Launching Holistic Mangement on a Forest Service Allotment
by David Bradford
Fifteen years ago holistic thinking in the U.S. Forest Service hardly existed outside semi-secret cells. That has changed. The dogmatic rhetoric of competing ideologies and programs, which had frequently borrowed elements from each other, had to yield to pressure to simply get on with the job. When environmentalists insisted that "renewable" resources actually show evidence of renewal, agencies responded with fine phrases like "Whole Ecosystem Management" and "Collaborative Resource Management Planning." Field staff, however, had to figure out what to actually do. Their practical use of the Holistic Management® model has enriched our knowledge and made the public discussion of Holistic Management® far healthier and more level-headed. The following article by David Bradford, a range conservationist in the Gunnison National Forest in Colorado, illustrates how this process continues. Bradford is also president of the Colorado Section of the Society for Range Management. – Sam Bingham, Editor
I first heard of Allan Savory and his grazing theories in the mid-'80s. They were intriguing, but in truth I did not really understand them until I went to an introductory class in Albuquerque. I came out charged up and ready to introduce Holistic Management® on every grazing allotment in my district. Unfortunately none of the ranchers there (permittees as we call them) were interested or had even heard of it. It was like being dressed for the prom and having no date, and if the girl don't want to go she ain't gonna. I left my knowledge of Holistic Management® on the shelf and unapplied except as background knowledge.
Then, in 1993, I moved to Paonia, Colorado. That fall, the Forest Range Staff Officer and myself were invited to ride with members of the West Elk grazing pool as they gathered cattle off the Forest. They actually intended to convince the Forest Service to initiate the revision of their Allotment Management Plan (AMP). Why would any ranchers want to do that! They worried, however, that without a currant AMP in force they would be vulnerable to arbitrary decisions that would end their grazing on the Forest. We agreed, with enthusiasm. Here was an opportunity to promote quality resource management in an atmosphere of cooperation--the most critical challenge for almost every ranger district in the American West.
The Paonia area in the North Fork of the Gunnison River Valley in western Colorado is rural, semi-arid, and lightly populated. Its economy is based on coal mines, fruit orchards, and ranches who depend significantly on their grazing permits on public land. Some 8,000 cattle and 19,000 sheep belonging to 47 permittees graze on 30 different allotments in my ranger district. Of these 30, only five had AMPs recent enough to accord with a regional forest plan completed in 1983. The most recent AMP revision had been contentious and the two currently under negotiation were progressing slowly in the face of much fear and mistrust. Harmony on a West Elk AMP would create an excellent example because the allotment was both conspicuous and complicated.
In the northwest portion of the West Elk Mountains, the allotment covers 85,000 acres of National Forest plus 5,000 administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Sixty thousand acres lie within the West Elk Wilderness Area that receives particular public scrutiny. Water supplies for two towns, Paonia and Crawford, also come from the allotment. Elevation varies from 6,000 to 12,000 feet (1800 to 3600 meters), rainfall from 7 inches to 40 (178 to 1,015 mm) and grazing areas from desert adobe [clay] hills, juniper-covered mesas and shrubby mountain slopes, to aspen-cloaked ridges and sub-alpine parks. Livestock have grazed there since the 1880s, regulated by permit since soon after establishment of the Gunnison National Forest in 1905. The wilderness issues, the water supply issues, and the wildlife issues all provide ample opportunity for conflict.
A Socio-Bureaucratic Process
In December of 1993 we met with the permittees to discuss how to proceed. We decided to include everyone with an interest or potential interest and to try to involve them in the entire process, including the on-the-ground evaluation. Letters went out to 200 individuals, groups and offices for a January meeting at the Memorial Hall in Hotchkiss, the nearest building that could handle a crowd. Fifty folks came and we struggled through a whole Saturday afternoon listing all the issues that possibly affected the West Elk allotment or the Wilderness Area.
Over the next year we completed the range analysis, held eleven public meetings, and developed an AMP based on Holistic Management®. The Environmental Assessment (EA) was not completed until spring of 1997, over three years from our first meeting.
It was 42 pages long. That saying, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull" may apply to many EAs but in all that paper we put nothing that didn't need to be there. To quote the oldest and crustiest of our permittees, "I got that EA in the mail and thought there was no way I could read that whole thing. But I read it in one sitting, and it was damn good! I really learned some things." We really tried to describe the landscape as it was affected by livestock grazing and consider only viable alternatives.
The final decision notice on the EA and the AMP received only two public comments, both supportive. I believe the no-B.S. Environmental Assessment was part of the reason no one appealed our decision.
Flexibility in Formal Documents
While the Environmental Assessment made a strong case for Holistic Management® as the most practical approach to a large number of public and ranching issues, it's the Allotment Management Plan and grazing permit that govern practice. Together they represent a mix of new flexibility and standard procedure.
The AMP outlines objectives, management actions, range improvements, and monitoring, but it is also based on a three-part holistic goal--quality of life, forms of production, and future landscape description. The goal kept us focused on the land. In public meetings, it is difficult to get agreement on anything. People come with their own biases, prejudices and paradigms. When one person speaks, the vision in his mind probably differs from everyone else's, and they may or may not be listening. So, how did we get beyond that? We focused on the land. As Clinton's handlers might have put it. "It's the land, stupid."
There are several other differences in our AMP. Though the basic terms have changed little, it allows discretionary flexibility on such questions as grazing season and livestock numbers. Also, plant growth and regrowth has replaced the old forage utilization standards and total forage consumed as the criteria for moving stock. For example, the AMP shows May 26 to October 10 as authorized season of use, but we (permittees together with Forest Service staff) planned May 10 to October 15. The earlier turn-on date means grazing will occur in the most brittle pastures when there is still moisture in the soil. Thus plants can regrow. The low elevation lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management had taken 85 cow/calf pairs from May 16 to June 15. Under the holistic plan, 1,056 cow/calf pairs pass through once from May 10 to May 16.
Furthermore, this year we plan to bring mother cows back on the allotment between November 9 and November 18 to open up a heavy oak brush area. The forage under the oaks is generally still green and palatable after it has frosted and cured out in the open parks. We planned this in the spring but monitored in October to check.
Likewise on numbers, this year we authorized an additional 200 head of yearling heifers, and we are monitoring the impact by re-photographing several of the long-term study sites. The permittees will take the before and after photos, and we provide color photocopies of previous photos to help standardize the retakes. Nevertheless, the AMP does not promise any increase in numbers in response to monitoring results. Adjustments in numbers and grazing season are tied to the holistic goal. This may sound like weasel-wording, but it isn't. I don't think promising increases is a good idea. Flexibility to accomplish specific resource objectives is.
There are in fact five specific objectives in the AMP. The two most challenging include bringing all riparian areas into upper mid-seral condition [a higher successional level] and increasing desirable perennial herbaceous plant cover in six pasture units by 20 percent by 2005. There is specific monitoring listed in the monitoring section to measure these objectives.
Guarantees for All Partners
On-the-ground flexibility does require a certain level of faith that the permittees will not fudge on commitments, but faith is not our only recourse. When we completed the Environmental Assessment and signed off on the new management plan, we reissued the Term Grazing Permits. These permits, like all Forest Service grazing permits, list the permitted livestock numbers and season of use, in this case the numbers and season previously authorized while allowing adjustments according to the guidelines of the new AMP. If agreements fall apart, the Forest Service can go back to the original numbers and season. The protection for the permittees also lies in the new Term Permits. They also state that we will use the Holistic Grazing Planning process backed up by the EA to determine livestock numbers and the season of use, so we can't make changes arbitrarily.
