From: shawn@ut-emx.uucp (Shawn Boyd)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: Re: Cows at 12,000 Feet.
Date: 15 Sep 92 21:23:52 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas

In article <1950052@hpgrla.gr.hp.com> edb@hpgrla.gr.hp.com (Ed Beshore) writes:
>Unfortunately, the original Wilderness act (mid sixty's I think) grandfathered
>in grazing rights.
>
>There is a lot of discussion these days about the welfare that Uncle Sam
>is giving ranchers.  This is particularly an issue when you consider
>we get somthing less than 3-5% of our total beef production from these
>guys.
>
>Ed Abbey said it best... (I paraphrase) "Only ranchers shoot every animal
>in sight, graze the land to nothing, pollute the water and then sit back
>with their feet up and say 'God I love the West'"

 I might rephrase your paraphrase to read, "Many ranchers" as opposed to 
 "Only ranchers."  I know some ranchers personally who have taken over family
 owned ranches and who have begun to run them with an eye toward land use as 
 opposed to land exploitation.  Some of the older owners are starting to come
 around as well, as they see the land they worked so hard on become less pro-
 ductive and headed toward desolation.

 Of course, fewer of them care at all if they're just renting the land they
 are (ab)using for pennies on the dollar, and in fact even less than pennies 
 on the dollar when the full cost consequences are computed.

>
>I highly suggest you write your Congressman and suggest:

 [three excellent suggestions for letter deleted...]

 add a fourth, 
 
 4) that more money and effort be put into the restoration of our currently
    ravaged wilderness areas and our National Forests and Parks in general.

 In addition to writing your representatives in Congress, vote.  Oh please,
 vote.  It does make a difference.

 You can also join the local chapter of The Sierra Club.  Each chapter will 
 or should have a local or statewide newsletter announcing things you can 
 actually do in your area to help out.  For instance, maintenance of local 
 natural and wildlife areas.  Activities include such things as erosion 
 control work, clean up activities (generally litter removal) as well as     
 educational outtings that you can contribute to through acting as a guide
 or instructor in some area you have specialized knowledge of.

 I have recently let my own activities in this area slide somewhat, and thanks
 to this thread have decide to renew some of my efforts in this area.

 A further note: overgrazing is definately a problem on all of our Federal lands
 where grass will actually try to grow.  This includes our National Forests, but
 overgrazing is the least of our problems.  Clear cutting of old growth timber 
 is probably the most viable threat to our Nationally administered woodlands in
 the current political environment, followed very closely by the multitude of 
 problems brought on by acid rain. 
 
 A mother cow lowing for her young outside your camp at midnight after she's 
 been "calfed" is an annoyance, and cattle feces in a babbling brook is more 
 than an annoyance, it is a health hazard if proper precautions are not taken.
 Let's not forget though, that all these problems fade to non-existence when
 the babbling brook outside that camp site, has become nothing more than 
 a poisoned trickle oozing its way down a denuded, eroded hillside.

 Write your Congressman.  Vote.  Join your local and national conservation
 organizations and participate.

 Shawn
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry