Terry Tempest Williams writes “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide, and so we are found.”

I remember kneeling on the wet ground, the reddish-brown earth painting circles on the knees of my favorite jeans. Dew was everywhere and the smell of wet sagebrush seemed to soak into every pore. We sat watching the sun slowly begin to rise, sending streams of orange and pink light cascading over the Lost River Range. Then we heard it, the first “boom.” I remember being so disappointed with that sound. There had been all of this hype over the ‘booming’ the night before at the dinner table, and now it just sounded like my brother had popped his knuckles.

Then my dad handed me the binoculars. As a ten year old somewhat prissy girl, even I was impressed. Three or four male sage grouse were strutting back and forth on the lek in the distance. They would puff up the sacs on their throats and chest, and I just knew that if they had arms they would start beating their chests like King Kong atop the Empire State Building. Instead, they would kind of bob their heads and a hollow sounding ‘Pop! Pop!’ could be heard. Their tail feathers were fanned out in a magnificent array, looking almost like black spears against their reddish bodies, the same color as the circles on my knees. I watched the hens peeking out of the sagebrush seeming to hide just like us, not wanting to interrupt the magnificent display.

This is the same desert where my dad would turn my brother and me loose, and we’d spend hours looking for arrowheads among the chips of obsidian that was everywhere you stepped. On a year with good rain, the bunchgrasses would sometimes be taller than we were, and in places the sagebrush was as tall as my father. When I was young, the Big Lost River even made its way out to the desert to run through steep and narrow basalt canyons, feeding lush vegetation that provided the perfect hiding place from the scorching summer sun. We would jump from the cliffs after catching a limit of a trout, and return home to mom red from the sun, covered in mosquito bites, and smelling like the river. For us, unlike most of the people we knew, the wild places we visited didn’t provide us with a place to feed our livestock or harvest trees; these places were home.

I never really knew how much the desert defined me until I returned in my early twenties seeking solace from a broken heart. I hadn’t been to our place in the desert for years, but I thought that it could bring back the parts of me I had lost over the years. I knew I could find peace and solace there in the midst of my memories.

Even though I knew there would be no water in the river, I was not prepared for what I found.

There was no tall, shiny, green grass, no sego lilies, and the lupines were chewed to stubs. A few cacti remained huddled to the desert floor, blooming in spite of the devastation. But there was no purple, no white, and not even the skeleton of a willow remained along the river bed. Every step I took resulted in a poof of dust that covered my toes and open sandals. Pooch dust, everywhere, and cow dung, and silence. I stopped to listen for the tanagers and the crickets; nothing. I walked around the dry river bed, over a small hill to a sheltered cove in the lava rocks. My dad had taken me here years ago to show me where ancient people had sat and chipped the obsidian to make arrow heads.  Round rocks had been hauled up from the river bed and lay among bleached bones that had been broken with those rocks to access the marrow within. I crested the hill and hopped down into the dent in the rocks. Everything was smashed, the ground littered with cow pies.

I felt anger surge within me, then I sat down in the dust, looked around me, and cried. I cried because I had come to this place to be reminded of what it was in myself that I was trying to save, what I was trying to heal, but it was gone. I found out later that the lek where we used to go sit on spring mornings had been abandoned, along with almost all of the others in the valley. In a meager ten years, everything was gone. I sat and wondered where my daughter would go to remember herself. Where would I take her to find the things I remembered so vividly? Where would she find solace when so much had been taken away?

That is the day that I realized the silence of the desert was an echo of the silence we as a people had embraced by failing to stand up for the places and things that cannot speak for themselves. I vowed to not be quiet anymore. I knew I could be viewed as a radical by most of the people I had grown up with if it meant saving what remained of this place. I found my voice that day and a direction. I have spent the last seven years trying to keep the livestock industry from ruining other places, and I am thankful that groups like the Western Watersheds Project refuse to remain silent, taking on the fight for protecting the west’s last great places for those of us that are unable to do so.

Jen Nordstrom is an Idaho native living in Twin Falls who works for WWP writing comments, protests and appeals of Forest Service and BLM grazing decisions and planning documents.

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

by Deb Hiller

Redband trout © www.fisheyeguyphotography.com

Snake River Basin (SRB) redband trout are native to the high desert country of southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon.  This species is uniquely adapted to survive the harsh temperature extremes and reduced water flows of the high desert which are lethal to most other trout.  SRB redband are an important element of the high desert ecosystem.  They are the only native salmonid left in these drainages, and are a significant part of the food chain.  Redband eat insects and other fish.  They in turn are a food source for dippers, king fishers, mink, otters, and great blue herons.

SRB redband trout are also an evolutionary unique genetic resource which could be important to the survival of Snake River steelhead, as well as isolated resident redband populations now also imperiled. Historically SRB redband interbred with the recently listed anadromous Snake River steelhead and produced anadromous fors of SRB redband trout. However, the construction of the Hells Canyon dam complex in the 1960s blocked anadromous fish passage. Consequently Snake River steelhead continue to migrate to and from the ocean, while SRB redband trout reside their entire life inland in the Bruneau, Owhyee, Boise, and other Snake river tributaries. Whereas much of the native anadromous Snake River steelhead, gene pool has been lost to interbreeding with hatchery fish, the native gene pool of the SRB redband trout is still intact. Thus, where native gene pools of SRB redband trout have the ability to produce anadromous forms (were it not for the Hells Canyon Dam complex), SRB redband trout have the potential to provide the genetic diversity necessary for anadromous Snake River steelhead species survival.

Redband, like other species of trout, are found mainly in streams with riparian vegetation and in-stream cover, including undercut banks, large woody debris, and overhanging vegetation. Streamside vegetation should shade at least 75% of the stream surface during the hours of 11:00am to 4:00pm from June to September. Such vegetation provides both shade that maintains the lover water temperatures required by trout during hot, dry summer months, and habitat for insects which redband feed upon. Redband also occupy lower gradient streams and should have access to pools which provide rearing habitat, resting places, overwintering areas, and refuges from floods, drought, and extreme temperatures.

Although SRB redband trout are uniquely adaptable to reduced water flows and temperature extremes, their ability to survive temperatures increases and habitat destruction is currently being jeopardized by the interrelated effects of habitat degradation, dewatering, increased temperatures, poor water quality, isolation, and fragmentation. These effects are primarily caused by grazing and agricultural practices. In 1997, the USDA/USDI reported that resident interior redband trout, as a whole, are already extinct in 72% of their historic range of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon. And in 1993, after finishing an inventory of SRB redband trout stocks in Owyhee County, Idaho (adjacent to the Oregon border), the Idaho Fish and Game Department found that SRB redband trout densities had decreased by an average of 87% in 80% of the stream segments along Jordan Creek since 1977.

Livestock grazing is the most widespread cause of degraded riparian habitat in the arid West.  Livestock degrade redband trout habitat by trampling and removing streamside vegetation. The tramplind destroys undercut banks, flattens out pools, increases turbidity, and causes erosion associated with reduced vegetation cover and destabilization of stream banks. The results are shallow, wide streams. These are literally tenuously connected “mud puddles” that are too warm and turbid for juvenile rearing or adult spawning.

On an October 1997 camping trip to Noon Creek, Corral Creek, Cabin Creek, Juniper Creek, and Pole Creek in the North Fork and Middle Fork of the Owyhee drainage I encountered this phenomenon. I found redband trout (or fish for that matter) in only two of the five creeks. One of these creeks was trampled to the point that nothing but large puddles remained. The redband were literally stranded in stagnant water, dotted with numerous cow droppings. Evidence of recent cow use existed in every creek. The creek banks were either extremely cut on the edges to the point that large clumps of dirt crumbled into the small streams or so trampled that the banks were entirely gone replicating rodeo grounds. Except for areas excluded from cattle grazing, there was practically no streamside vegetation over two inches high.

Because the grazing and agriculture industries in Idaho refuse to change their land and water management practices to provide better habitat for redband trout, an endangered species listing for the trout is required. Unfortunately, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (F&WS), through its inconsistent and nonscientific definition of species has refused to list SRB redband trout under the Endangered Species Act. For listing under the ESA, F&WS requires that a subspecies must qualify as a “distinct population segment” (meaning, among other things, that the species is separated from other populations of similar species, and exists in a unique ecological setting – characteristics apropos to SRB redband trout). However, in the last two decades, F&WS has frequently altered its “distinct population segment” definition in order to prevent several species from being listed. Such manipulation is what is occurring here.

In 1995, Idaho Watersheds Project along with seven other conservation groups petitioned F&WS to list SRB redband trout as an endangered species. Within two months, F&WS denied the petition on grounds that inland SRB redband trout are not a distinct population segment from steelhead or other trout, and that when all forms of the trout were combined, no ESA listing was warranted. Two years later, Snake River and other steelhead were listed as threatened and endangered. One would think that SRB redband trout, being in the same species category as steelhead, would have been included in the listing. However, F&WS again blocked the listing of SRB redband trout using reasoning directly contrary to that employed in the 1995 denial – this time proclaiming that SRB redband trout are distinct from steelhead and thus should not be included in the Snake River steelhead listing.

If this seems confusing, it is. But what should be evident is that F&WS inconsistently applied its species definition in order to prevent the SRB redband trout from being listed – a tactic used often by F&WS in order to avoid listings.

