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Show THE ZEPHYR/JUNE-JULY 2003 innovative ideas.” Amost 150 people came, about half of them ranchers. The URC didn’t get much attendance from environmental groups, but at least, Roger said, "we’ve got a member of the Sierra Club sits.on our board,.and it’s been really good to have him." They talked about New Ranch methods, community partnerships, and grazing as a tool to revitalize local mine sites. "It was wonderful,” Barton recalled. But he’s looking to work even more specifically with local ecosystems. "I still keep in close contact with Courtney White, but I decided it was time to wean myself from [the Quivira Coalition] a little, work out our own thing up here. We’re kind of riding on their coattails. Where they have successes, we'll try the same thing, and where they fail, we'll avoid that." There’s a smorgasbord of new practices to sample, aside from New Ranch. Ranchers are going organic, natural (no additives), grass-fed, and “wolf-friendly" (no predator killing). Meat couldn’t legally be labeled “organic” until 1999, and permanent organic standards for meat didn’t go into effect until late last year. Organic ranching has surged. More than fifteen thousand certified organic beef cows roamed 27 states by 2001 (Economic Research Service, USDA AIB-780). The number of sheep and lambs raised organically has increased fivefold in five years. More than a million acres of pasture were certified organic by 2001, concentrated in Texas, Colorado and Montana. Ranchers are stubborn about staying on the land, but family ranchers have to be flexible to make it pay. They're diversifying income with grants to protect open space, water resources, or sensitive species. Some earn the bulk of their income through guest operations and hunting, fishing, and hiking clubs. They’re niche-marketing to chef’s collaboratives, farmer's markets, and natural food stores. Some collaboratives have trademarks with endorsements from groups like the Nature Conservancy. Even notorious predator-control practices are changing. To cut predator losses, some ranchers are increasing herding or bonding cows and sheep with each other and with guard dogs. Duke Phillips described predator control methods for his Beefmaster Cattle, a variety raised to match its environment: if a cow loses her calf to a coyote, he culls the cow. Ranchers have lower-impact options for improving the vitality of their range. Speakers at the Quivira Coalition’s annual conference shared success stories, all big on elbow grease and small on diesel. Some were even accomplished with volunteers from environmental groups. RANCHERS ARE STUBBORN ABOUT STAYING ON THE LAND, BUT FAMILY RANCHERS HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE TO MAKE IT PAY. The place I walked was recently sparsely occupied, beautiful desert; it had been transformed into this inhumane, inanimate place step by preventable step, purchase by purchase. Much rural land has also lost liveliness, with bare ground, disappearing streams, and scattershot development. Looking at the way we live, I wonder how much any of us really values land. Maybe we just say we love the land to lay claim to it or justify frivolous fighting. Or maybe we have potential to live up to our love. If we want to fit ourselves and our farms and ranches into western ecosystems, we're ' going to have to look at the ground together for once, develop that common language, imagine ourselves here, with each other in this place, forever. We'll have to risk it, like that cowboy did on the last day of the conference, and talk with people who don't think, talk, or, god forbid, dress like us. We need fewer hats and more heads involved. Ann Wendland lives in Tucson, Arizona. An Invitation to Join the Radical Center For more than thirty years, environmentalists and ranchers have fought over the heart of the American West--the wide open spaces that stretch from our cities to the "purple mountain majesties" we sang of in school. The combatants have fought long and hard, but as their struggle over the working landscapes of the West drew in citizens, agency officials, attorneys and judges, one consequence is clear: millions of acres of the West's open spaces and biologically rich lands were broken by development:. There have been other unintended consequences. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials who once physically managed our purple mountain majesties now mostly manage mountains of paper. Endangered species hang on by claw or beak despite hundreds of lawsuits. Rural towns simply hang on. Meanwhile, human communities divide into factions. Most tragically, the stewards of working landscapes are surrendering their lands at unprecedented rates to the pressure that tears the quilt of nature into rags. Perhaps the fight had to happen. The West's grasslands and streams and wildlife were already in trouble from a century or more of hard use when this fight was joined. The nation had to debate the use of 420,000 square miles of grazed public land across eleven states. But the fight has gone on far too long. In recent years, the American West has witnessed tremendous positive changes, including the rise of models of sustainable use of public and private lands; the shift of conservation and scientific strategies from ‘protection’ alone to include restoration; and the expanding role of cooperative efforts to move beyond resource conflicts. As a consequence of these crises and trends we believe it is time to cease hostilities and enter a new era of cooperation. Speaker Bill Zeedyk encouraged, "there’s lots of opportunities to .restore the land relatively cheaply if you pay attention to ecology and hydrology." For $700, he’d raised a culvert thirty inches to rewet 25 acres of historic wetland. He’d restored curves to bulldozed creeks with loose, one-rock-high dams and sticks driven into incipient point bars to catch flood debris. Sherri Tippie showed how to rewet wetlands by reintroducing beavers, which she did for the first few years by carrying them in her arms and the back of her Honda. Lanni Malmberg, "the gypsy goat lady," showed how her cashmere goats routed tamarisk stands and swaths of weeds that herbicides couldn’t touch. Better yet, her tightly herded goats left behind fertilizer and tilled dirt for the native seeds Lanni planted. Tony and Jerrie Tipton used the same method, called “poop and stomp,” to revitalize mine tailings and leach pits, scattering good hay over the hardpan to keep their cows moving. Can these methods maintain the integrity and stability of the biotic system? We'll find out, if the land stays in