[expat2]

There was an interesting article here a little while ago, by a land management expert who was concerned with stopping the growth of deserts. Earlier in his career, he believed that the problem was overgrazing by the natives' farm animals, and drove them all off a section of marginal land. It quickly turned to desert.

Now, he realizes that the land needs more animals, not less, and has had good success with that way to stop desertification.

The arrogance of land management 'experts' continues to be most impressive.

[caveat emptor]

Here's an article about the man, Allan Savory, a Rhodesian, in a Tucson newspaper.

And here's a video (22 min) of a talk he gave.

[tiki]

We just had a 138,000 acre fire in the wilderness near here. They took the cattle off years ago and the game followed and it grew up into an unmanaged tangle of growth. Whatever they think they protected went up in smoke.

It has already improved our watershed, the water is coming down the river instead of being consumed by useless plant matter.

We had a neighbor rancher whose ranch had some rare falcon. They made him cover his troughs so they wouldn’t drown and when it came time for the baby birds to hatch they made him take the cattle off the pasture. Guess what...the falcons abandoned their nests and followed the cattle.

The Nature Conservancy bought a huge ranch and immediately took all the cattle off of it, the game left voluntarily, lol.

Cattle keep their little trails beaten out which prevents the thick underbrush. They kick up mice and small game for the hawks, falcons and eagles. They keep the grass grazed so it is growing fresh tender feed.