Timeline

• July 1995 – IWP final petition to list SRB redband filed
• September 1995 – F&WS denies petition on grounds SRB redband trout are not a distinct population segment from steelhead and other trout.
• August 1997 – Steelhead trout listed under the ESA – F&WS takes a diametrically contrary position asserting that redband trout are a distinct population from steelhead, and hence should not be listed along with steelhead.

This is not the only time the F&WS has manipulated policy on distinct population segments in order to avoid listing a species.  In 1992, the agency refused to list the northern goshawk because it did not qualify as a distinct population segment.  Upset with the F&WS’s policy on distinct population segments, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity brought a suit in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.  In 1996 the court ruled against F&WS finding their refusal to list northern goshawk arbitrary and capricious because there was no clear and consistent distinct population segment policy.”  The court the remanded the listing decision back to the agency.  Within three months, the F&WS again denied listing to the northern goshawk because it did not qualify as a distinct population segment.  Southwest Center brought a second lawsuit.  Once more the court ruled against F&WS for a second time finding the agency’s policy on distinct population segments “arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of [the F&WS's] discretion.”

Early this summer the F&WS for the third time refused to list the northern goshawk.  The decision has been denounced as a political effort by the F&WS to avoid conflicts with the timber industry.  The aftermath may be a third northern goshawk lawsuit.  Appropriately, the F&WS’s distinct population segment policy has been criticized for setting up a “recipe for endless technical bickering.”  Of utmost concern is that while scientists and the courts debate over what constitutes a species, the creatures themselves edge ever closer to extinction.

The F&WS has also obscured and ignored data in order to avoid ESA listings.  Courts have concluded that the F&WS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in refusing to list bull trout, the Alexander Archipelago wolf, the Queen Charlotte goshawk, and the Canada Lynx.  In these cases the courts found that the F&WS either ignored the recommendations of its own biologists or failed to sue the best scientific data available in making listing determinations.

Lawsuits have been consistently necessary to obtain endangered species listing and to combat the politically swayed discretion of the F&WS.  In response to F&WS’s latest political acquiescence – altering its distinct population segment policy in order to prevent the listing of SRB redband trout – Idaho Watersheds Project, Oregon Natural Desert Association, and Committee for Idaho’s High Desert, represented by the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies recently filed an Endangered Species Act lawsuit against the F&WS.  Had the agency’s discretion not “run amok” and been applied consistently perhaps no such lawsuit would have been required.  Unfortunately, however the F&WS has refused to act responsibly and apolitically to protect the seriously threatened SRB redband trout – placing the trout in dire circumstances.

Deb Hiller, originally from Idaho Falls, is an attorney in Boise.

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

]]> http://westernwatersheds.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=592 0 http://westernwatersheds.org/blog/?p=587 http://westernwatersheds.org/blog/?p=587#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:03:56 +0000 begreen http://westernwatersheds.org/blog/?p=587 Herald Journal: Opinion – Letter to the Editor

So, here in the Bear River Range, the most significant high-elevation wildlife corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and northern Rockies to the Uintas and southern Rockies, a wolf was killed for using that corridor. This wolf made it through the gauntlet of roads, noisy ATVs, dirt bikes, and other human actions that degrade wildlife habitat. Of course if it had made it to Utah, it’s fate would probably have been the same as we are no more enlightened than those in Idaho. A sad situation!

The wolf was “harassing” the sheep of a Forest Service permittee. This raises the question as to where were the guard dogs? Where was the herder? Obviously close enough to kill the wolf, but not close enough to chase it away. I suppose harassment of sheep means being in sight (rifle sight) of the herder.

Franklin Basin and other important basins and watersheds in the Bear River Range have suffered over a century of abuse and degradation from cattle and sheep, that today, graze at a fraction of the cost on private land. We, you and I as taxpayers, subsidize them to compete with private land livestock producers and to be there to destroy streams, springs and wetlands, native plant communities and displace fish and wildlife by destroying their habitat. These costs are not counted, but passed on to future generations. In Utah alone, livestock on public lands consume forage about equivalent to what would be needed to support 2,000,000 deer or 400,000 elk. Yet hunters, misled and blinded to the facts, claim wolves are decimating elk herds.

The value of fish and wildlife in Utah and Idaho is many times that of public lands livestock production, yet we allow this sacrifice of our fish and wildlife, our water supply, our forests and wetlands through our inaction.

Our watersheds are eroding at many times natural rates, losing water storage capacity because of the removal of ground covering vegetation by livestock, not to mention the massive amount of livestock waste deposited in our watersheds. My question is, when are people going to wake up and challenge the Forest Service to correct this disgrace by removing livestock from Franklin Basin and our public water supplies’ watersheds so they can heal and function to our benefit, not just a few livestock producers.

