Editorial 
This page was last updated on January 06, 2009 .

Under the hood of public rangeland management: a book review of "Western Turf Wars"
by: Larry Walker, 10/5/07

Best book of its kind in fifty years!

Not since Politics and Grass: The Administration of Grazing on the Public Domain by Phillip O. Foss (1960) has any book revealed as much about the inner workings of government agencies when dealing with the issue of private ranching on our public lands.

Western Turf Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching by Mike Hudak (2007) is the culmination of two years of traveling coast-to-cost conducting video-taped interviews of retired agency scientists and land managers. and of nongovernment scientists and conservationists. These anecdotes and stories are in their own words making the reading experience lively and informative.

Topics and issues covered are so rich and varied that, rather than attempting to summarize them here, I am including an expanded version of portions of Dr. Hudak's table of contents below.

Here is what is "under the hood":

Government Personnel

• Douglas K. Barber - (U.S. Forest Service) district ranger, deputy forest supervisor, assistant regional engineer

  • Cattle removed from Sandrock Allotment, Apache-Sitgreaves NF (1984)

  • Barber's letter to Senator Domenici about the West Fork Allotment (11 February 1998)

  • Maintenance costs of livestock grazing on public lands

  • Barber's proposed changes to federal grazing permits

  • "Blue sky" value of federal grazing permits

• Clait E. Braun - (Colorado Division of Wildlife)) program manager, researcher

  • Braun's early life and formal education

  • Discovery of the Gunnison sage-grouse

  • The Gunnison Sage-Grouse Working Group

  • Naming of the Gunnison sage-grouse (1995-2000)

  • The petition to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered species (January 2000)

  • Decline of the Gunnison sage-grouse

  • Tactics to protect sage-grouse

  • Prospects for the Gunnison sage-grouse if listed as a threatened species

  • Does the Uncompahgre Plateau Project benefit Gunnison sage-grouse?

  • Does holistic management benefit sage-grouse?

  • WAFWA report: "Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats" (June 2004)

  • Predictions about the listing of sage-grouse

  • West Nile virus kills sage-grouse

  • Negative impacts of livestock production on sage-grouse habitat

• Leon Fager - (U.S. Forest Service) wildlife biologist, regional fissheries biologist, wildlife program manager

  • Fager's letter to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck (23 February 1998)

  • Changes in Forest Service culture (1976-97)

  • Treatment of female employees by Forest Service managers (late 1990s)

  • Forest Service pursues uneconomical litigation (1994-97)

  • Livestock grazing degrades streams on the Apache Sitgreaves NF

  • Economics of grazing livestock on national forests

  • Ungrazed areas of national forests

  • Forest Service personnel vilify environmental organizations

  • Differences in ranching communities throughout the West

  • Cattle grazing changes natural fire regimes in national forests

  • Elk made scapegoats for cattle

  • Politics of cattle/elk management on Apache-Sitgreaves NF (late 1980s - early 1990s)

  • The Savory grazing method

  • Forest Service ignores research

  • Predator control on the national forests

  • Manifest Destiny appears in new form

• Renee Galeano-Popp - (U.S. Forest Service) range conservationist, regional botanist, program manager

  • Galeano-Popp's early life and education

  • Overview of Galeano-Popp's career

  • Forest Service avoids gathering data about rare plants (mid 1980s)

  • Congress degrades Forest Service management

  • Social pressure on land management personnel

  • Animal Damage Control harms wildlife

  • A personal anecdote about Animal Damage Control

  • Attitude of APHIS about the killing of coyotes

  • Implementing Integrated Resource Management on the Lincoln NF

  • Treatment of endangered species on the Lincoln NF

  • Management agencies fail to support their personnel

  • Galeano-Popp resigns from the Forest Service

  • Allotment management at BLM declines in rigor

  • Experience with the BLM's Great Basin Initiative

• Steve Gallizioli - (Arizona Department of Game and Fish) chief of wildlife management

  • Gallizioli's youth, war experiences, and formal education

  • Gallizioli joins Arizona Game and Fish Department (1951)

  • Politics influences livestock management on the Crook NF (1951)

  • Politics thwarts management proposals of Arizona Game and Fish Department

  • Predator control

  • Rancher attitudes about predators

  • Livestock grazing depresses Mearns' quail populations

  • Gallizioli goes to Washington (1976)

  • Gallizioli's experiences with holistic resource management

• Dave Gilman - (U.S. Forest Service) soil scientist

  • Gilmans position with the Forest Service

  • Cattle compact soil and strip vegetation

  • Soil compaction reduces plant productivity

  • Forest plans fail to account for changes in vegetation

  • Allotment evaluations not performed

  • Differences between livestock-grazed and ungrazed riparian areas

  • Soil is essential to life

• Martha Hahn - (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) associate state director, state director

  • Hahn's early life

  • Overview of Hahn's career in natural resource management

  • Hahn's experiences with grazing impacts on public lands (1970s-80s)

  • Frequency of lawsuits brought against BLM over grazing impacts

  • FLPMA and SVIM change how BLM does business (mid 1970s)

  • BLM's notoriety increases during the Clinton administration

  • Jim Baca's tenure as BLM director (1993-94)

  • Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pushes rangeland reform (1994)

  • Policy changes at BLM resulting from Rangeland Reform '94 (1995-98)

  • Lack of planning rewarded by BLM (1996-99)

  • Idaho Watersheds Project influences BLM's range management

  • Owyhee ranchers benefit from an Air Force bombing range

  • George W. Bush administration changes BLM management (2001)

  • Hahn's removal from BLM Idaho state directorship (March 2002)

  • Suspected influence of the livestock industry in hahn's reassignment

• David A. Koehler - (U.S. Forest Service) range conservationist; (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) supervisory range conservationist, resource area manager, range ecologist

  • Koehler's youth and early professional career

  • Koehler serves as range conservationist on the Deschutes NF (1968-69)

  • Koehler studies feral burros at Bandelier National Monument (1973-74)

  • A conflict with Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico (1979)

  • A rancher who subleased and overstocked his BLM allotment (1985)

  • Koehler's experiences as a resource area manager, Idaho BLM (1993-96)

  • Koehler's experiences as a rangeland ecologist, Idaho BLM (1996-99)

  • Idaho Watersheds Project pressures BLM (1990s)

  • Poor planning by the management agencies harms the environment

  • Mismanagement of BLM

  • Wild horses on western public lands

• Don Oman - (U.S. Forest Service) district ranger, ecosystems staff officer

  • Oman's early years, education, and career

  • Historical records of environmental conditions on the Sawtooth NF

  • Environmental conditions on the Twin Falls Ranger District (October 1986)

  • Oman stands up to ranchers on the Twin Falls Ranger District (fall 1986 & spring 1987)

  • Environmental recovery within a livestock exclosure on Trout Creek, Twin Falls Ranger District (summer 1987)

  • Additional conflicts between Oman and ranchers (1987-89)

  • Counting cattle at the fall 1989 roundup

  • Environmental recovery within a livestock exclosure on Dry Gulch, Twin Falls Ranger District (1989)

  • A water pipeline for ranchers poses environmental risks (summer 2001)

  • Political obstacles to achieving sustainable land management

• Robert W. Phillips - (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) assistant chief (basin investigations); (U.S. Forest Service) regional fisheries biologist, program planner

  • Eastern Oregon's arid landscapes are easily damaged by livestock

  • Difficulties of managing livestock on public lands

  • The genesis of destructive livestock grazing in Eastern Oregon

  • Autumn cattle grazing can damage streams

  • Recovery of the Bruneau River after termination of livestock grazing

  • Diminishing efforts to protect grazed streams in Eastern Oregon

• Jim Prunty - (U.S. Forest Service) fire management officer

  • Prunty's early years in ranching

  • Prunty joins the Forest Service

  • Consequences of burning the Idaho range

  • Suppression of natural fires expands forests

  • Prunty advocates for public lands

  • Don Oman counts cattle on the range

  • Forest Service excludes the public

  • Prunty's work with Red Willow Research

  • The government constructs a water pipeline for ranchers (summer 2001)

  • The unrecognized value of western land

• Doug Troutman - (National Park Service) ranger; (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) wilderness ranger, wilderness specialist, disabled access coordinator

  • Troutman's life and career

  • BLM's cattle management in Arizona

  • BLM's cattle management on the Lakeview District

  • BLM's cattle management after fire on the Lakeview District

  • Disadvantages of post-fire seeding with crested wheatgrass

  • Cattle exclosures on streams of the Lakeview District

  • Troutman's experiences with BLM range conservationists

  • Politics undercuts sound management at BLM

  • Coyotes made scapegoats for poor livestock management

  • Range improvement funding

• Larry Walker - (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) range conservationist

