving
topsoil terminators," and he estimates that "Westem rangeland is losing
topsoil, mostly due to ranching, at least four to five times faster than
it is being replaced." Overgrazed watersheds then literally wash away into
rivers and reservoirs.  By contrasting pioneers' descriptions of deep,
clear rivers with photographs and descriptions of their sterile remnants,
Jacobs reminds us of how much we have already lost.
 
Photographs of fence lines are inter*spersed throughout the text to
demonstrate the differences between grazed and ungrazed areas.  In the
East, where rocky, weed-filled pastures contrast with surrounding
woodland, it is difficult to imagine the deterioration of overgrazed
pastures in and climates.  Yet the loss of native
 
Western vegetation is even more severe than these photographs reveal. 
According to Jacobs, "livestock grazing has forced more Western [plant]
species to become Rare, Threatened or Endangered than any other factor,"
with a potential loss of over 600 plant species in California alone.
     
In such a degraded habitat, native animals are deprived of their natural
food and shelter.  Waste of the West documents the sad fates of elk,
mountain lions, rabbits, and tortoises, among many others.  "As a general
rule," he writes, "when livestock are placed in an area, they eliminate at
least roughly their weight in elk, raccoons, spiders, pronghorns, badgers,
moles..." Ranchers, through ignorance or greed, then kill virtually any
remaining wildlife as pests, as predators, or as "competition" for forage. 
As Jacobs reveals, "during the first year of James Watts' administration,
ADC [USDA's division of Animal Damage Control] spent more money killing
predators than the federal govemment spent protecting all Endangered
species." His documentation includes some heartbreaking photos of
"controlled" animals.  Jacobs also devotes a chapter to the abuses
domestic animals suffer under such a brutal regime.
 
All this for the 3 percent of U.S. beef produced on leased public land!
Jacobs proves, through the government's own statistics, that our public
land leasing system is irredeemably corrupt.  The taxpayer spends more for
fencing, "pest control," and other range "improvements" than the sale of
leases brings in.  Not counting other costs, "if the livestock industry as
a whole had to pay all expenses for the water it uses, common hamburger
meat would cost $35.00 per pound," according to one economist.
 
Why do we allow this system to continue? In part, Jacobs concludes, it's
due to the entrenched power of the ranching lobby.  His descriptions of
the ostracizing in store for those who would protest these abuses is
chilling.  From the "closed shop" of government bureaucracy to the tightly
knit social life of small Western towns, the pressure is intense to
conform to the status quo-even though "only 16 percent of Western
stockmen" lease public lands.  Referring to a statistic from a 1987 USDA
handbook, Jacobs informs us, "far more cattle are raised on the two
million private pasture acres in Vermont than on the 55 million public
acres in Nevada."
 
Nevertheless, we perceive the stockman as the heart of the free and wild
West.
 
Indeed, Jacobs blames the continuance of ranching abuse on the
deeply-rooted myth of the American cowboy.  Despite the fact that most
public grazing allotments are leased by corporations or wealthy
individuals as tax write-offs, we're encouraged to view their operations
as part of a hardscrabble Western tradition.  Every time we watch a cowboy
movie or buy products advertised with "Wild West" imagery, we're buying
into the myths that wreaks havoc on ecosystems.  Before we can dismantle
the bureaucratic framework that supports Western "welfare ranching,"
Jacobs writes, "we must dismember the Marlboro man."
 
Lynn Jacobs has written a very thorough expose of public lands abuse in
the West.  While the extraordinary amount of material may seem
overwhelming at first, the book remains very readable.  The facts are well
documented; the myriad quotations are invariably apt; the photos and
illustrations add a real depth and immediacy to the text.  He suggests
various methods of combatting the status quo, and, best of all, he offers
a glimpse of the impressive habitats we could recover if Western public
lands were left ungrazed.
 
Reviewed in 5/92 Animals Agenda by Cathy Czapla
 
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