Ranchers and environmentalists talk
by Amee Thompson, Outpost Staff
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In this package: Western artist listens to nature Not just an ordinary conference
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"I've learned a lot (about grazing) from ranchers and biologists," Sophie Sheppard, an environmentalist from Lake City, Calif., said. "Compared to the mining and logging I've seen, the devastation blamed on cattle is not as big a problem."
Sheppard, along with ranchers Linda Hussa, of Cedarvile, Calif., and Carolyn Dufurrena, of Winnemucca, Nev., shared their views on living in the rural west. The three focused on how environmentalists and ranchers need to concentrate on what they have in common in order to understand each other.
"If you sit at a table with someone and talk you are going to find a commonality," Dufurrena said.
The conference offered the opportunity for people to get together and discuss their different views. Often ranchers talk to ranchers and environmentalists talk to environmentalists but they don't talk to each other.
Hussa and Sheppard talked about how the threat of losing water in Surprise Valley, Calif., to Washoe County, Nev., brought them together on the same side.
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Rancher's panel.Photo courtesy of Deborah Welsh |
This type of coming together is new to people who are not from rural areas.
"We moved to Surprise Valley for the landscape and found community," Sheppard said. "I think that people in a rural area think differently about the environment because it is not as visibly touched by man."
In another session, Darrell Wood, a rancher from Susanville, Calif., defended man's place on the land. Wood explained the benefits of rotational grazing.
"Grass is like an apple tree, you have to prune it to make it healthy," Wood said. "Grass is a renewable resource that grows over and over again."
He showed slides of land before and after grazing. The grazed land appeared to be in better condition than the land that was left alone.
Wood also endorsed wildfire as being natural to the environment. Preventing wildfires from happening prevents nature from taking its course, according to Wood.
Another rancher, Butch Small, from Busby, Mont., Indian Reservation, criticized the National Parks system. When Yellowstone burned a few years ago it was because human interference had been too great.
"Yellowstone is a zoo," Small said. "People pay to get in. That is not natural, that's a zoo."
copyright 02/26/98 Nevada Outpost