by Tom Gaman April 2007
"I am, in this order, a god fearing man, a Christian, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a rancher". So spoke Bruce Hafenfeld, President of the California Cattlemen's Association, who went on to describe his love for his land, his family history on the ranch, the biodiversity embraced by that place, and its threatened future. Of 18 million acres of California rangeland projections are that 2.6 million will be lost to urban development in the next 30 years. The Cattlemen’s Association is moving forward with an urgent conservation agenda that unites farm and environmental groups as California Rangeland Conservation Coalition.
Modern farmers have come to look at the land differently in a changing California. The economic engine created by a rapidly growing urban population, changing times and urban prosperity has removed people from the land and threatens the survival of family farms. Here in West Marin MALT and the National Park Service have worked for over a quarter of a century to forge alliances among ranchers and environmentalists. Thanks to the efforts of local activists, Peter Behr and Ellen Strauss among them, there are agricultural easements on 35,000 acres here and we have largely escaped the wave of rural development sweeping over California. In 2007 the Cattlemen's Association, supported by its membership, 30 environmental groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and other state, county and federal agencies, is making its highest priority goal an effort to preserve open space and endangered habitats on 28 million acres of California’s dry land agriculture. These lands extend from Mount Shasta and Lassen County as far south as Santa Barbara and Lake Isabella.
The sustainable agriculture stool has 3 legs. Ranches must be ecologically, economically viable and practices must be sociologically acceptable.
Rangelands typically are beset with ecological problems. I was in Sacramento at the California Rangeland Summit on January 9 searching for methods to regenerate and restore oak woodlands, which have largely failed to reproduce for 150 years. Shallow rooted annual grass species introduced from Europe almost 2 centuries ago have become naturalized everywhere. They have displaced native bunchgrasses, reduced soil moisture in the summer and autumn landscape and shifted the ecological balance. Riparian corridors have dried up and the result is reduced habitat for flora and fauna—including oaks.
A basic reality of rangeland management in California is that these annual grasses and altered ecosystems are here to stay. At the Rangeland Summit, research was presented to show that endangered species and biodiversity protection are not necessarily incompatible with light or moderate grazing. Barbara Allen-Diaz, a respected UC Berkeley researcher, has spent 15 years studying hydrologic impacts of cattle grazing on woodlands and rangelands. Her research shows that there is no decline in overall numbers of species, or increase in nitrogen runoff as a result of managed grazing. Jaymee Marty, a Nature Conservancy researcher who studies vernal pools in the Sacramento Valley, even contends that “grazing plays a critical role in maintaining hydrologic sustainability for endangered species”. Her study shows that vernal pools actually have undiminished biodiversity with light to moderate grazing, and that standing water lasts 50 days longer into the dry season. This enables those pools to become habitat for aquatic species. Marty suspects that as they graze, and remove the ultra-competitive naturalized annual grasses that dominate our rangelands, cattle are actually helping to slow the seasonal loss of soil moisture. Annual grass removal also enhances the relative competitive access of some native plants (which are less palatable to cattle) to their intended habitat.
There are many modern tools that help communities protect diverse natural places while adding to the returns that agriculture provides for the California ranch economy. Techniques for stock pond management can improve endangered species habitat for red-legged frogs and tiger salamanders. Certain grassland management/grazing strategies can reduce invasives such as star thistle, medusahead and goat grass while also providing better habitat for California ground squirrels, which are the number one golden eagle prey. New methane digesters reduce both farm emissions and energy consumption. A variety of approaches to riparian protection restore water quality, stream structure and watershed ecological values.
Government is trying to help. Conservation incentives are funded throughout the forthcoming 2007 Farm Bill. There are safe harbor agreements, conservation easements, tax incentives, facilitated permitting procedures, regulatory relief, public financial support and free conservation assistance available for private ranchers. However, ranchers and the environmental community have not always shared a harmonious relationship. “What we really need to do is to be working together” according to Mike Chrisman, California’s Secretary of Resources. “It is time to focus on what is ahead of us. (We must) face the demands of urbanization and exotic plants, valuing rangelands as working landscapes. Voters in California have been very generous in passing Proposition 84 for (among other goals) oak woodland and rangeland conservation.”
According to cattleman Hafenfeld, the ranch community is committed. “I guarantee that we will offer our staff to work with (the environmental community) to get this thing done”.
Tom Gaman is a forester and oak woodlands ecologist living in Inverness. His email is tgaman@forestdata.com