“These are the times that try men's souls.” | You asked the very question that I hoped someone would have picked up on. Yes almost every inch of this ground was deeded except some of the BLM ground that was just too poor to ever be considered to make a living off back then. However it is was a classic example of a place that shouldn't have ever seen a plow. The Easterners came here and saw a sea of grass, so they went to plowing and proving up on the land, Building towns, schools, digging wells. It was a hard place to live, water was in very short supply even just for drinking water. People hauled water for miles just for drinking. So by the dust bowl era, this place was disaster. People just packed up and left, some sold out. A lot of these people left to move further west to where water was more abundant. Then the Government helped those people with big irrigation projects in those areas. Today those projects, dams, canals, etc. are being challenged, even being tore back out for the sake of fish and the Native Americans because they think they have claim to the water.
So the Government bought a lot of the land back and made it the Grasslands, they went to trying to restore the land. Hired the remaining locals, and also using CC corps at the time for projects to give men work in that time frame. They brought introduced species of grasses Bulbous Bluegrass was one of them. Today we fight it because we don't get enough growth in this area to graze, however it is a extreme fire hazard and crowds out more desirable species. It did do its job to help stabilize the soil, that's why it was brought here.
So that cannel of water that they are restoring Starts at the head of a springs, and flows down hill. But above them sits the only remaining dry farms in business in that area. Well over the years for a 100 years their farming practices caused the erosion of that channel to a greater extent. The channel was already there, but those practices of the time didn't help it, the cuts became deeper. However they did wonders in healing the land over the last 80-90 years. But though the last 35 years cattle have gotten the blame for this erosion, it wasn't cattle. The farmers on the Westside of that channel adopted no-till, however those on the Eastside still had a problem. So money was thrown at them in this project to help and get them on board to stop erosion on their lands. I'm being hopeful they will buy into a 100%, time will tell.
They have tried everything to kick cattle off these lands, the last species to be used now is the Sage Grouse and last 5 years is the Monarch Butterfly. In the west Sage Grouse has taken a decline, mainly from fire from loss of habitat. But in our area predation is a very big factor, and they refuse to print the data on predation. I tell everybody that these government employees are using the habitat issues to justify their jobs, and build their careers. Then when that meal ticket runs out, they will come back to the predation issue and use that one to justify funding and their jobs so the next set of employees can build their careers.
It gets very disheartening to get it jammed down your throat you are abusing these lands. Yet if you look at wildlife numbers in the last 30 years in this valley. That's not the case, so where do we find this common ground?
Edited by Russ In Idaho 3/10/2019 07:08
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Well I'm getting tired of winter snow,.............
