By Andy Duncan There is ranching through much of Oregon. This includes the beef cattle and dairy industries. But it's different in the higher, drier country east of the Cascades than on the rain-soaked lands of western Oregon. The reason isn't simply precipitation. In western Oregon, most of the livestock graze on private land. In eastern Oregon, many ranchers in the beef cattle industry lease federal property managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to augment their own land. When it comes to ranching and salmon, there are plenty of perspectives. They range as wide as the western landscape: "East of the Cascades, livestock grazing has had the greatest impact on salmon outside of the dams," says Bill Marlett, executive director of the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association. |
 Livestock can damage salmon habitat in several ways. Now ranchers have a statwide program to promote properly functioning watersheds. |
"I think we have grossly underestimated the impact on watersheds and water quality caused by livestock," he adds. "To restore habitat and water quality, we must phase out livestock grazing on our public lands. Because taxpayers subsidize livestock grazing on our public lands, this would have the added benefit of saving taxpayers millions of dollars. As it stands now, the public ends up 'paying' ranchers to maintain a lifestyle that destroys salmon habitat. On private land, ranchers must keep their cows out of the streams. That's just common sense and should be a basic cost of doing business."
Sharon Beck, president of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, looks at salmon and livestock very differently.
"We spend a lot of time trying to negate the misinformation people put out," says Beck, who ranches with her husband in Union County along the Grande Ronde River. "A lot of them don't have a clue about the land, the watersheds. They're never out there.
"What I'd like people to know about the ranchers of Oregon is that we're in this--clean water, good habitat for salmon--up to our eyebrows. It's our land these people are talking about. Many of us have been here for generations. The Oregon Cattlemen's Association is going to continue its programs like the WESt [Watershed Ecosystems Management] program that help people do a better job of promoting properly functioning natural systems. We're open to change, and we have our own kind of internal regulation. We don't support ranchers if they are abusing the land."
Boone Kauffman, a professor in Oregon State University's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, says "ranching doesn't impact salmon. Cows impact salmon." According to Kauffman, cattle and other livestock can:
- Graze vegetation and trample stream banks, which can change the shape
of the stream's channel, making it less suitable for salmon survival.
- Alter a stream's water quality through fecal inputs and sediment caused
by trampling.
- Make water warmer by eating or trampling plants that provide shade
and by altering plant life on uplands (land above a stream).
- Remove streamside vegetation that is an important source of nutrients for aquatic insects salmon feed on.
"The bottom line," he says, "is that in a good ecological system you can probably have some grazing. But in degraded systems it's tougher, especially where the salmon are just hanging on. If you ask the question, what's the most rapid way to recover an ecosystem, it's complete rest."
Bill Krueger, head of OSU's Department of Rangeland Resources, works with a lot of ranchers.
"People abusing their resources are probably detrimental to salmon," he says. "People trying to do a good job managing resources are probably neutral. People setting out to enhance salmon probably are.
"My attitude toward the whole salmon and grazing thing is that it's as much a discussion over paradigms as of science," says Krueger. "I think there is a group of people who say, 'what can we do to protect the earth from the evils of man,' instead of saying, 'what can we do to sustain our natural resources and at the same time help people make a living so they can pay taxes and support their families.'"
Generally, Oregon rangelands are improving, although "it's still bad" in some areas, asserts Ray Jaindl, who's in charge of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's natural resources division.
"Until about the 1940s, livestock numbers were very high, and a lot of the most severe damage was done between the 1890s and the 1930s," Jaindl says. "Ranchers are living with the legacy of the past. From what I've seen, many of today's ranchers are trying to do something positive.
"But it's difficult," he adds. "They can be doing all the right things and not meet the expectations of a lot of groups in, say, a five-year period. Many places in eastern Oregon are dry, and it may take 50 or 100 years."
Jim Myron, the conservation director of Oregon Trout, a native fish conservation group, says livestock still are causing some damage. Streamside areas, where livestock tend to congregate, are not recovering as quickly as upland areas, he asserts.
With dairy cattle, one of the major challenges is managing waste. Cows are brought into a confined space for milking. Many of their owners are installing special tanks to store manure until it can be used in an environmentally "friendly" manner.
With beef cattle, the challenge can be keeping them from congregating on their own in the wrong place. In eastern Oregon, many roam free in the spring, summer and fall. Bob Morse, who ranches near Troy in northeastern Oregon, says he's made changes on land he owns and land he leases from the government.
"The streams are not fish-bearing, but the water in them gets into streams with salmon," Morse says. "We've made a lot of changes--dozens of ponds, troughs and salt blocks that distribute cattle up away from the streams. It really works. We've done other things like putting in culverts so water doesn't run over roads and cause erosion."
"Ranching has been harmful," says Bill Bakke, head of the Oregon Native Fish Society. "But I think some ranchers have shown it doesn't have to be. Overall, I'm optimistic. Once people recognize their individual practices are harmful, they'll want to make changes."