GILPIN GRASSLANDS SAGA: 2016 Edition

The sorry history of “range management” in the Gilpin continued in 2016.

For the complete story see extended article at:     http://www.boundaryalliance.org/gilpin_saga2016.pdf

 The video below tells part of the tale, and if your devices and download speed allow, the video is viewable at up to 1920 x 1080 high definition.

Drone views provide a new perspective.

In 2016 we saw repeats of earlier issues plus some new ones.

• Range cattle invading, damaging, and  contaminating parkland, and a protected area at Gilpin Creek.
• New wildlife unfriendly fencing installed in the Gilpin.
• Flooding of Lost Lake area by tenure holder or agents through failure to set up cattle waterer.
• Will the tenure holder do the right thing in 2017 to prevent damage? Will Range Branch, MFLNRO, ensure it?
• Cattle grazing on public land makes no economic or ecological sense

For previous articles on problems in the Gilpin and on range cattle issues see www.boundaryalliance.org

and the page  http://www.boundaryalliance.org/ba_008.htm

LOST LAKE REVISITED

At the end of April 2014 a group of public minded citizens replaced a section of fence around Lost Lake in the Gilpin Grasslands to better protect the area from off-road vehicles and range cow damage. The new fence was constructed as fully wildlife friendly fencing.

The Story on the new fencing was originally reported Nov 2014  at:    www.boundaryalliance.org/lostlake.pdf     

In spring 2015 Range Branch and Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resources (MFLNRO) and Ministry of Environment, installed signage and a seating bench at Lost Lake, some six years after their original fence construction.   The major message on that signage appears to have been prompted by the concerns raised in our original Nov 2014 article: see section on “Waterer Not Activated.”      
Incredibly the major message on the Governments new signage in 2015:  

1. tried to justify the original placement of the fence as bounding existing riparian vegetation.
2. introduced a long winded and misleading rationale for why there was no water in the waterer.

  Regarding (1) it became apparent over time that the older fence failed to protect existing riparian  vegetation which showed up outside that fence and also failed to provide any worthwhile setback from such vegetation. The original fence placement also did not prevent a throughway for off-road vehicles.  The new wildlife friendly fence installed by public minded citizens in 2014 fixed those problems.

 Regarding (2) the claim on the new signage blaming the City of Grand Forks for not providing water for the waterer, is contrary to what was claimed by MFLNRO in extended conversations with the writer  June 20 2014. See more detail on those discussions in our Nov 2014 article:

www.boundaryalliance.org/lostlake.pdf

Crucially however, the Government’s claim on the sign, that the City of Grand Forks would not provide water for the waterer, is according to the City of Grand Forks, not true.

 In addition to the misleading (or worse) information provided on the sign, the sign is placed looking down the length of the new fence installed in 2014 by volunteers. Viewers of the sign might expect that this new wildlife friendly fence was the work of Government. On the contrary, Range Branch and MFLNRO have resisted such installations despite public concerns and the advice of the Forest Practices Board. MFLNRO was in fact engaged in “investigating who was responsible” for the “unauthorized” new fence while placing this misleading signage that suggests it is their work.

In addition to the serial misrepresentations of the signage, it was installed together with a bench and sign celebrating off-road vehicle usage in the area. The scars on the land from such activities will be apparent in upcoming articles. We wonder if those supporting or sponsoring the signage including the Trails signage are fully aware of the damage done to public land by range-cattle and off road activities.

 

youtube video 3.14 min

if your devices and download speed allow, available at up to 1080 HD

 

 

Our November 2014 article on installation of the new wildlife friendly fence:

www.boundaryalliance.org/lostlake.pdf

made a number of complaints and suggestions regarding Government oversight of public resources and faulty installation of fences and waterers in the Gilpin Grasslands and elsewhere.

The misleading signage installed by Government in 2015 further demonstrates their lack of competence and inability to honestly deal with the damaging realities of Range use and oversight.

 

Extended pdf  version with additional pictures, background and  transcript of message on signage, available at:

www.boundaryalliance.org

 

Our Fencing Project on Nature Trust Land: Revisited

 

 As told in an earlier article July 2015:     http://www.boundaryalliance.org/naturetrust.pdf      

 A portion of damaged Nature Trust property in the Gilpin Grasslands has been fenced by volunteers to protect a spring and riparian area. This will be the first time since the property was acquired by Nature Trust in 1973, that this piece, approximately 6 acres, will be protected from range cows and off-roaders.

The fence was proposed at meetings of the Committee for the Enhancement of the Gilpin. Work began late 2014 and was completed June 2015.

Approximately 6 acres of Nature Trust land is now protected by wildlife friendly fencing as per recommendations of Montana State Wildlife Friendly Fencing Brochure. See details on www.dryrotjournal.blogspot.ca Lost Lake blog of Nov 2014.

For more on that story see the link above.

Volunteers returned to the newly fenced area Oct 2015 to remove the dysfunctional fence installed a few years earlier by Range Branch, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

That Range Branch fence deserves further comment as it was a non-wildlife friendly fence installed too close to a spring and seasonal flow to provide any worthwhile setback or protection from range cows. The Range Branch fence was constructed in a U shape, open at the North end where it was apparently assumed that dense brush would prevent cattle access. The assumption was wrong, cattle pushed into the supposed enclosure and having done so, exited through the wire, damaging the fence. The fence did not extend into the headwaters area of the spring which remained open to cattle damage. In order to construct that fence, Range Branch or designates felled numerous trees in the area and left them where they fell. That fence and the damage were done on Nature Trust property without permission or notice to Nature Trust.

Other examples of Range Branch’s work can be found in the Gilpin and elsewhere in the Boundary. Poorly planned, poorly executed, non-wildlife friendly fencing and fencing along the edge of riparian zones that are hazardous to wildlife. See more on that in our Nov 2014 article: http://www.boundaryalliance.org/lostlake.pdf

The following YouTube video shows the new fence construction and the take down of the older Range Branch dysfunctional fence.

 

 

 If your device and download speed allow, select up to 1080 high definition video.

 

 

 

It is our hope that this initiative will:

• Allow recovery of the Nature Trust Spring and surrounding area.

• Demonstrate improved natural values in the absence of cattle grazing and off-roading.

• Demonstrate the effectiveness of wildlife friendly fencing in the face of Range Branch’s reluctance to use same.

On the latter point we are less than optimistic. Range Branch has shown no ability or inclination to change their practices for the benefit of anything other than cattle grazing.

This article and video link are also available as a printable pdf at http://www.boundaryalliance.org