GRASSLANDS CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF B.C. award,
BEYOND BAFFLING
In July 2014 the GCC made an award to Doug & Erika Fossen for
"demonstrated excellence in grassland stewardship" http://lifeonabccattleranch.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/grasslands.pdf
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| cheat grass & knapweed dominated pasture |
The GCC which is supposedly dedicated to the protection and enhancement
of native grasslands has badly damaged its credibility with the above award.
We note that the current chair of the GCC (as has been the case in
recent years) is a rancher and also a past president of BC Cattlemen’s Association.
Ms Jackson and another former GCC director were quoted last year as follows:
"to feed one cow for a month costs $125.00, and the answer is a longer
grazing season."
We presume their proposal is to extend grazing on already damaged
grasslands while paying approx.. $2.00 per month for an AUM (animal unit month
usually a cow & calf pair) while the other costs are externalized to public
cost. To give some comparison, rancher provided figures for grazing on private
land are between $15 to $30 per month (AUM). It would cost the rest of us us
more than $ 2.00 per month to feed a pet rodent.
Compounding the absurdity of the award are complaints by Mr
Fossen to the Western Producer of competition from exploding populations of
deer and elk and suggestions that declining
forage has forced wildlife to move more into grasslands and riparian areas. Mr
Fossen complains that lessees cannot turn cattle out until the grass is ready
and that it is difficult for ranchers to assess when the grass is ready when
wildlife are grazing it down.
Any non-rancher in this area (except some town dwellers and
a few ranchers, but there's another story there that doesn't reflect well on
cattle grazing) would know that wildlife populations have declined over the
past 20 years and more, and blaming wildlife for delaying grass readiness for
cattle, is an absurdity. Many factors
affect grass emergence in spring but the primarily natural ones are the
variables of moisture and temperature. It is evident that private ungrazed
lands adjacent to the Range Unit show significantly better growth and variety
of desirable plant communities, than the range area. These contrasts are
evident before the annual arrival of
range cows. Clearly soil compaction, overgrazing, poor grazing timing, poor
oversight or some combination of these factors is making the significant difference
between range and private land. While Mr Fossen and many other ranchers blame
forest ingrowth and wildlife for degraded and poor pastures, they and the responsible
ministry need to address the major cause, cattle grazing itself.
A so called Ecosystem Restoration project in the Johnstone
Creek pasture began two years ago. The project has spent several hundred
thousand dollars sourcing a variety of public funds, to primarily benefit range
cattle grazing on public land where the annual rental fee has been around
$160.00 or less. While Government claims that this project is primarily to
benefit wildlife and obtained the majority of funding from the BC Habitat
Conservation Fund, the reality is a project of primary benefit to cattle
grazing which doesn't meet the mandate of HCF or the expectations of the
hunter/fishers whose fees on licences, form the bulk of HCF funding.
It is more than unfortunate and a great cost to the public,
that ranchers complaints about declining forage and wildlife effects, are
accepted as guiding principles by MFLNRO while the primary causal effects of
cow grazing on the degraded resource are largely ignored. It is more than time
for change.
More detail and pics available
in the extended version on the Boundary Alliance website:
