Cattle grazing and misplaced priorities (v2.0)
-- Forest Service's Response --
Grazing allotments are sold by the Forest Service to private ranchers.
These permits let the ranchers graze cattle on specific,
carefully delineated parcels of land. However, in this case,
the rancher is not watching
the cattle carefully enough to make sure they are staying in the
defined grazing area. The rancher is not taking responsibility for
watching the animals. Ranching can be done responsibly, but the rancher
does not seem to be interested in responsible behavior.
In my assessment (note I am not a lawyer), it seems that the
ultimate responsibility regarding the cattle damages rests upon both
the offending rancher, as well as the Forest Service for providing the
rancher with grazing permits.
In "open range", it is the landowner's responsibility to keep
the cattle off their land. It is apparently not the rancher's
responsibility to control their cattle in such a way that respect's
the wishes of their neighbors.
(Could you imagine how loudly the rancher would protest if some wolves
raised by an adjacent landowner killed cattle? If the tables were
turned, would the rancher be so complacent?)
Fortunately, the county that contains
the Darlingtonia seep is not open range, so there are some
regulatory measures
that can be applied.
