[APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass

[Wayne Tyson]

My wife, Rose, ever the better wit, has corrected me thus: "Don't you mean 
the 2,000-pound sacred cow?" (in the "room")

WT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ty Harrison" <tyju at xmission.com>
To: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>; <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction 
Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass


>I couldn't agree more with Wayne Tyson's assessment that grazing in the 
>arid
> West is the "elephant in the room".  As Walter P. Cottam, Utah's early
> ecologist observed in his now famous 1947publication:  "Is Utah Sahara
> Bound?" (4 copies are available at Abebooks.com), the west's past,
> uncontrolled, over-grazing history is clearly the source of all Cheatgrass
> and other weedy evils.  Let's call a spade a spade.  The challenge is to
> develop site-specific protocols for arid grassland restorations which can
> exclude weeds.  I don't know if grazing can ever be compatible in these
> fragile, low precipitation environments.   Dr. Ty Harrison, Emeritus
> Professor of Biology, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>
> To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 8:08 PM
> Subject: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction
> Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>
>
>> While all that stuff is true, it is nothing new, but the elephant in the
>> room is embodied in the term "range." Like motherhood, the romantic ideal
>> of
>> cowboys and cattle is a subject to be avoided. That's where the problem
>> came
>> from, and that's core variable that ensures that it will persist.
>> Cheatgrass
>> will never be gone, but until the cattle are gone, it will remain a major
>> component of what's left of the ecosystem that evolved under a different
>> kind of grazing/browsing pressure than cattle provide. The simple
>> inconvenient truth is that ecosystems are a product of everything that is
>> going on, and cattle are the primary cultivators of cheatgrass and the
>> other
>> components of the altered ecosystem that is the Intermountain West.
>>
>> WT
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Olivia Kwong" <plant at plantconservation.org>
>> To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 6:36 AM
>> Subject: [APWG] NEWS: In fire country,land managers struggle to fight
>> cheatgrass
>>
>>
>>> http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/03/2048524/in-fire-country-land-managers.html
>>>
>>> In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>>> By PATRICK ORR
>>> McClatchy Newspapers
>>>
>>> BOISE, Idaho -- Cheatgrass can be a dirty word for land managers in the
>>> West.
>>>
>>> Sure, they marvel at the invasive species' toughness and respect its
>>> stubborn ability to muscle out native bunch grasses of the desert of
>>> southwest Idaho and other areas of the West. But cheatgrass is also the
>>> main reason why much of the arid lands of the West are so susceptible to
>>> unnaturally devastating range fires.
>>>
>>> See the link above for the full article text.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>>> http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org
>>>
>>> Disclaimer
>>> Any requests, advice or opinions posted to this list reflect ONLY the
>>> opinion of the individual posting the message.
>>
>>
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>
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