Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
RANDOLPH, Utah. January 3, 2018. The BLM and Forest Service have signed the Three Creeks Grazing
Allotment Consolidation. This is a
program that has been seven years in the making, bringing local ranchers into
one grazing association to protect both grasslands and grazing permits. The grazing ranges will be used for shorter
periods of time to allow the grasses to regrow, allowing grazers to use them
longer.
Ten herds will be split into two herds which will pasture in
ten pastures; there will be more cattle but shorter grazing in each
pasture. Ranchers will have to move
herds every two weeks. Commissioner Norm
Weston said that his cattle are in the same kind of pastures and it has
increased his work load in the summer.
The Deseret News, December 26, 2017, reports “"Ranchers
are usually pretty independent-minded, but here we have 30-plus who have come
together with an ecological goal to improve the landscape. They all bought off
on it," said Troy Forrest, head of the grazing improvement program within
the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. "This higher level of
management will lead to improvements on the ground."
At issue are more than 135,000 acres chiefly owned and
managed by federal agencies in Rich County, where grazing has been an economic
mainstay since the 1800s.
Ranchers who graze their livestock on public lands, however,
are increasingly in the crosshairs of environmental groups that seek an end to
the practice by citing degraded landscapes.
This effort of rotational grazing at Three Creeks,
accompanied by monitoring of rangeland health, is modeled after the success of
the Deseret Land & Livestock Ranch 10 miles to the south in Woodruff.”
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