Dr. John Carter is Utah Director of WWP. He lives in Mendon, Utah.

With only 1.1% of the beef production in the United States coming from BLM managed lands in the west, and a management system where all costs exceed income by a factor of eight to twelve, there is no economic reason to continue an activity that has resulted in the essential destruction of 80% of stream systems, the elimination of water quality and radical modification of wildlife and native plant habitat. It is time to start the end of this destructive use. I propose that public lands ranchers petition their representatives in Congress, who have always been ready to do their bidding, to provide for a buy out of whatever interest in these lands ranchers may have. If they fail to do this, they face inevitable economic extinction as their livestock use withers in the face of environmental and economic realities many of which they have brought down on themselves by their selfish and heedless excesses over many decades.

Jon Marvel is executive director of WWP. He lives in Hailey, Idaho.

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

Water troughs kill innumerable birds and other wildlife on public lands

I breathe in sharply. The bird in the trough is large this time. The feathers are scarcely wet – the head lying face down in gentle repose – yet somehow as if at any moment it might spring awake and gracefully lift into the sky on those powerful wings tucked so neatly against the sides of the body.

No! I cry out. But there is no response. No head lifts, no eyes plead for assistance. I realize suddenly that life and hope have only been recently abandoned by this still form, and my imagination begins to race. If only – if only I had made it here just an hour before, perhaps even just minutes ago, before that last fateful breath was taken. If only I could have plucked this beautiful falcon from the alluring but deadly water and sent it winging back across the night sky, back to Echo Crater where the prairie falcons nest and scream from the rocky walls.

But this bird will never fly again. Nor will the hundreds and likely thousands of other birds that have drowned this summer alone in water developments on public and private rangelands in Idaho. The prairie falcon was only one of three found drowned this summer in Laidlaw Park, Idaho. The three falcons, along with approximately two dozen other birds, died recently in troughs and tanks in the Craters of the Moon National Monument Expansion, where a warning was issued upon establishment by Presidential Proclamation “not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument.”

Pine Siskin

This experience follows on the heels of the Pleasantview, Idaho tragedy, where an estimated 500 to 1,000 birds, bats and small mammals drowned needlessly this summer. We have counted and photographed enough death on the BLM’s Pleasantview Allotment for the images to linger forever with my assistants and me.

Lazuli Bunting

We will relive again and again the horror of approaching one stinking trough filled with the corpses of more than 69 deceased migratory songbirds, the hot sun glinting from iridescent lazuli buntings, the contrasting reds and browns of Cassin’s finches,

Cassin's Finch

the bright yellow markings of warblers and siskins. We will relive the horror of lifting valve box covers at the ends of troughs and discovering the decaying piles of birds and mammals that thought the narrow openings represented some sort of escape from their watery doom.

We will relive the horror of finding the temporary wood and escape debris we have placed in the troughs (to serve as interim devices until the BLM could intervene) thrown out by thoughtless permittees, followed by the horror of finding dozens of new bodies floating in the same waters on our next visit.

Downy Woodpecker

We will relive the horror of finding drowned female kestrels and other hawks, knowing that somewhere nearby their nestlings have also been condemned to death. The horror of finding, on consecutive weeks, drowned mated pairs of downy and hairy woodpeckers, of pairs of dozens of other species large and small, knowing again that not only have the parents died by drowning but also that whole families were now condemned to die of starvation.

And how to find the young or even offer any rescue assistance? How to find dozens of innocent young birds hidden away from prying eyes in their many kinds of nests and cavities, desperately waiting for a parent to return with life-giving sustenance?

We will try to relive our short-lived joy finding one lone young brewer’s sparrow – a BLM sensitive species – still holding its head above water in a tank the size of a modest living room in Pleasantview. And we will relive again and again the agony of losing the short desperate battle to try to warm and rescue that one lone tiny bird from fear, exhaustion and hypothermia.

How long do these birds and mammals swim in endless, hopeless desperation? The will to live is strong in even the tiniest of wild hearts. We found this little bird at noon, exhausted and paralyzed. Had it been swimming since first light, when it came for a drink at dawn? All night? How long can the long-legged bats, the golden-mantled ground squirrels, and the prairie falcons swim, searching for a way up and out of steep-walled prisons flooded with water we have captured for the convenience of livestock? Hours? A full day? Clinging to tiny bits of wood and floating algae on a warm day or night, perhaps even longer?

Does hypothermia win out? Or, in silent exhaustion, do these precious bits of life finally just lay their heads down on the watery pillow? And how long did each of the birds and mammals wait before taking that last chance to reach the lifegiving waters in the steep-sided troughs? And how could any human being repeatedly throw out the hundreds of spent bodies, like so many pieces of used tissue, without even making an attempt to relieve their plight?

