Grazing maximizes land use, benefits environment
As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once wisely noted, “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.”
And when I read the July 7 article by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism in The Arizona Republic and headlined “Arizona charges less than almost anyone else to graze cattle,” this quote immediately came to mind.
Unfortunately, the article compares apples to oranges, or since we’re talking about landscapes, a desert to a forest.
Ranching in Arizona is unique, challenging and as diverse as the great state of Arizona and certainly unlike other states, even other Western states.
As a cattle breeder himself, Eisenhower recognized the hard work and dedication it takes to feed a nation and the importance of a stable and abundant food supply to national security.
The public trust is not taken lightly by any rancher in Arizona. For us, state lands don’t just represent a way to fund the schools our children attend or preserve the heritage of the state we love. They represent the resource that sustains our livelihood.
Arizona’s grazing rates are low because that’s what the market will sustain. State lands with no other use than grazing means demand for the land is low. The rate reflects that.
The comparison the article sets up is that Arizona’s rates are lower than any other state, therefore it’s assumed the grazing fees are too low.
The real comparison is that Arizona’s rates are low because the land has no other use but grazing, and grazing is actually the best way to maximize the value of that land both to the State Trust and to other taxpayer funded services.
In the meantime, as a rancher, I’m responsible for building and maintaining any improvements on the land I use for grazing.
Cattle ranchers serve as a tool for land management on behalf of the state. As a rancher, I like to identify the illuminating number of very important environmental benefits responsible grazing provides to public and private lands. Those benefits include:
❚ Increased diversity of plant and animal species.
❚ Reducing wildfire threats from rangeland fires (an important one in Arizona and California).
❚ Habitat restoration for wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
❚ Control of invasive plant species.
❚ Controlling erosion from water runoff for improved water quality.
❚ Improving vegetation along stream banks and watershed health.
❚ Offering visually attractive vistas.
❚ Preventing fragmentation of habitat from housing and commercial development.
❚ Preserving open space in a rapidly growing state.
Much of our state lands currently under grazing are not suitable for other enterprises; yet the forage grown on these lands can be used by cattle to produce an agricultural product while the water we maintain for our cattle also allows wildlife to thrive.
Ultimately, my role as a rancher is to steward the land for future generations, including my own grandchildren. Providing food for my family and you are what gets me out of bed every day.
This is our commitment as ranchers 24/7. And I have a personal, vested interest to do that the right way.