Two hundred concerned citizens turned out May 17 for the Grass Tour of the Argenta Allotment south of Battle Mountain that ranchers claim was closed for grazing earlier this year by the Bureau of Land Management's District Manager Doug Furtado.
The collection of ranchers, citizens and elected representatives were taken on a tour that showed acres of tall green grass and listened to a report from Bob Schweigert, of Intermountain Range Consultants, who said the range was in good shape and fully capable of supporting cattle.
"The BLM likes to say all this green grass is not forage, but recovery," Schweigert told the assembly. "I'm here to tell you it is not recovery, it is recovered."
Furtado did not respond to two phone calls placed by the writer of this story, but the state office of the BLM issued a statement and said there have been no final decisions made on the allocations in the Argenta Allotment. The office said it will continue to work with grazing permittees to find common ground in grazing decisions for the upcoming season.
"Over the past year BLM Nevada managers have been working with stakeholders who use and enjoy the public lands in Nevada to find ways to cope with drought throughout the state," a BLM press release said. "We will continue to work collaboratively to find solutions that allow for resource recovery and meet the needs of the many hunters, ranchers, hikers, mining industry, wildlife enthusiasts and others who rely on these lands."
It continued, "Drought conditions continue to persist across much of the western United States and much of Nevada is experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions. These conditions have stressed all resources on the public lands making grazing throughout most of Nevada unsustainable at permitted levels."
The Grass Tour was organized by Elko attorney and Elko County Commissioner Grant Gerber and former rancher and state assemblyman John Carpenter. They are trying to get BLM Director Furtado to reverse his decision to close the mountain allotment to grazing.
The 340,000-acre allotment, which is 56 percent private property, is grazed by the extended Tomera and Filippini families. The closure has left them all scrambling for alternative pasture and facing financial ruin, they said. Furtado says the closure was necessary in response to the drought of the past three years. The ranchers claim he made his decision last winter and that the rains over the past four months have ended the drought and the range is in good condition.
Following an opening prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance May 17, Carpenter introduced the various elected representatives that were there to show their support. They included Nevada State Senator Pete Goicoechea, Nevada Assemblymen Ira Hansen and John Ellison, Nevada Cattlemen's President Ron Torell, the Lander County Commission, the Elko County Commission, the Pershing County District Attorney and the Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney.
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei sent staffers to voice their support.
Schweigert presented his view of facts and figures he said he had gathered over the past several weeks after conducting a scientific evaluation of the allotment on behalf of the ranchers.
"I would call it a normal year," Schweigert told the crowd, "certainly not drought conditions by forage standards. Last year, and other drier years, I have measured seed-stalk height of squirrel tail and Sandberg's bluegrass at three to four inches at full maturity. Here, we are at around 11 to 12 inches tall."
The range consultant explained he purposely analyzed the "worst case scenario;" the lowest elevation sites in the summer use area. Additionally, he pointed out, the BLM has ignored the fact the Argenta Allotment had significant rains last fall that resulted in a lot of green new growth.
Schweigert told the crowd that particularly the cheat grass needs to be eaten now, while it is still green and full of protein and nutrients. "Cows will get pig-fat on this grass right now," he said, but in a couple of weeks it will dry out and lose most of its benefit. At that point, Schweigert and many of the other speakers pointed out, the dried grass becomes a tremendous fire danger.
Alan Dueck of Battle Mountain noted, "This tour should not end on this mountain. The real work begins when we leave." He implored everyone in attendance to go home and begin writing letters to their elected officials and the BLM. "Letters work," he said.
Elko County Commissioner and long-time states' rights advocate Demar Dahl reminded those in attendance that the problems they were witnessing were typical. "Washington makes the decisions about our public lands from thousands of miles away," he said. "You can only vote for a few of those in Congress and you can vote for none of the bureaucrats whose decisions impact your life directly. It is time to transfer the management of the lands closer to home."
Gerber agreed.
"The citizens of the Battle Mountain BLM District have been harmed by the decisions made by Director Furtado and it is their right to petition their elected representatives. Now it is the duty of those representatives to remedy the problem," he said.
Lenny Shepard of Battle Mountain was one of the last to address the assembled citizens. "We have our elected officials here supporting us, we have a range consultant that says the allotment can support the cows, and we have our sheriff here. Open the gates," he demanded.
Rex Steninger is an independent contributor to the Bugle. Bugle Community News Editor Heather Hill also contributed to this article.[[In-content Ad]]