Cattle trough

We cannot forget or erase these scenes. We will relive the horror of discovering over and over, across the months of this desperately hot summer, the newly dead, the decaying corpses, the floating protein and lipid debris, as empty promises to address the carnage were broken again and again by an agency – the Bureau of Land Management – legally responsible for managing these lands and all their inherent values in a manner that merits the public trust.

It is only now, following years of protests and complaints by ourselves and so many of our friends and associates to area BLM offices, that the agency is taking official state action. Following public prodding by WWP and others, as well as threats of legal action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Idaho BLM office under the direction of K. Lynn Bennett has finally issued mandates to all Idaho field offices to address immediately the issue of wildlife escape ladders.

But the scope of the problem is still far beyond the current efforts. Vertebrate wildlife have been dying needlessly for years in troughs in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and anywhere else where there are unprotected troughs. The presence of alternate sources of water is not sufficient. There remains something alluring to wildlife in the still, open and often deeper and relatively clean waters of livestock troughs.

Drowning deaths are also occurring in Idaho on U.S. Forest Service lands, Idaho Department of Lands state school sections, and private rangelands and pastures. And no one has even begun to take official action to stop the terrible toll of troughs on invertebrate wildlife.

As I wrote in a recent short note to the Idaho Cattleman’s Association’s Rangeland Resources Council and to U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo’s office in Pocatello, Idaho, it is time for all of our land users to do more than just “talk the talk” of land stewardship. Stewardship is an act of caring for something valuable. It’s time for everyone to “walk the walk.” And this applies to every one of us, including those who include themselves in the conservation community.

We have been very dismayed by a few of the more narrow-minded responses we have received regarding our reporting of the trough deaths and calls for action. One biologist who makes a contract income from bird-related resources claimed our calls for official action were “hysterical,” that we should be concentrating on designing a new and better trough instead. This ignores the fact that the BLM has had, since the 1980s, excellent research and publications available to the public on designing and installing escapes within water troughs. It is not a lack of technology; it’s a lack of care and effort on the part of most of our agency managers and resource users that has resulted in the current desperate situation.

An even more disturbing response came from hosts of a bird-oriented website in Idaho, where we have placed a number of alerts regarding the trough deaths and pleas for conservation-minded and bird-loving folks to contact their public land managers and request action. In a forwarded message that I recently received, I learned that the site’s hosts feel that issues such as birds drowning in water troughs “deteriorate” their website into a “pulpit to proclaim…pet or favorite agendas.” They claim that their purpose is “geared toward the reporting of sightings, wild bird behavior, habitat and announcements.”

What a terrible and callous attitude from a narrow-minded segment of the birding community itself! To ignore ongoing habitat threats that are inextricably tied to bird behavior, and to want to utilize birds as nothing more than cute bundles of feathers to check off on a year or life list is to utilize our public and wildlife resources in just as extractive and callous a manner as our irresponsible livestock users. Thankfully for the list-checkers, there are more than a few of us who care enough to actually do something besides watch our wildlife resources struggle in the downward spiral brought about by our own anthropogenic influences.

It is too late for the hundreds and thousands of wildlife that have already perished in livestock troughs this year. But as I have expressed to the BLM’s Idaho office, as well as to local offices and the media, let’s not let these deaths be in vain. Let’s learn from this terrible, costly lesson and finally act to secure the safety of wildlife West-wide. Regardless of our political and world views, wildlife is everyone’s business, and we have a moral obligation to see that our human activities have the least impact possible on the species with whom we share the earth – species that must rely upon our voices to serve as theirs.

Please contact your local land managers and request that they take all possible steps to address wildlife safety in your area, including the provision of escape ladders in any troughs. Please take the time to report any unprotected trough or tank to your state and local managers. And please report any deaths you observe in troughs or tanks immediately to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Miriam L. Austin is a field biologist and has served as WWP resources specialist who lives in Twin Falls County, Idaho

This article appeared in the Watersheds Messenger – Late Fall (Vol. X, No. 3)

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

Desert Tortoise, Photo © Dr. Michael J. Connor

The verdict is still out on what the specific impacts of global climate change really will be for our desert wildlands but government responses are definitely posing new challenges to already stressed wildlife on public lands.  Climate change does pose a threat to biodiversity and may even threaten entire ecosystems.  Meeting these threats requires more protection of sensitive habitats, particularly those providing connectivity for species movements, to preserve ecological flexibility.  Unfortunately, so far the response of the agencies has been just the opposite of what is needed.  They are allowing many of the public lands that would provide this flexibility to be considered for the industrial scale development of so-called green energy projects by private industry.