  • Walker's early life, education, and career at BLM

  • Inventory and monitoring of lands managed by BLM (1977-82)

  • Political pressure trumps science at BLM

  • Walker establishes the RangeBiome and RangeNet websites (1997)

• Pat Ward - (U.S. Forest Service) wildlife biologist (research)

  • Cattle grazing impacts prey of Mexican spotted owls on the Lincoln NF

  • Faulty monitoring leads to overgrazing

  • Cattle grazing on the Lincoln NF (2004)

• Bill Worf - (U.S. Forest Service) assistant ranger, regional staff, forest supervisor, regional director

  • Worf's early work with the Forest Service (1950)

  • Rancher resistance to livestock reductions on the Uinta NF (1951-55)

  • Worf's experience with ranchers on the Ashley NF (June 1955)

  • The range improvement program on the Ashley NF (1958-60)

  • Worf's tenure as supervisor of the Bridger NF (1962-65)

  • Worf tackles wilderness issues in the Forest Service

  • Some of Worf's activities with Wilderness Watch (1990s)

  • Worf's concern over management of the South Warner Wilderness (1999)

  • Worf's first visit to the South Warner Wilderness (3-5 October 1999)

  • Worf's second visit to the South Warner Wilderness (13-16 July 2000)

  • Worf's third visit to the South Warner Wilderness (31 July - 3 August 2001)

  • Worf's fourth visit to the South Warner Wilderness (4-7 September 2003)

  • Aspen meadows of the South Warner Wilderness

  • Livestock trample seeps and streams of the South Warner Wilderness

  • Sheep and cattle trespass on the South Warner Wilderness

  • Diseased domestic sheep thwart bighorn reintroduction

  • Worf's vision for managing livestock in the South Warner Wilderness

  • Federal agencies need to support field presonnel

Nongovernment Conservationists

• Joy Belsky (1945-2001) - grassland ecologist at Oregon Natural Resources Council and Oregon Natural Desert Association

  • Robert Amundson - Joy Belsky's husband

    • Belsky receives her master's degree from Yale University

    • Belsky's doctorial research at the University of Washington (1970s)

    • Belsky's interest in livestock impacts on grasslands

    • Belsky's discrimination complaint and lawsuit against the BLM (1992-93)

    • Belsky opposes killing coyotes at Hart Mountain NAR (mid 1990s)

    • Belsky co-authors article about livestock grazing's degradation of forest structure and dynamics (mid 1990s)

    • Cowboy politics in academia (late 1990s)

  • Jonathan Gelbard - (Conservation Value) co-founder/executive director

    • Gelbard's undergraduate study and field research positions

    • Gelbard's tenure as research assistant to Belsky (late 1996 - August 1997)

    • Belsky as mentor

    • Belsky's interest in grasslands

    • Resistance to publishing an article about livestock spreading weeds

  • Bill Marlett - (Oregon Natural Desert Association) executive director

    • How Belsky became the staff ecologist at ONDA

    • Choosing topics for Belsky's articles

    • The controversy over coyote control at Hart Mountain NAR

• Patrick Diehl - (Escalante Wilderness Project) co-founder

  • Diehl's early years and formal education

  • Diehl's academic career

  • Diehl becomes an anti-nuclear activist

  • Diehl joins the Ward Valley Campaign

  • Diehl and Woodard settle in Escalante, Utah

  • Diehl and Woodard's property is vandalized (April and July 1999)

  • Diehl and Woodard are shunned by environmentalists

  • Diehl comments on the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

  • Tabling at the Escalante BLM Visitor Center (27-28 May 2000)

  • Drought prompts BLM to curtail cattle grazing at GSENM (fall 2000)

  • Relict aspen on the Rock Creek/Mudholes Allotment

  • Trespass cattle on the Steep Creek Allotment (February 2002)

