A Monument for Archaeology or Feeding Cattle?

 by Mary O'Brien, Utah Forests Director

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, located in southwestern Colorado, boasts one of the highest known densities of archaeological sites in the nation. With more than 5,000 recorded sites—pueblos , kivas, springs, prehistoric agricultural fields—thousands more lie undiscovered. The BLM is considering opening this outdoor museum to cattle grazing, and we need your help to convince them otherwise.

How you can help

On MONDAY, November 23, the scoping period ends for a proposal to allow cattle to graze in two desert tumbleweed-choked allotments in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument after a 10-year hiatus. Please consider sending a comment to the BLM, encouraging them to support the Sustainable Grazing and Recovery Alternative submitted by the Grand Canyon Trust, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and Western Watersheds Project. Take a look at some photos of the allotments here. 

Here's the backstory

In March 2015, eagle-eyed Rose Chilcoat, Associate Director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, sprung into action after reading a tiny notice in the Durango Herald.  The ad invited ranchers to apply for permits to run cattle in two allotments (Yellow Jacket and Flodine Park) in the monument, which hadn’t been grazed for 10 years  except by trespassing horses.

The rancher who previously held the permits to run cattle in those two allotments had quit grazing there in 2005. Rather than change grazing practices to meet the minimal BLM “Rangeland Health Standards,” the rancher decided to move his cows to greener pastures. 

Ten years passed, and then in March 2015, the note appeared in the Durango Herald. With thousands of archaeological sites already recorded, sparse vegetation, a Russian olive invasion along the few creeks, and thousands of grazing-damaged acres covered by cheatgrass and tumbleweed, Rose didn’t think sending cattle back into the two allotments made sense.

(Young Russian olive growing along Yellowjacket Creek—it's not too late for restoration rather than cows!)

By early August, Advocates for the West filed a formal complaint on behalf of seven conservation groups and a professor to protest the BLM’s plan to reintroduce cattle without assessing conditions and options after 10 years of no cattle.  The BLM agreed to do a new analysis and environmental assessment. And that’s where you come in.

The Trust, Great Old Broads, and Western Watersheds have submitted a Sustainable Grazing and Recovery proposal to the BLM:  

• Keep Yellow Jacket free of livestock grazing (except up to 25 percent of the acres could be used for collaboratively-developed experiments) 
• Allow light grazing (30 percent of plants could be used as food) in Flodine Park during months when the ground is frozen, as called for in the monument’s management plan to protect biological soil crusts. 
• Partnerships could be established to remove Russian olive and tamarisk to improve the health of the land.  

Read the entire proposal on pages 8-11 of the scoping comments, which also discuss why these changes can and should be made by the BLM.

It’s short notice before the scoping period officially ends November 23, but your comments a few days later would still be accepted.  

Help protect archaeological resources at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument by submitting your comments to the BLM today!