Opinion ID: 779502
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Owyhee Resource Area And Cattle Overgrazing

Text: 3 The Owyhee Resource Area covers over one million acres of ruggedly beautiful landscape in southwestern Idaho bounded on the west by Oregon, on the south by Nevada, and on the north by the Snake River. Deep Creek, South Fork Owyhee Creek, Jordan Creek, Hardtrigger Creek, Reynolds Creek and many other tributaries feed the Owyhee and Snake Rivers, which have sculpted spectacular and wild canyonlands out of the Owyhee's volcanic rock formations. 4 Remote and traversed by life-giving waterways, the Owyhee provides habitat for bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, antelope, peregrine falcon, redband trout, sage grouse, and hundreds of other species. Startling in its ecological diversity, from and sagebrush desert to lush juniper woodlands, the Owyhee shelters the world's largest population of nesting raptors and a variety of rare and endangered species. 5 Along with supporting a wide variety of wildlife, the Owyhee has supported cattle ranching as a traditional occupation for a century or more. Ranching families are an important part of the local community with many family members participating actively in civic life as local elected officials, volunteer firefighters, and school board members. Well over four hundred people currently depend on cattle grazing in the Owyhee for their livelihood. 6 Water is life, and the health of the Owyhee depends on the health of its streams. Unfortunately, cattle overgrazing now threatens the life of the Owyhee. In his Memorandum Decision and Order of February 11, 1998 (Feb.Memorandum), Chief Judge Winmill succinctly summarized the pernicious effect of cattle overgrazing: 7 These livestock, the EIS noted, tend to congregate near water. Riparian areas — lands adjacent to streams that support a thicker growth of vegetation — are crucial to the wildlife and fish of the ORA [Owyhee Resource Area]. Fish thrive in streams near healthy riparian areas because vegetation stabilizes the stream banks, keeping sediment out of the water and providing shade that cools the water. Although these riparian areas constitute only one percent of the ORA acreage, wildlife congregate there in much greater concentrations than in any other habitat in the ORA. 8 When riparian vegetation is overgrazed, lush stream banks turn to bare dirt. Trampled by livestock, the dirt banks crumble into nearby waterways. Water quality deteriorates and water temperatures rise, creating adverse conditions for fish. The stream bank erosion prevents plant growth, ensuring further erosion, and destroying wildlife habitat. In this way, overgrazing ruins not only the habitat benefits of riparian areas, but also the grazing benefits of the ORA. 9 In 1981 the BLM identified livestock overgrazing as a significant problem in the Owyhee and concluded that approximately ninety percent of the Owyhee rangeland was in poor or fair ecological condition. In 1981, the BLM also found over one hundred and forty miles of streams to be in poor condition, due in large part to overgrazing. In 1996, the BLM again examined the health of the streams in the Owyhee and found that ninety-one percent of the stream miles inventoried were in unsatisfactory condition. Despite the BLM's own findings, the BLM failed to address destruction of riparian habitat caused by cattle overgrazing in the fifteen years between 1981 and 1996 and the condition of stream banks in the Owyhee continued to deteriorate during this period.