Deal takes sheep off grazing allotment

Billings Gazette ^ | March 17, 2006 | MIKE STARK

[george76]

Sheep don't mix well with grizzly bears and wolves.

Now they won't mix at all on more than 70,000 acres in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness.

A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment south of Big Timber in the Gallatin National Forest has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to move their sheep elsewhere...

The agreement is the eighth -- and second-largest -- in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in recent years that has led to the retirement of about 300,000 acres from grazing.

The latest involves the Ash Mountain and Iron Mountain allotments used for generations by the Allestad family of Big Timber.

The decision wasn't an easy one.

Elaine Allestad said the family had been grazing sheep in that area since the late 1920s. In recent years, the family had been permitted to have a maximum of 1,200 sheep on the allotment.

But wolves and grizzlies took a heavy toll on their ewes and lambs. A few years ago, grizzlies killed 60 sheep, she said.

While it made sense to take their sheep somewhere farther from wild carnivores, it was difficult to say goodbye to a tradition several generations old of raising sheep in the backcountry.

"It was a very sad decision to make because of the history," ...

The latest allotment retirement ends an era for sheep grazing in that area.

"The history of sheep grazing in the Absaroka Mountains is a storied one that will be missed by many but not forgotten," Ken Britton, district ranger for the Gallatin National Forest, wrote in a letter to the Allestads.

[muawiyah]

I detest mutton and don't wear wool clothes or use wool blankets.

[gidget7]

I know some folks out there. It was my understanding they didn't want the wolves, or the sheep.

That aside, won't the bears just go to where the sheep are moved?

[george76]

They are also "vacating" allotments for cattle.

Soon much more of our food sources will only be feed lots.

No more free range food.

[muawiyah]

I even like "farmed salmon". BTW, you'll still have your free range food, but you are going to have to start eating wild dogs ~ and I've heard they aren't all that bad once you get used to the stringiness.

[jazusamo]

Have a cousin in Eastern OR helps cattle ranchers. They've been getting grief from BLM and enviros for several years about the damage the cattle do to the range. He says it's only a matter of time until range leases are gone.

[B4Ranch]

We will get to see open range fires burn for months though.

[LasVegasMac]

I detest mutton and don't wear wool clothes or use wool blankets.

Feel better?

[george76]

Once the family loses its summer grazing allotment, then they will leave ranching soon thereafter.

The math is that the families can not grow enough food to feed the live stock all year.

They need to get some rest for their winter ranges in the valley. While the grass grows in the valley in the summer, the sheep or cattle are in the mountains eating on their rented allotments.

It is too expensive to buy hay and too expensive to buy the extra, replacement land to grow extra hay. Thus they have to cut the herd in half or go out of business all together.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Precisely the reason the griz and wolf was introduced and put on the protected species list, get people off the open range.

I do though have often wondered about that griz on the environmental loving California state flag? At one time Californian had more grizzly bears than rest of the present day lower 48 combined, today they are totally extinct there.

Why don't the liberal tree huggers insist the griz be reintroduced back into California, it's most natural habitat? IMHO, it is the old lefty "not in my back yard syndrome." Punish others so they can feel good about themselves, hypocrites all.

[george76]

Once the eco-nuts get the allotments vacated, then they get the historical roads closed.

Then some liberal like Ted Turner buys up the bankrupt ranch from the family.

Then Ted makes an eco-friendly resort where the rich, hollywood, elite, liberals can have some "sanctuary."

[george76]

Yes.

That is the point. Kick the family farmers and ranchers out.

[joesnuffy]

That's the plan...the govt. man knows this...

Here's another govt. tidbit

More Federal Support on its Way for Ivory-bill Habitat Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, has announced that the Bush administration is seeking $2.1 million for the 2007 fiscal year to restore and protect the bottomland forest in Eastern Arkansas, including funds to aid in the monitoring and recovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Farmed salmon are Atlantic salmon only. They are raised in cages, fed synthetic cereal grain foods, fortified with who knows what. The Atlantic salmon does not swim in the cages, they remain stationary and wait for the next chow dump. Look at the farm raised salmon flesh, it is either "dyed" red or is almost white. The farm raised salmon have none of the good oils such as wild cold water salmon obtain from their natural diet, wild salmon flesh is naturally red.

OTOH, Pacific salmon put into cages never stop swimming around, they don't cater to the artificial diet and put on weight, so they are not farmed raised.

[ikka]

BTW, you'll still have your free range food, but you are going to have to start eating wild dogs ~ and I've heard they aren't all that bad once you get used to the stringiness.

I suggest you get this book: Native Indian Wild Game, Fish & Wild Foods Cookbook ... includes squirrel, possum, venison curry, venison meatloaf, etc.

[george76]

Are all farmed Salmon mushy ?

The free range fish seem to taste better.

IMHO

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"Are all farmed Salmon mushy ?

The free range fish seem to taste better.

IMHO"

When first tasted the farm raised, the word mushy immediately came to mind, brought me to do some research, on them.

[Drammach]

Woolen clothes and blankets will still keep you warm even if they get wet..

There was no other known fiber that could do that until the development of synthetics.. and I'm not sure there are any synthetics that can make that claim..

As for mutton, you're one up on me there..
I've never tasted it..

[muawiyah]

The farm raised salmon on the East Coast are actually Pacific salmon. That way if they get loose they don't breed with the native East Coast salmon.

The "pink salmon" thing is a fetish. It proves nothing. Old timers who worked in canning factories up and down the PAC NW in the 20s and 30s have told me that at one time "pure white" meat was favored, and the red went to the cats.

[muawiyah]

Squirrel is exceptionally good. This area has a major stand of white oak, and squirrels raised on acorns are something else. The new ones are already out stirring around.