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Show Page 2 May, 1970 UTAH FARM BUREAU Life Begins Each Spring ECOLOGY NOW! When Winter is finally over, a peculiar thing happens to the human organism. Ball gloves and bats come out of storage and kids begin to get up sandlot ball games. (Funny, with all the popularity of rioting and some of the other new sports, kids still like baseball.) Some of the menfolk get a funny twinge in the elbow that can only be cured by exercising the arm on a fly rod. Women, almost universally get the urge to dean, scrub, dust or paint everything in sight. (Usually, however, it's a nearby man who handles the painting and other heavy chores in this Spring ritual.) Even though our past winter wasn't really hard - - it more or less followed the prediction in the Farmer's Almanac? that of ups and downs on the thermometer, we find ourselves looking wistfully out at the sunny weather, the new leaves and the promise of another bountiful growing season. the midst of heavy problems, we're reminded that life somehow goes on with us or without us. Even though fruit growers have been clobbered again; even though the wages for beet workers are up again; and in spite of all the other trials and tribulations, we find men in the fields almost as soon as it's dry enough. Either farmers are painfully stupid or eternally optimistic. And of course,it's optimism. On a lovely Spring day, when the sun begins to warm the earth in earnest and the blossoms fill the air with their perfume, and birds and insects add orchestration to the whole wonderful scene, how can anyone doubt the promise of new life? And then, in spit of dwindling profits, in spite of falling prices and rising interest rates, a man's heart turns to the earth. You feel like putting your fingEven in The other day as I was driving down the main street of our capital city, I saw a Volkswagen with an interesting decal In the rear window. The main part was one of those peace symbols you know, the circle with a turkey track In it that started as the British Ban the Bomb symbol. Behind the outline of the symbol was an American flag and below the symbol the wrods, Ecology Now. This Is an interesting demand. Actually, we have ecology now since ecology is the branch of biology that deals with relationship between living organisms and their envlroment. But I know that the man who designed that symbol and the slogan didnt mean ecology now In the literal sense. He meant a healthy and stable relationship between mans technology and his natural environment NOW! A few years back an ecologist wouldnt have even rated an appearance on Whats My Line? You'd have probably thought of an ecologist (If you'd ever heard of one) as a musty little man with thick glasses. Now ecology Is the new glamour field of the sciences. The headlong rush into ecology has been Impressive. All sorts of scientists who were known as almost anything else a year ago, are now known as ecologists. Our own state university In Logan has not been lax In applying the term to various and sundry staffers, lest anyone think that they were unconcerned about the rapid destruction of the environment.' The sudden movement toward the goals of clean air, clean water, and protected wildlife, has created some rather strange bedfellows. Conservationists who have long been working toward some of these goals, are not quite certain how they should react to their newly found long-harl- allies complete with demands of ecology now! desirable it Is to meet these goals, it wont be done immediately. It will take time, no matter who wants It or how Regardless of how loudly they protest. When it comes to the question of motivation on the part of those requesting Immediate purification of the environment, it might be well to raise some questions. First, is it possible that those who are openely hostile to some segments of American industry, would welcome the economic hardship engendered by immediate compliance with stringent air quality standards, or similar water quality standards? Secondly, does, any industry stand to receive more damage from air and water pollution than agriculture? The effects of polluted air on crops, and the effects of polluted water on both crops and livestock are well documented, yet you see few farmers carrying signs or protesting in public squares. I'm certain that farmers can be counted as committed to the goals of a clean environment, yet Im also sure that theyre willing to proceed at an orderly, steady pace toward that goal. ers in it, sniffing it and speculating about yields. And that's when farming stops being a business like manufacturing cheese knives or knitting needles. For just a few brief moments or days or seconds, farming stops being a business and becomes the creation of life. Even the soil is alive! It's full of tiny forms of life, along with the precious nutrients than can. erect a green, living plant from a tiny seed.. Before long the wistful romanticism of Spring will be gone and farming will be just plain, hard work again. But it's good to reflect for awhile on the promise of new life that comes each and every Spring. Utah FB To Assist In GrazingfromStudy (Continued Page 1) Jerold Johnson, Sevier County FB president, and UFB board member from District Six, Is chairman of a Utah Farm Bureau committee assigned to coordinate the Utah portion of the project and raise approximately $4,000 as the states portion of the total cost of the project. Aslo serving on the committee are Ned Madsen, president of the Utah Cattlemens Association; and Lee Barton, president of the Utah gressional action to establish a new grazing fee formula recognizing all costs of range operations, Johnson said, There is also a need to develop Information to counter statements by certain groups who see grazing as detrimental to the environment and are calling for grazing to be reduced or entirely prohibited on public lands. Neil Sumsion, the staff specialist who has been assigned to assist the committee in its functions pointed out that Congress in 1964 passed a law establishing a Public Land Law Review Commission and appropriating to It $7 million to study the entire subject of public land use including grazing fees. At the time the law was passed, from discussions In Congress and comments In the Mr. Johnson points out that ex- news It was believed that It was tensive research has been done the Intention of Congress that all over the years on various public agencies administering Federal land problems by western unlver-sltlei- s. land withhold changes in fees and What the Farm Bureau other policies until the Comstudy will do Is to select and mission had completed its studies summarize the usable facts as and reported Its findings. The Commission study results will be well as to single out areas needing supplemental research and released on June 30 of this year. work through universities to obHowever, Sumsion notes, on tain the necessary research In November 15, 1968, the lame duck Secretaries of Agriculture and the these areas. There Is a real need for simple, Interior announced Increases In factual economic programs to Im- livestock grazing fees on public lands. In the announcement, Secprove public understanding and enand Freeman and Udall said retaries both ranch the of aid list non-ran- ch had con conducted In their own stud they getting people Wool-growe- rs. ies which substantiated the Increases. Among other things ignored by the two Secretaries, the announced fee increases didnt consider or assign any values to grazing permits, yet each rancher must have one In order to graze on public lands. And 90 to 95 of all existing permits were purchased by the current owners. When the costs of purchasing these permits are Included , it is found that the new schedule of increased grazing fees is actually higher than costs of grazing on compaable private lands.! Mr. Johnson added that, It also appears that from the economic studies already available, that the Increase In grazing fees Is having a detrimental effect on local economics In public land areas. Howhe stressed, a lot more ever, research is needed to fully docu- ment these effects. Once the study is completed, the facts will be used in a public Information campaign to offset the movement, and to build support for a more realistic grazing fee formula. The total cost of the study Is expected to amount to more than $50,000, of which the Farm Bureaus will be antl-grazl- ng expected to raise $25,000, the remainder to be matched by the institutions Involved in the ed UTAH FARM BUREAU (PI NEWS Published each month by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation at Salt Lake Salt Lake City, Utah. Editorial and Business Office, 629 East Fourth South, e cents per year to memCity, Utah, 84102. Subscription price of twenty-fivclass matter March second Entered as fee. bers is included in membership the act of March under Utah Lake Salt Office the at at Post City, 24, 1948 1879. 3, UTAH FARM BUREAU FEDERATION OFFICIALS President Elmo W. Hamilton, Riverton Vice President S. Jay Child, Cleafield Chairman, Farm Bureau Women Mrs. Willis Whitbeck, Bennion Executive Secretary V. Allen Olsen Kenneth J. Rice Editor DIRECTORS District One: A. Alton Hoffman; District Two, William Holmes; District Three: Jack Brown; District Four: Ed Boyer, District Five: Ken Brasher; District Six: Jerold Johnson; District Seven: Richard Nelson. |