• The Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act, establishing a permanent wildlife trust fund, was signed into law in 2005 by Governor Dave Freudenthal.
   
• Wyoming Bird Conservation Plan
   
• Rebuttal Comments by the Meadowlark Audubon Society of the Big Horn Basin to the Audubon Wyoming Livestock Grazing Policy
   
• The Audubon Wyoming Livestock Grazing Policy
   
• The National Audubon Society Grazing Policy

The Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Funding Act, establishing a permanent wildlife trust fund.

Thanks to all those who contacted their representatives to share their concerns regarding this legislation. The future will tell us how well this bill accomplishes its purposes:

• Improvement and maintenance of existing terrestrial habitat necessary to maintain optimum wildlife populations;
   
• Preservation of open spaces by purchase or acquisition of development rights;
   
• Improvement and maintenance of existing aquatic habitat necessary to maintain optimum fish populations;
   
• Acquisition of terrestrial or aquatic habitat when existing habitat is determined critical, or is present in minimal amounts, and acquisition presents the necessary factor in attaining or preserving desired wildlife or fish population levels;
   
• Conservation, maintenance, protection and development of wildlife resources, the environment and Wyoming's natural resource heritage;
   
• Participation in water enhancement projects to benefit aquatic habitat for fish populations and allow for other watershed enhancements that benefit wildlife;
   
• To address and mitigate impacts detrimental to wildlife habitat, the environment and multiple use of renewable natural resources attributable to residential, mineral and industrial development; and
   
• To mitigate conflicts and reduce potential for disease transmission between wildlife and domestic livestock.

Wyoming Bird Conservation Plan

This plan has taken several years to develop, review and edit, but does provide a good comprehensive document for bird conservation and bird habitat management in Wyoming.

Meadowlark Audubon Society Chapter Rebuttal Comments
to the state Audubon Wyoming Grazing Policy
April 11, 2002

We, Sean Sheehan, Suzanne Morstad, and Terry Peters, after reviewing the state grazing policy at the direction of the Meadowlark Audubon Society Board of Directors, collaborated to produce the following comments on the failures of this document to follow either the existing science, or the National Audubon's own statement on grazing on public lands. We offer these comments in the order of the respective areas of the Audubon Wyoming Grazing Policy Statement.

  a.& b.  While the concept of maintaining open space through agriculture is a sacred cow among many in the West and does have applicability in some areas, it is hard to find a case to point to where it has made a difference regarding the control of growth of sprawl and subdivision into open space. This is particularly true as regards livestock operations. The only effective tools to control growth and loss of open space are conservation easements and zoning regulations. Agriculture as a whole operates on very narrow profit margins, or at below cost through federal subsidies, and the livestock industry operates at the lowest margins in agriculture. The ownership of the family operation is gentrifying, as farm children choose more viable options for their livelihood and move away from the home place, knowing they can never afford to return. The traditional model for the inter-generational passage of the farm or ranch allowed the older generation to retire in place while being supported by the property and the next generation taking over the operation. The aging farm/ranch populations know that the traditional means to retire on the farm/ranch is becoming an unattainable ideal, and that many of them have to provide for their retirement by selling the farm/ranch. Scenic properties are usually purchased as "trophy properties" by the wealthy elite, and properties close to growth centers come under the pressure of developers.

While we fully support the preservation of the family farm/ranch, we feel the truth of their economic relationship to the community is not represented by the Audubon Wyoming Grazing Policy statement, and that it needs correction. Dry land grazing acreage is taxed at such a low rate that it may not provide enough tax base to cover the cost of county services provided to the property. Agriculture as a whole provides less than 1.5% of Wyoming's economy, and the livestock industry provides less than 1 in 2000 of Wyoming' jobs. Grazing on public lands is subsidized at great expense to the taxpaying public. This year, livestock will graze on Public Lands at a cost of $1.37 per AUM, the cost to graze one cow and calf for one month. The cost to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage this grazing is in excess of $3 per AUM, although no one has ever done a study to determine the exact cost. In March, 2002, the Billings Gazette published the Montana Dept. of Agriculture's grazing cost forecast for the coming grazing season. The cost to graze an AUM (cow/calf) on private dry land pasture will vary from $14.75 per AUM to $17.25 per AUM. Stockman are paying 1/12th the cost of grazing on Public Land that they might pay right across a fence line on private land. The public should be guaranteed there will be nothing about grazing practices on Public Lands that will threaten biological diversity or the ecological health of our public lands. Unfortunately the opposite is often the case; not only are grazing practices damaging a public resource, but the taxpayer is paying the livestock industry to do the damage.