The BLM has been accepting applications for the construction of power plants on vast tracts of public land in the sunny deserts of the southwest.  “First dibs” applications have been submitted for over 120 solar and wind energy plants on over a million acres of public land in the California Desert Conservation Area alone.  Hundreds of thousands of acres of our precious public lands could be bulldozed flat to provide “renewable energy” power plant sites.  Most of these power plants proposals have been filed as “right-of-way” applications, an ad hoc process that fails to take a broad look at the natural resources of our public lands and fails to direct development to areas of low resource value.

One such project is the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating Plant.  The six square mile power plant would dominate the North Ivanpah Valley near the California-Nevada border.  This desert area is familiar to anyone who has traveled along Interstate 15 between California and Las Vegas as the area to the north where Interstate crosses the dry lake near the border.  It provides habitat for an important population of desert tortoises, is used by bighorn sheep and other wildlife, is home to a number of rare plants, and has an assemblage of barrel cactus unrivaled elsewhere in the Golden State.

Land-hungry Solar Power Development in California. photo © Mike Conner

The Ivanpah Valley is the only place in California where Northeastern Mojave desert tortoises occur.  These tortoises are the most genetically distinct of the California populations.  The Ivanpah power plant would severely impact this population and as such poses a threat to the entire listed population.  This power plant uses a novel technology that has never been deployed on this scale before.  This is entirely the wrong place to build a massive, experimental power plant.

There are alternatives to this project.  Photovoltaic technology is improving in leaps and bounds making roof top solar options much more efficient and cost effective.  There are degraded private lands where projects could be built.  The environmental review for the Ivanpah power plant was rushed propelled by $1.4 billion of stimulus funding (i.e. taxpayers’ money) that will be made available if the project is shovel ready by fall 2010.  Western Watersheds Project has intervened in the licensing process and is keeping a close watch on this poorly located project.

The BLM and state agencies in California have both embarked on planning efforts to guide placement of new power plants.  Good planning should ensure that any needed energy plants are located on degraded lands and do not lead to further degradation of our fragile deserts.  Since the agencies don’t exactly have a stellar record in the planning arena, Western Watersheds Project is keeping a close watch on these processes too.

Dr. Michael J. Conner is WWP’s California Director.  He lives in Reseda, CA

This article appeared in the Watersheds Messenger – Spring 2010 – (Vol. XVII, No. 1)

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

People often ask me what I teach at Boise State University and the answer invariably engenders glazed eyes, looks of puzzlement, or long, breathy yawns. Environmental ethics and logic are, unfortunately, seen to be dull and superfluous by so many people. More importantly, this indifference often silently sanctions the careless destruction of public land habitats and ecosystems. As an educator, I try to tackle this indifference by uniting environmental ethics and activism in the minds of students. Moreover, I teach my students that effective activism cannot proceed without a philosophical understanding of its own ethical motives and goals.

This brings me to Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and WWP. One of more impressive aspects of WWP, in my opinion, is its explicit endorsement of Leopold’s land ethic. This ethic emerges time and time again in WWP’s successful endeavors to protect public land. I spend a fair amount of time in my environmental ethics course teaching Leopold’s land ethic, its logical implications, and how to apply it to real life cases. In my opinion, it is the only ethic that can ground an over-arching environmental ethic.

Last November when Jon Marvel spoke at BSU, students got to see how WWP utilizes this land ethic. For the first time, many learned about the destruction, collusion, and hypocrisy surrounding public land management. Public lands suffer widespread destruction, in part, due to the common, but false assumption that the land and its inhabitants have only economic value. Leopold opposed this assumption stridently in his defense of the land ethic. With the help of Marvel’s presentation, I was able to bring home to students how important it is to have a land ethic that requires that we respect nature for its intrinsic, non-economic value. The final upshot of his presentation was that students experienced the coalescence of philosophical theory and environmental activism first-hand.

I look forward to Jon’s return to BSU next fall for the endangered species and public lands colloquium. I hope to recreate this learning experience for a new group of students and hopefully replace some of their indifference with a genuine respect for the land and all of nature.

******************

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”
-Aldo Leopold Thinking Like a Mountain

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is considered the father of wildlife ecology. He is best known for his book, A Sand County Almanac. The Almanac reflects a lifetime of observation and thought. It led to a philosophy for discovering what it means to live in harmony with the land.

The roots of Leopold’s concept of a “land ethic” can be traced to his birthplace on Mississippi River in Iowa. As a youngster, he developed an appreciation in the natural world from countless hours of adventure in the woods, prairies, and river backwaters of a relatively wild Iowa. His passion and skills in observation and writing lead him to a degree in forestry.

Leopold joined the Forest Service in the Arizona Territories. Here he began to see the land as an organism and developed the concept of community. This concept became the foundation for his later work. In 1924, he accepted a transfer to the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory where he served as associate director, and began teaching at the University of Wisconsin in 1928.

