Betrayal on the Upper Green River
Recently I attended a meeting with the Bridger Teton National Forest (BTNF) officials to discuss future grazing plans for the Upper Green River grazing allotment.
The allotment, one of the most outstanding wildlife areas in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, contains the headwaters of the Green River and lies north of Pinedale Wyoming between the Wind River Range and the Gros Ventre Range.
Basically, the Forest Service plans to allow the continued degradation of public resources by livestock grazing on what is one of the most important wildlife areas on the entire BTNF. The Upper Green Allotment is an excellent example of PPSC or “privatize profit, socialize costs.”
The Upper Green Allotment is the largest Forest Service grazing allotment in the West. It is a mixture of aspen, rolling sagebrush/grassland, willow-lined creeks, intermixed with ponds, and springs.
It contains the best wildlife habitat outside of a national park. Home to grizzlies and wolves, endangered Colorado cutthroat trout, sage grouse, elk, moose, pronghorn, and various rare amphibians, among other outstanding wildlife values.
That is one reason why the BTNF Forest Plan has categorized 93% of the area as DFC 10 and 12 status where protecting wildlife values is the primary goal.
Unfortunately, this amazing wildlife habitat is annually trashed by private livestock for the profit of a few ranchers, all with the collusion and indeed the cooperation of the BTNF. It treats the Upper Green area as a feedlot for livestock.
In a recent Final Environmental Impact Statement, the BTNF acknowledges that the range condition of the clear majority of the allotment is between poor and fair. Don’t let the word “fair” fool you. It’s a nice sounding euphemism chosen by range managers to hide the real condition of the landscape. In range parlance, this means that much of the Upper Green allotment is in terrible range conditions.
Some 74% of the plant species that would be expected on this allotment are so rare as to be non-existent due to livestock grazing. In other words, by their own admission, the allotment is already severely degraded.
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