Our point is, if we feel that it is a part of the Audubon mission in Wyoming to address the problems of maintaining open space and family farms/ranches, we have to look at what is really causing their demise. We should not promulgate a non-constructive mythology on the part the livestock industry plays in these areas in Wyoming, as does the Audubon Wyoming Grazing Policy statement.

  c.  The statement that grazing benefits riparian habitat for birds, or any native wildlife, is totally misleading and inaccurate. The statement is not supported by scientific evidence. On the contrary, grazing by domestic ungulates within the riparian areas is widely recognized by the scientific community as being detrimental to the indigenous biota through the changes in plant communities which grazing induces. Excessive nutrient enrichment by non native animals alters plant communities and contributes to degradation of stream water quality. Cattle collapse stream banks causing sedimentation and higher water temperatures which degrades stream habitat for native aquatic species. Grazing also promotes the invasion of exotic plants (weeds). How can these effects of grazing be considered "beneficial" from the perspective of protecting and maintaining these native ecosystems in the their pre-grazed natural state, which is the only way to provide habitat for bird species that evolved with these ecosystems. The only way cattleman can protect these systems is to keep their stock out of them, something most have been unwilling to do in the past.

  d.  The statement that ranching preserves endangered or at-risk species is a very damaging and misleading. In fact, policies promulgated by the ranching community are the reason the species listed here are all threatened or endangered animals. Great harm has been done to the grizzly bear and wolf recovery programs , not only in terms of lost opportunities from additional needed habitat such as travel corridors, but also from direct reductions forced because of occasional livestock depredations.

To single out those species directly dependent upon prairie dogs is especially insidious and hypocritical to the National Audubon Mission Statement and Grazing Policy. Included here are all animals endemic to the prairie dog complex. These species are at risk because vast areas historically containing prairie dog towns in the West, many on public lands, have been systematically extirpated because of their perceived threat to domestic livestock.

The list of sensitive species at risk goes on and on, and livestock grazing is directly or indirectly involved in many of them. Bison have been killed by the thousands in recent years due to their association with brucellosis, a disease originally brought into this country through domestic cattle, and a disease which has never been proven to be transmissible to from bison to cattle under normal field conditions. Sage grouse, too, were mentioned, a species that is in crisis throughout most of its range. Sagebrush communities, which are the key to sage grouse survival, have been much altered by grazing, mechanical removal, and chemical application. The science detailing the relationship between livestock grazing, managing vegetation and landscapes to better provide for livestock, and the decline in sage grouse populations is at the point of being very solidly defined. Swift foxes, too, are another sensitive species impacted by grazing policies. Predator reduction throughout the West has inadvertently reduced non-target carnivores through poisoning programs intended to reduce coyote numbers.

  e.  Winter survival of big game on low altitude riparian corridors rely heavily on irrigated croplands, not on grazing lands as stated in the Audubon Wyoming Grazing Policy statement. It is the hay fields and tilled acreage that provide important winter food to wildlife. Riparian areas provide movement corridors and security cover for large animals, although it is our experience that grazed riparian areas seldom have enough cover to hide anything.

The production of beef is the only thing that has been conclusively proven for which livestock grazing can be used as a management tool. In theory, livestock can be incorporated into the energy flow of some ecosystems without breaking down species diversity, but in reality this has never to our knowledge been demonstrated in fact. No policy supporting grazing can made without dealing with the overwhelming body of science that shows livestock grazing destabilizes native ecosystems and reduces biodiversity. The protection of native ecosystems and biodiversity is part of the National Audubon Grazing Policy. National Audubon is an organization devoted to birds, other wildlife, and the environments on which they depend. The National Audubon Grazing Policy is well thought-out and based on sound environmental science, and should not be so casually discarded as the Audubon Wyoming state organization has done by producing a grazing policy that is in direct contradiction to the National Audubon Grazing Policy.

