The Controversy Over Land Grazing :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

The Controversy Over Land Grazing Years before ranchers and cowboys were thinking about the cattle business, hundreds of thousands of buffalo once roamed the Great Plains eating everything in their path. They were not worried about overgrazing or abusing the land; all they cared about was surviving to the next day. The buffalo did not ruin the ground they went across, and the grass grew back just fine for the buffalo to eat the next year. This proves that if used properly, livestock grazing will not hurt the land, but will mimic the natural pattern of buffalo. Public land grazing is both logical and beneficial to America's national parks and forests (Savory and Butterfield). The Cost of public land grazing is one point of concern for many people. They believe that the government does not charge enough for the use of public land for livestock grazing. These people feel that the ranchers are getting to use the pasture for a minimal amount. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, "The average rent for non-irrigated range land in the West is about $11.90, while the cost of grazing fees on federal land is about $1.43 per animal per month (AUM)." AUM are initials for Animal-Unit Month. The AUM is the cost of one horse, or five sheep, or one cow with calf at side, for the forage they would eat for one month. The people who want to take away public land grazing do not take into consideration all the time and work the ranchers put in to make the land better. They are constantly riding the pastures, making sure that the pastures are being used properly and that there is no overgrazing taking place. Also, the ranchers make sure that ponds are kept in quality condition and if they are not, it is their job to get the ponds dug out or whatever it takes to make the ponds better. The costs of the repairs are at the expenses of the ranchers. Ranchers do a lot of other things like put up electric fence to insure rotational grazing, cut trails to make paths easier, and more to improve the quality of the land (Smith). According to Mark Smith, a local rancher, "Ranchers could spend over 100 hours working on all these different projects to improve the land if they have a pool rider." A pool rider is somebody who is hired to ride and look after the cows.