Credited as the father of wildlife ecology, Leopold’s book Game Management (1933) defined the skills and techniques for managing and restoring wildlife. Soon after its publication, the University of Wisconsin created the Department of Game Management and appointed Leopold as its first chair.

In 1935, the Leopold family purchased a worn-out farm near Baraboo, in an area known as the sand counties. It is here Leopold put into action his beliefs that the tools people used to disrupt the landscape could be used to rebuild it. It was here Leopold visualized what was to become his most influential work, A Sand County Almanac.

Erin Anchustegui teaches philosophy at BSU. She has a Ph. D in philosophy and does research in environmental ethics relating specifically to the works of Aldo Leopold.

This article appeared in the Watersheds Messenger – Summer 2005 – (Vol. XII, No. 2)

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

"Judith", Phantom Hill wolf © Lynne Stone 2009

by Roy Heberger

Before my retirement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in July 2000, I directed the wolf recovery program in Idaho. The work was the most rewarding, challenging, frustrating and stressful experience of my 33 years with the FWS.

To work closely with members and staff of the Nez Perce tribe was a fulfilling experience for me personally and professionally. I will always look back on my time working with the tribe with a certain degree of awe.

The participation of the Nez Perce’ in wolf recovery is the first documented case of a Native American people playing a key role in the recovery of a federally listed threatened or endangered species. The wolf holds spiritual importance to the Nez Perce, and the role of technical staff in wolf recovery efforts has been a key to the success of the program.

To meet people from all walks of life and of every political persuasion, lifestyle and viewpoint on wolves and wolf recovery gave me the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. There are more than two sides to the wolf issue. This became apparent from the exposure I had to various groups and individuals, from people who hated wolves to their core to those who revered them from their spiritual center. And there were a lot of folks and organizations in between.

I met Constitutionalists, secessionists, private property advocates, “wolf wackos” on the extremes, dedicated and effective pro- and anti-wolf advocates, ineffective people on the extremes, informed people, uninformed people, people who were mad, glad and sad, concerned people, disinterested people, apathetic people and scary people.

I am gratified that I had the chance to meet most of these folks, but also frustrated to a degree. The challenge was always there to make the program succeed, and biologically there is no question that it has in Idaho. Sociologically, we still have a long way to go. Change comes very slowly where people’s attitudes are concerned.

I don’t believe I ever tried to persuade a person to change his or her opinions or beliefs about wolves. For the most part I think this approach would have been futile. But I did try to present the facts about wolves and the recovery program at every opportunity. I tried to explain what scientific inquiry had contributed to our knowledge of wolves to date.

Something that tore me up inside was seeing good people so firmly believe that wolves would cause them physical harm. They were absolutely beside themselves with worry. The FWS had information and advice, but who was I – a not-to-be trusted federal employee – to calm those fears? I relied on the evidence. There is no documented case of a healthy, wild wolf ever attacking a human in North America.

I also met people who saw wolves as something almost mythical, beyond reality – my reality anyway. I’m talking non-aboriginal folks here. They are the people, who, when wolves have fully recovered, will be very upset to see state wildlife agencies treat the animals like any other form of wildlife: game, fur bearer or predator. Some element of population control is likely to involve harvest. I’m limited, I suppose – a biologist by training and experience. I can’t get to the mythical aspect of wolves, but that’s OK too.

To see real accomplishment in the recovery of wolves in Idaho was perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the program for me. I spent my career with FWS and feel firmly that we need to maintain wild habitats, natural communities, wild populations and species diversity to retain the delicate balance required for ecosystem stability. We don’t yet know the half of it ecologically. So we’d best tread lightly.

Idaho wolves - click to zoom - © Lynne K Stone 2008

I loved my job with FWS until my last day of employment. So why did I retire at age 55? I simply had other things to do in this life before I arrived at “old age” – whatever that is.

I’m now enjoying other activities but manage to stay involved in wolf recovery and other facets of environmental activism, preservation and conservation of our natural environment. Wolf recovery was a very nice way to end a career. I am grateful to the FWS for the opportunities it gave me.

What’s next? I have many boats to build, flies to tie and places to see and experience. But I will always remain passionate about wolf recovery. I hope my grandchildren, while camping and backpacking with their families, will someday experience the howl of a wolf in Idaho’s great outdoors.

Roy Heberger, former coordinator of the wolf recovery program in Idaho, holds degrees in fisheries and aquatic ecology from the University of Michigan. Twenty-one of his 33 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were spent in the Boise office of the agency. He continues to live in Boise, Idaho.

