BLM Halves Grazing Season & Cattle Numbers on Green Mountain Common Allotment

by Tom Darin

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has shortened the 2002 grazing season on the Green Mountain Common Allotment to 93 days and halved the number of livestock usually permitted on the allotment. This massive, 500,000-acre chunk of public land, located south of Jeffrey City and east of Atlantic City, contains sensitive riparian areas and uplands that serve as important habitat for sage grouse, wild horses and white-tailed prairie dogs.

The Antelope Hills-Picket Lake Use area within the GMCA. On May 27, 2002 two weeks before the scheduled June 10th turnout, grass averaged 2 inches in height along Sulphur Creek. Photo by Ray Corning

Emergency Closure Considered

Last season, due to severe overgrazing and poor cattle management, the allotment was closed nearly 10 weeks early. In April, as Wyoming entered its third straight summer of severe drought, the BLM held a meeting to prepare grazing permittees for an emergency closure of the entire allotment for the 2002 season.

Given last year's abuses, little vegetation regrowth and the continuing drought, the BLM was prepared to make an important decision to start the long process of restoring the health of this landscape. For the BLM, any turnout at all would depend on April and May precipitation.

I attended this critical meeting to support the BLM in making these tough choices, along with WOC board member Lance Morrow and our founding father, Tom Bell.

Hopeful Signs

In April and early May, central Wyoming received considerably more rain and snow than in previous years. Precipitation levels in the area were still below the 20-year average and did little in terms of healing years of grazing excesses and drought. But it did generate some forage growth, allowing the BLM to announce a limited grazing season.

The agency delayed its proposed livestock turnout date until June 10 to allow a chance for further vegetation growth

Limited Turnout

We stressed at the BLM's April meeting that if the end-season goal for the height of riparian vegetation is four inches, it would be ridiculous to allow turnout in areas of potential riparian grazing where the vegetation starts out at less than four inches.

But on June 10, the BLM authorized a limited turnout, with conditions barely meeting the low-end of rangeland health criteria. As depicted in the photograph, many riparian areas on the allotment had less than four inches of vegetation growth when the turnout occurred.

WOC will continue to urge the BLM to take the steps necessary to restore rangeland health in the Green Mountain area.