cow on grasslands
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Stuff you need to know, 3.2.23

“The feds crack down on feral cattle”
by Jonathan Thompson, High Country News
March, 2, 2023

The U.S. Forest Service’s shoot-down of feral Gila cattle, estimated to number about 150 head, may be the most consequential action the federal government has taken in at least two decades to mitigate the impacts of overgrazing on public lands. Puzzingly, the 1.5 million or so additional “authorized” cattle that are foraging on public lands are barely regulated. 2023’s grazing fees, for the 27th year in the last four decades, again amount to just $1.35 per animal unit month—the minimum allowed by law.

Click on the above link to read this free-access article.

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Diana Tittle
Diana Tittle

Diana Tittle, a member of the board of Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, was the editor of the Sierra County Sun, the Citizen's precursor. A former resident of Truth or Consequences who now lives part-time in northern New Mexico, she spent her 42-year professional career in Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor, book author and publisher and publishing consultant. She is the recipient of a Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature.

Posts: 332

2 Comments

  1. A cow is not just a cow. In an article on beef cattle, there is a picture of a dairy cow which does little to support the validity of the the article. The animals are not the problem, it is the management of them. As the father of the Gila National Forest, Aldo Leopold, once said that the tools that destroyed the ecosystem are the same ones that will heal it. Properly managed, knowledge based stewardship and cooperation of the interested parties is the key. Instead, we have infighting and self righteousness with very little understanding how these systems work. Self interest rules!

  2. This city girl picked the picture that illustrated my post providing the link to the High Country News report. So blame me for not knowing a dairy cow from a beef cow, not HCN. My ignorant error is no reason to doubt the validity of HCN’s data and analysis.

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