production. White sees hope in the results at Jornada Experimental Range and several demonstration projects. But he admits, "The research isn’t really there yet." His words move me---on a topic dominated by people who are 100% right 100% of the time, it’s a pleasure to hear some uncertainty. We believe that how we inhabit and use the West today will determine the West we pass on to our children tomorrow; that preserving the biological diversity of working landscapes requires active stewardship; and that under current conditions the stewards of those lands are compensated for only a fraction of the values their stewardship provides. We know that poor management has damaged land in the past and in some areas continues to do so, but we also believe appropriate ranching practices can restore land to health. We believe that some lands should not be grazed by livestock; but also that much of the West can be grazed in an ecologically sound manner. We know that management practices have changed in recent years, ecological sciences have generated new and valuable tools for assessing and improving land, and new models of sustainable use of land have proved their worth. : Finally, we believe that the people of the West must halt the further conversion of working landscapes to uses that destroy this wellspring of ecological, aesthetic, and cultural richness that is celebrated around the world. Time is short. The cost of delay is further irrevocable loss. We therefore reject the acrimony of past decades that has dominated debate over livestock grazing on public lands, for it has yielded little but hard feelings among people who are united by their common love of land and who should be natural allies. And we pledge our efforts to form the ‘Radical Center’ where: The ranching community accepts and aspires to a progressively higher standard of Ranchers have a lot in common with environmentalists; the lines between us have blurred. We love open space and animals and...we all want the same land. Speaker and C.S.U. scientist Rick Knight detailed the characteristics of prime ranchland: access to large areas of public land, perennial streams, and habitat and plant diversity-the same characteristics that define outstanding wildlife corridor potential. Add nearby cities or airstrips, and you've got the characteristics that define prime real estate. In times like these, when nonprofits are going through terrible hardship and the government seems decidedly cool toward public input, it’s tempting for environmentalists to settle back into pure litigation. But perhaps it’s-a triumph of democracy to keep blurring the lines. Wouldn’t it be fun if the next time a government administration cut public input short, those who stood to benefit said, "Sorry, but we don’t work that way. We're happy . to listen.” Well, we can dream. And here’s a kiss to build the dream on: the Quivira Coalition’s "Invitation to Join the Radical Center" (printed on this page). : The first two-thirds of the “Invitation” portray the West in a disaster state due to polarized politics, unchecked development, poor land management, and bad ranching. Given that better ranch methods are available, the invitation itself follows: "As a consequence of these crises and trends we believe it is time to cease hostilities and enter a new era of cooperation." Ihave just one bone to pick. Seven more belief statements follow the invitation sentence, broken only by “we know" statements. Why believe? Why not think? We have no ground, at this point, to claim certainty. Why not say, "We think that much of the West can be grazed in an ecologically sound manner'---and then set ourselves to finding out if it’s true. It’s an intriguing invitation. If they have the bravery to accept their own challenge, this unlikely group of ranchers could lead us toa new way of thinking and talking in the West, or, better yet, inspire a diaspora of local collaboratives focused on local ecosystems. During the conference, I got irate over some comment and stepped out for some fresh air. I got a dose of reality instead. I can’t even remember the names of the businesses | walked by---Cost-Plus or Cost-Cutters or Costco? Denny’s or Furr’s or Luby’s? Sunshine glared off freeway embankments, drowned in the smoke of frontage traffic. Apparently no one walked here-drivers honked and stared at me. environmental performance; The environmental community works constructively with the people who occupy and use the lands it would protect; The personnel of federal and state land management agencies focus not on the defense of procedure but on the production of tangible results; The research community strives to make ae its work more Saved relevant ‘to broader constituencies; The land grant colleges return to their original charters, conducting and disseminating information in ways that benefit local landscapes and the communities that depend on them; The consumer buys food that strengthens the bond between their own health and the health of the land; The public recognizes and rewards those who maintain and improve the health of all land; and--All participants learn better how to share both authority and responsibility. As the ranks of the Radical Center swell with those who are committed to these goals, the promise increases that "America the Beautiful" may become an image of the future as well as of the past and, with the grace of good fortune, the West may finally create what Wallace Stegner called "a society to match its scenery." In the expectation that we face a better future for the West we hereby sign our names and invite others to add their own: Michael Bean, conservationist, Environmental Defense, Jim Brown, ecologist, University of New Mexico, Bob Budd, manager of the Red Canyon Ranch for The Nature Conservancy, Bill deBuys, author and conservationist, director of the Valles Grande Grass Bank, Kris Havstad, Supervisory Scientist at the USDA ARS/Jornada Experimental Range, Paul Johnson, farmer, former chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Teresa Jordan, author, Daniel Kemmis, Center for the Rocky Mountain West, Rick Knight, professor of wildlife biology, Colorado State University, Merle Lefkoff, mediator, Bill McDonald, rancher and Executive Director of the Malpai, Borderlands Group, Guy McPherson, ecologist, University of Arizona, Ed Marston, journalist and former publisher of High Country News, Gary Paul Nabhan, author and ethnobotanist, Duke Phillips, rancher, Chico Basin Ranch, Nathan Sayre, anthropologist, Paul Starrs, professor of geography, University of Nevada-Reno, Bill Weeks, The Nature Conservancy, Courtney White, the Quivira Coalition PAGE 23 |