Something to consider is that the landscape of the North American continent has changed greatly since the arrival of European Man, and this change has reduced not only the kinds (species) of plants and animals, but also their total numbers (biomass). Nationally we mourn this loss of diversity and the grandeur it represents to our national psyche. There are approximately 800 million acres of range land in the West. The BLM manages 165 million acres, almost all open to grazing and mineral development; the amount set aside to protect native species is almost too small to measure. According to the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), over 95% of the riparian areas in Arizona and New Mexico, 90% in Colorado, and 80+% in Idaho and Wyoming are severely degraded. The GAO concluded that poorly managed grazing was the major cause of degradation in riparian habitat on public grasslands. Soil compaction, decertification, and habitat degradation from grazing has reduced the productivity of western range lands to less than 50% of what it was when the range was managed by bison, deer, antelope, elk, and the prairie dog. Shouldn't the mission of the state organization, Audubon Wyoming, first be to take care of and nourish the native species and environments of this amazing state?

Livestock Grazing Policy of Audubon Wyoming (the state organization)
adopted by Audubon Wyoming Board of Directors on January 26, 2002

  a.   Preservation of open spaces rather than proliferation of resource-intensive subdivisions that fragment or eliminate important wildlife habitat;

  b.  Preservation of the family ranch or farm in successive generations which, in turn, is essential to the tax base, school systems, and economic survival of Wyoming's rural communities;

  c.   Preservation of riparian habitat, especially for bird populations. Seventy-five percent of Wyoming's neotropical migrating species rely on riparian habitat for migration stopover sties, nesting and summer foraging activities;

  d.   Preservation of endangered or at-risk species such as sage grouse, mountain plover, and the black-tailed prairie dog complex supporting black-footed ferret, burrowing owl, and ferruginous hawk;

  e.  Winter survival of big game depends heavily on lower altitude private grazing land along riparian corridors.

Audubon Wyoming believes that livestock grazing is an important management tool. With a wide variety of grazing practices, ecosystems can be managed to achieve an equally wide variety of economic and ecological goals. Audubon Wyoming welcomes the opportunity to work with the agricultural community in promoting research, monitoring, and education demonstrating those livestock grazing methods that improve healthy habitat for birds or other wildlife.

National Audubon Society Grazing Policy
Adopted by the Board of Directors
June 10, 2001

PRINCIPLES

All users of public lands have the potential to cause significant disturbance to natural ecosystems and habitats. Land managers have a particular responsibility for this stewardship. All users of these public lands have a responsibility to act as stewards of these lands. Most uses of these public lands are privileges, not legal rights, and must be recognized as such.

No users should enjoy a special privileged access to public lands and public resources.

Some uses of public lands for commodity resources are granted at below-market economic costs. This practice discourages environmental sustainability and should be reformed.

A sustainable ecosystem approach to public land management affords the best prospect of assuring the economic viability and stability of these lands.

The National Audubon Society ("Audubon") believes that the restoration and conservation of natural biological diversity on public land ecosystems must become a fundamental principle guiding all multiple uses of public lands. All public land management must be designed to restore and maintain healthy, functioning ecosystems in balance with human uses. Any policy relating to grazing on public lands must embrace this perspective.

Specifically, public agencies should seek to recover and maintain:

(a) Natural richness and abundance of native plant and animal species;
 
(b) Natural structure, dynamics and resilience of communities of native plant and animal species;
 
(c) Natural retention of rainfall in soils, riparian and wetlands ecosystems and aquifers;
 
(d) Natural conditions of soil stability, depth, composition and chemistry;
 
(e) Natural conditions of water flow and stream channel structure in rivers and riparian ecosystems;
 
(f) Uncontaminated surface and subsurface waters;
 
(g) Undisturbed historic and archeological sites; and,
 
(h) Natural aesthetic and scenic conditions.

IMPLEMENTING GUIDELINES

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Updated: 5/26/06
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