This article appeared in the Watersheds Messenger – Spring 2002 – (Vol. IX, No. 1)

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

Those of us who care about public lands’ ranching tend to think about the ecological costs of livestock on the landscape: ruined streams, trampled and compacted soils, and degraded vegetation communities. Many of us care deeply about the impacts of cows on wildlife habitats and worry about the permanent damage that this powerful special interest group inflicts on our publicly-owned forests, deserts, and grasslands.

Thinking about these things in terms of the economics is just as frustrating. From grazing fees to fat cows, the balance is constantly tipping towards the side of the cowboys.

In 2008, the cost to graze a cow and her calf on public lands in the West was just $1.35 per pair, per month, an amount of forage known as an “AUM.” This year’s fee per AUM is as low as it can go under the Public Rangelands Improvement Act (PRIA) and the Executive Order which extended its authority in 1994. It is well-known that the fee doesn’t even come close to covering the costs associated with the federal grazing program and even the government’s own estimates see red. However, the fee is set by a convoluted and unfair formula, and the agencies seem to be determined to give away “forage” to livestock producers in spite of the funding shortfall. Western Watersheds Project has already joined other conservation groups in asking for a revision in the formula itself, so far with no response from the agencies.

USDA Cattle Average Live Weight Increase - 1984 to 2004

This year, we figured out exactly how little the fee costs. Since the AUM was based on a 1000 lb. cow, looking at the average cattle weight showed a significant discrepancy. Unlike cows of yesteryear when the AUM was determined, today’s cows weigh a whopping 1242 lbs, and increase of 23 percent. Calves are not counted and their forage consumption is significant. When both cow and calf are accounted for, the forage consumption value used by the Forest Service and BLM understates the actual current amount by over 40%. This means that carrying capacities based on traditional AUM calculations are insufficient to estimate the amount of forage each contemporary cow-calf pair is consuming. It also means that public lands ranchers are not paying for the full amount of vegetation that their fat cows (and sheep!) are eating.

We’re taking this discrepancy and fiscal irresponsibility forward to land managers across the West, challenging them to adjust their stocking rates to reflect the bigger livestock being put out on public lands. So far, every forest supervisor in 13 western states has received a detailed report advising them of the carrying capacity adjustments that need to be done.

Inflation Adjusted Grazing Gee - 1980 to Present

It isn’t just the AUM whose value is out of balance with the times. The value of a dollar has decreased with inflation, the same inflation that affects everyone’s wallets. The $1.35 fee of 2008 is worth about $0.54 compared with 1980. Just to keep up with inflation, the fee today would have to be $5.94. Public lands ranching may be the only business in the country whose basic operating costs have gone down. And we’re not even counting the endless subsidies, grants, and programs designed to prop up this dying industry.

For those of us who care about the ecological effects, the fiscal value is just insult added to injury. But since most Americans know and care more about good economic sense, we’re hoping that we can expose more of the inequities in the federal lands program and really get people interested in the value of their public lands.

Greta Anderson is WWP’s Arizona Director.  She lives in Tucson.

Dr. John Carter is WWP’s Utah Director.

Check out WWP’s archive of our semi-annual publication, the Watersheds Messenger

Ironwood trees are lovely in bloom. Does this look like good grazing land to you?

This 129,000 acre gem is located northwest of Tucson, Arizona and provides an important patch of unfragmented habitat for Sonoran desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, and the Tucson shovel-nosed snake. It is one of the only places where Nichols Turk’s Head cactus grows on public lands.

Sounds pretty special, right?

We think so too, and we’ve been urging the BLM to protect this place from the adverse affects of livestock grazing. We’ve been protesting proposed decisions to renew grazing permits on the Ironwood Forest National Monument because the BLM needs to complete a Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the monument before reissuing ten-year permits.

Ironwood Forest National Monument

View Ironwood Forest National Monument in a larger map

The forthcoming RMP should analyze whether the current levels of livestock grazing are appropriate, given the scant actual use on most of the allotments. However, even the low levels of use have caused long-term damage, from impaired understory development to eroded soils to, most worrisome, the spread of buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) Buffelgrass is one of the leading threats to the Sonoran Desert ecosystem because it increases the flammability of the desert, literally boiling saguaros to death in intense fires.

The BLM recognizes this threat and is spending thousands to remove buffelgrass from the monument. Hundreds of volunteers have toiled to remove this pest. Unfortunately, where livestock graze, the plant comes right back, more densely and perniciously than before.

What the volunteers removeth, the cows giveth right back.

WWP will be working hard to fight any plan that allows this deleterious land use to continue. To get involved, contact Arizona@westernwatersheds.org or contact the BLM’s Tucson Field Office to be kept apprised of resource management planning. The RMP is expected out in Summer 2010, followed by a short protest period.

Read the Ironwood Forest National Monument Proclamation