10/07/08 Peppergrass, cattle and activists

Pepper grass, Cattle and Activists Once again environmental activists are working to undermine cattle producers. I'm Jeff Keane stayed tuned until after the break and I will be back to tell you about it. It's the same old story throughout the West, and it is getting old&.now ranchers in Idaho are being persecuted! Here is Susan Allen reporting on the attempts of the Western Watersheds Project to remove cattle from Idaho's pubic lands. Despite evidence from range land management programs at our land grant universities showing that monitored grazing can be good for range lands, the environmental group called the Western Watersheds Project has filed a suite against the U.S. Fish and Wild Department to get slickspot pepper grass listed as endangered (their tactic to get cattle off the range.) This isn't anything new, Back in 2003 the BLM worked up a plan to minimize threats to slickspot pepper grass that is working well and even discovered that there wasn't evidence that pepper grass was declining in great mass and in places it was struggling, they found many times cattle didn't even graze there . Susan this is just plain wrong, pressuring the Fish and Wildlife service to list this grass will destroy winter range for Idaho cattlemen at a time when feed prices are so high. I would encourage a letter writing campaign to retain these public lands for responsible cattle producers. Contact the Idaho Cattle Association to see how you can help. I'm Jeff Keane.