McGregor proposes scientific studies as solution for cattle ranchers, corps

Alex McGregor, president of the McGregor Company, asked for support from Whitman County commissioners in an attempt to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ regulations regarding cattle grazing on corps’ land along the Snake River.

He asked if the commissioners would allow the county Weed Control Board to help with a proposed study if the corps would cooperate.

In an April 29 letter to county commissioners, McGregor proposes a field tour and a research trial he is “willing to organize to find a way to move beyond eviction notices for dedicated cattle ranchers and toward a common sense solution” with the corps’ Walla Walla office.

“Since we met in Central Ferry (April 13), scientists who have done work here showing the compatibility of livestock grazing and wildlife management have been sharing results with the corps,” McGregor reported in his letter.

“No response - only a ‘we don’t think cattle, wildlife and hunting can co-exist’ statement now and then with no supporting reasons offered,” he said in the letter.

“We don’t like to see good, hardworking family ranchers caught in a maw of red tape and indifference. We hope you can be of assistance,” McGregor reported to the commissioners.

“I think about how those are remarkable people, dedicated ranchers,” McGregor said on Monday afternoon. “They lost winter protection for their cattle when the dams went in and were left with the rugged canyon country. Those rock quarries have been much improved by cattle ranchers,” McGregor said.

McGregor emphasized his proposal had good potential for a collaborative agreement.

“I think we can do that here,” he said. “This is an opportunity to do the right thing. Sound science can show a breakthrough. Cattle and wildlife can be together and prosper. We can and must find a common-sense solution.”

He said he wants to work for the ranchers who are being notified to remove cattle off corps’ land immediately and who have had cattle grazing on that land for 40 years or more.

A copy of an April 25 letter to the corps accompanied the correspondence to the commissioners. That letter from McGregor and Steve Van Vleet, WSU Regional Extension Specialist, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resources, based at the extension office in Colfax, went to the Whitman County Cattlemen’s Association, the commissioners and state and federal legislators.

The April 25 letter outlines the corps’ “wildlife compensation plan” which states that to protect existing habitat in the canyon of the lower Snake River, the corps must exclude livestock from habitat areas. The corps’ plan also states that cattle grazing is “not a management technique that supports the habitat needs” of pheasant or quail, that “hunting is also a conflicting use for cattle,” and that “the grazing of livestock does not fit well with the need to produce the maximum amount of wildlife habitat.”

“No evidence is provided to substantiate these conclusions. These statements run counter to much scientific work already done by public and private scientists.”

The letter sites a recent agreement in Idaho about the sage grouse which documents that livestock grazing management is not a threat to sage grouse or its habitat. This “represents a landmark decision, as the state’s sage grouse strategy ensures the continued viability of ranching on public lands, while also providing the government with assurances it needs for proper conservation of this species.”

The two approaches the letter proposes are “a one-day field trip led by scientists walking the land together with corps personnel and ranchers to view first hand soil development in the quarries, to see the feeding locations, to view wildlife habitat on managed seasonal grazing ground, to walk areas where noxious weed populations and fire risks are high and to find common ground to maintain public lands.”

Scientists already have shared a lot of scientific information with the corps’ Walla Walla office that includes studies that have shown benefits of managed grazing. Scientists also have found that without managed grazing, the areas have been inundated with invasive plants, building up fuel load, wildlife vulnerability and loss of wildlife habitat.

McGregor said two lead scientists, ranchers and the corp will agree on locations for the one-day tour.

“This would represent a potentially useful step in moving beyond the scientific literature already shared - to walk the land in conjunction with ranchers and scientists and to share ‘hands on’ perspectives, not merely scientific tomes but actual practices and results in the field on the lands in question,” the letter said.

During the tour, ranchers could share conservation plans and show progress already made in the past decade since plans were first initiated.

“We hope that scientific information earlier provided plus such a walking tour will satisfy the corps that cattle ranchers have been good custodians of the narrow strip of steeply sloped ground left unfenced so many years ago. These ranch families who lost their winter feeding grounds along the river used and improved the only protected level spots remaining - the quarries where construction crews blasted basalt for fill in the valley below and left the area barren,” the letter said.

Although ranchers suggested a research project at the April meeting, corps representatives didn’t show much interest. McGregor proposed to coordinate a “long-term collaborative, scientifically sound research project, involving two research teams that have been doing extensive work here since long before the Snake River dams were built.

The project will involve selection of a research location, site analysis and plant and wildlife inventory. The site will be monitored and will measure soil stability, and weed population among other variables.

McGregor’s letter said he hopes the county weed control board will help monitor weeds and measure weeds over the extent of the research project.

Research will continue for a minimum of five years and preliminary findings will be shared each year.

Besides Van Vleet, lead scientists will be Stephen Reinertsen, director, research and technology, McGregor Research Station, Colfax; Ann Kennedy, soil scientist, Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit, USDA/ARS, Pullman; Drew Lyon, WSU Extension Weed Scientist, Pullman, and Bruce Palmer, research agronomist, McGregor Research Station, Colfax.

“We ask in return that Walla Walla ACE stop sending cattle ranchers eviction notices while this extensive study is underway or, in the alternative, accept the current body of scientific research shared earlier and illustrated in the field in a hands-on one-day tour with scientists and ranchers and allow the ranchers to continue as good custodians.

“We strongly believe in reaching a collaborative agreement, hence our willingness to take the second step of a significant research project. The current Walla Walla ACE approach, to ignore scientific literature, to turning down past proposed studies and to continue to state with no supporting evidence provided that cattle harm wildlife, is not constructive.

“Much of the corps’ land is in small parcels and strips, lands that the ranchers are managing at no cost to the government. It would be very difficult and expensive for an agency to try to manage these lands as efficiently and effectively as these neighboring family enterprises have done.

“Though these lands represent but a small portion of the ranges cared for by ranchers and the lands were heavily disturbed with little value when they began managing them, ranchers have been sound stewards. Offering ranchers the opportunity to purchase the land, do a land trade or receive a long term lease, as they’ve requested, should be reconsidered. Their wise stewardship of these small segments of land has provided substantial public benefit,” the letter said.

“Those remarkable ranch folks deserve a solution,” McGregor said on Monday. “How could I not be involved?”