BLM’s Great Basin fuels reduction plan encourages grazing

Ranchers’ groups are sidling up to a U.S. Bureau of Land Management plan that seeks to conserve and restore sagebrush communities within a 223 million-acre area in parts of six Western states that are imperiled by wildfire. The agency on Nov. 27 unveiled its final environmental statement for fuels reduction and rangeland restoration in the Great Basin, which includes portions of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. The move initiated a 30-day public review before a final record of decision is issued. Groups including the Public Lands Council and California Cattlemen’s Association say they’re pleased that the agency’s preferred alternative explicitly acknowledges the role that targeted grazing plays in combating hazardous fuels accumulation and invasive species. The plan “does not authorize specific projects … but is the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) document that will be the basis for environmental analysis for projects in the coming years,” the PLC stated in a legislative bulletin. “This document is likely to face legal challenges, but none yet have been publicly announced.”The effort comes as the West suffered one of the worst wildfire seasons in history in 2020, as more than 100 blazes in August and September burned more than 8 million acres, destroyed 13,887 buildings and killed 46 people, including 32 in California, according to state and federal authorities. The fires charred hundreds of square miles of rangeland and timber, destroyed livestock and shrouded much of the West in thick smoke and ash for weeks. Cattle grazing plays a key role in reducing fire fuels on rangelands in the West, a team of University of California and other scientists concluded in a preliminary report in September. Without it, California alone would have hundreds to thousands more pounds per acre of fire fuels on the landscape, potentially leading to larger and more severe fires, the scientists wrote. As cattle generally don’t consume forage uniformly in a field, grazed rangelands will have patches of ground that are grazed low enough to slow fire extent and rate of speed, observed UC Cooperative Extension advisers Devii Rao, Sheila Barry, Matthew Shapero and Larry Forero; UC Berkeley extension specialist Luke Macaulay; and three other authors. The research was funded by the California Cattle Council...MORE