What We've Learned
Does the West Elk allotment set an entirely new precedent? Probably not. The Nebraska National Forest, the Pike/San Isabel National Forest, the Shoshone, the Medicine Bow, and some others have all authorized similar programs, but the Paonia Ranger District and the permittees would be happy to give a tour of the West Elk allotment to anyone who still doubts that Holistic Management® can produce the best resource management in our National Forests.
The on-the-ground accomplishments were recognized when the Colorado Section of the Society for Range Management selected the West Elk Grazing Pool as the recipient for its "Excellence in Rangeland Conservation Award" in 1996. In 1997 the Chief of the Forest Service selected the West Elk Pool for the "Out-Service Award for Excellence in Range Management." In February 1998 the Society for Range Management's magazine, Rangelands, ran an article "Holistic Resource Management in the West Elks – Why it Works." We have conducted a number of tours that have included the allotment as an example of progressive and innovative management.
Can I be certain that the process will spread? Not yet. This group of permittees is the best I have ever seen or worked with. Their attitudes are a major reason why this works so well. We are now working with four other allotments on some level of Holistic Management® and progress varies. One is about as good as the West Elk. One is barely operating in a holistic way though still much improved over past management. The third is improving every year, and the fourth is just getting started.
West Elk itself took over three years to establish fully, which may seem long, but I don't regret the time. We front-loaded the process by doing public scoping and getting issues and concerns out on the table before we started doing any field analysis. That way we had those concerns in mind while we were on the land doing analysis, which took one whole year of the three. This paid off. The participants had more of a shared vision of what the land was really like. We probably could have completed the EA/AMP the second year, but like most everyone else I have many other projects and duties. We worked through the process within the constraints of all our other work. It may look slow, but I think the outcome speaks for itself. We didn't push the finish and we were able to successfully complete the process.
Forest Service endorsement is of course essential. EAs and AMPs must pass a thorough review process. We did have to convince a few Forest Service specialists, but that was done as part of the process. We took those folks with us as we did the analysis. Fortunately our Forest Supervisor and Forest Range Staff Specialist are extremely supportive of Holistic Management®. On other Forests this may not be the case.
As for the permittees, they are more enthusiastic than ever, although the learning curve has been steep. They have tried many combinations of fencing (temporary, permanent, and semi-permanent), riders, salting, and border collies to manage the stock in a single big herd, but they are now refining techniques that were new to all the people and animals at the start. Moves that once demanded 18 riders now take half the time with six, plus dogs. They've cut salt from four tons a season to one, and use it strategically to create herd effect. In 1986 the allotment had 11 pastures. In 1996 there were 32 but fewer miles of fence! They're making it work.
Is Holistic Management® a panacea for all grazing issues on the national forests? No, I don't think so. There will still be problems, issues and concerns, but I do believe Holistic Management® makes the road ahead much clearer, because it provides an on-going decision making process that is tied to a specific goal for a specific area of land and trusts open communication to reach flexible, ecosystem-based decisions. Do I recommend it? Absolutely.
West Elk Allotment Holistic Goal
Quality of Life
From now and into the future our goal is to maintain a safe secure, rural community with economic, social and biological diversity. We will promote a community that respects individual freedom and values, education, and that encourages cooperation. We agree to act as good stewards in maintaining a healthy ecosystem in the West Elk allotment and enjoy doing it.
Production
Our stewardship of the West Elk Allotment and Wilderness Area will foster abundant and diverse flora and fauna, clean air and water and stable soils. From this the local population can derive a stable livelihood, and local residents and visitors can enjoy the aesthetic and natural values of the area.
Landscape(Future Resource Base)
Our landscape covers adobe ground, brushy mid-ground and mountain environments including many different habitat types that we are committed to maintaining. Our goal is to have a good water cycle by having close plant spacing, a covered soil surface and arable soils: have a fast mineral cycle using soil nutrients effectively: have an energy flow that maximizes the amount of sunlight converted to plant growth and values the seclusion and natural aesthetics of the area.
We would be happy to give a tour of the West Elk allotment to anyone who still doubts that Holistic Management® can produce the best resource management in our National Forests.
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