  • BLM ignores public comment on their grazing management

  • Establishment and management of GSENM

  • The future of livestock grazing on federal public lands

• Julian Hatch - (Boulder Regional Group) director

  • A brief history of ranching in southern Utah

  • Hatch's early experiences with cattle grazing

  • Hatch relocates to Boulder, Utah

  • A grazing EIS for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

  • Winter grazing at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

  • Cattle grazing damages streams and vegetation on Boulder Mountain

  • Grazing of school trust lands generates little funding for education

  • Hunting revenue drives wildlife management on federal public lands

  • Predator control in Utah

  • Inadequate monitoring of livestock

  • Counting cows

  • Using FOIA to obtain information about livestock management

  • Dishonesty of the Forest Service

  • Why livestock should be removed from public lands

  • Persecution of environmental advocates in the West

• Steven G. Herman - (The Evergreen State College) faculty

  • Herman's early life, education, and career

  • Cattle grazing at Malheur NWR

  • Cattle grazing at Hart Mountain NAR

  • The last years of cattle grazing at Hart Mountain NAR

  • Management of Hart Mountain NAR after removal of cattle

  • Politics behind efforts to kill coyotes at Hart Mountain NAR

  • Cattle versus pygmy rabbits in Washington state

  • Federal agencies ignore public comments about land management

  • Public indifference to the decline of rangeland health

  • Tactics to reduce livestock grazing on public lands

• Steve Johnson - (Defenders of Wildlife) southwestern field representative

  • Johnson's initial experiences with public lands ranching (1960s)

  • Johnson's activities as a school teacher (1968-72)

  • Johnson's activities at Defenders of Wildlife (1972-89)

  • Johnson learns of the banking connection to federal grazing permits (1978)

  • Livestock grazing degrades the southwestern landscape

  • Stripped of vegetation by cattle, streambanks quickly erode

  • BLM's failure to protect the desert tortoise

  • Sources of ranchers political influence

  • Subsidies for public lands ranchers

  • Economic insignificance of cattle ranching on western public lands

  • Lawsuits improve cattle management on public lands

• Ralph Maughan - (Wolf Recovery Foundation) president

  • Maughan develops an interest in environmental conservation

  • The Wolf Recovery Foundation

  • The politics of wolf reintroduction in the West

  • Turning over wolf management to states hostile to wolves

  • Difficulties of wolf recovery in the American Southwest

  • The politics of grizzly bear recovery

  • Brucellosis as political smokescreen in managing Yellowstone bison

  • Expanding the range for Yellowstone bison

  • The bison management plan (2000)

  • Montana initiates bison hunts

  • Many conservation organizations ignore public lands ranching

• Bobbie Royle - (Wild Horse Spirit Sanctuary) co-founder

  • Royle's early experiences with wild horses

  • Wild horses in North America

  • Wild horses slaughtered for profit

  • Ranchers' attitude toward wild horses

  • Conflicting attitudes about wild horses

  • Number of wild horses not known

  • Wild horse management under the G. W. Bush administration favors ranchers

  • Adopted wild horses sent to slaughter

  • Deficiencies of the government's wild horse adoption program

  • Horse slaughter in the US

  • Violence committed against wild horses (December 1998)

  • Efforts to make the wild horse Nevada's second state animal (Feb.-June 2001)

  • Improving the conditions for wild horses on public lands

• Mike Sauber - (Gila Watch) co-founder

  • Sauber's early experiences in New Mexico

  • Susan Schock and Mike Sauber form Gila Watch (1992)

  • Banking industry influence perverts management of public lands ranching

  • Proposals to reintroduce Gila trout on the Diamond Bar Allotment

  • Susan Schock is harassed by a sheriff

  • Permittee Kit Laney applies political pressure to the Forest Service (1995)

  • Kit Laney sues the Forest Service (1996)

  • Sauber at the Quivira Coalition meeting in Silver City (8-9 June 2001)

• Todd Shuman - (Sierra Club) volunteer

  • Shuman's formal education and youthful activism

  • Shuman learns about public lands ranching (early 1990s)

  • Shuman learns about the Golden Trout Wilderness (early 1990s)

  • Collaboration among organizations (1996-2000)

  • Energizing the Sierra Club (1996-2000)

  • Drawing the news media's attention

  • Increasing the opposition to Anheuser-Busch

  • The Golden Trout Wilderness is protected (2 February 2001)

  • Shuman reflects on the success of the campaign

• Charmaine White Face - (Defenders of the Black Hills) coordinator

  • Relationship between the buffalo and the Oceti Sakowin

  • Ranching destroys grasslands and the Oceti Sakowin

  • Prairie dogs made scapegoats for the livestock industry

  • Livestock grazing desecrates the Black Hills

  • Legislation that would protect the national grasslands

  • Leasing of reservation lands

  • A call for studying the biological diversity of the Black Hills and the grasslands

Also "under the hood" are a comprehensive index and extensive notes, glossary, and references.

Buy the book! Read the book! Enjoy the book! Share the book!

You will be glad that you did.

Larry Walker

Disclosure: I am in the book, but it would be as good even without me.