[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 111 (Thursday, July 31, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1574-E1575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    GRAZING'S ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JOE SKEEN

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 30, 1997

  Mr. SKEEN. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to discuss the benefits of 
grazing for our environment. I call particular attention to an 
excellent article published in yesterday's Washington Post, July 29, 
1997, which was written by Tom Kenworthy.
  I commend this article for readership by each of my colleagues in the 
House of Representatives because it points out, in a national media 
publication, the benefits to all Americans of the important practice of 
responsible grazing.
  I ask unanimous consent to include Mr. Kenworthy's article in the 
Record.

               [From the Washington Post, July 29, 1997]

   Sheep Come to the rescue in the West; Grazing Helps Restore Weed-
                             Infested Lands

                           (By Tom Kenworthy)

       Buford, Colo.--The hills sloping down toward Lake Avery in 
     the Oak Ridge State Wildlife Area outside this northwest 
     Colorado hamlet are lushly carpeted this summer with western 
     wheat grass, Idaho fescue and other native grasses.
       These hillsides, which provide critically needed winter 
     range for elk and deer, were not always so healthy. Just a 
     few years ago, they were awash in leafy spurge, a noxious 
     weed that made its way to America from Europe and has no 
     natural predators on this side of the Atlantic. Leafy spurge 
     has now infested more than 3 million acres in the West--part 
     of a broad invasion of western range land by nonnative weed 
     species that is alarming land managers throughout the region 
     and costing livestock producers tens of millions of dollars 
     annually.
       Isolated patches of spurge can still be found above Lake 
     Avery. But by using sheep to intensively graze the infested 
     portions of the 14,000-acre wildlife area in early summer, 
     state officials have turned the tide against a stubborn, 
     aggressive weed that sends roots 20 feet below the surface, 
     can render pasture land nearly useless for cattle and horses 
     and can devalue ranches to virtual worthlessness.
       ``We've contained it, and I believe we can eradicate it,'' 
     said Bob Griffin, a wildlife property technician with the 
     state agency that manages Oak Ridge.
       The victory at the Oak Ridge Wildlife Area is being 
     repeated elsewhere in the West as ranchers and land managers 
     discover they can use sheep, and in some cases goats, to 
     control spurge and some other noxious plant invaders. Unlike 
     cattle, which become ill if

[[Page E1575]]

     they ear spurge, sheep will, with a little encouragement, 
     graze happily on it and thrive on its 20 percent protein 
     content.
       In a region where sheep are still reviled by cattlemen as 
     despoilers of the public range and competitors for precious 
     forage, there is considerable irony in the use of sheep to 
     reclaim land for cattle.
       ``Some of these cow outfits wouldn't have sheep on them no 
     matter what,'' observed sheep rancher John Paugh of Bozeman, 
     Mont. ``But there's a market because there is no other 
     economically sound way to control spurge. When you get large 
     acreages of it, there is no other way available.''
       Paugh, who runs about 2,200 lambs and ewes on spurge-
     infested range land near the Shields River in southwest 
     Montana, said it is a good deal for him and for the cattle 
     ranchers who rent him the land. He feeds his sheep for about 
     half what it would cost to rent grass pasture, and his sheep 
     are able to control the spurge for about one-third the $25 an 
     acre cost of using herbicides.
       For sheep ranchers, an economically beleaguered fraternity 
     whose ranks have declined by 17 percent since 1993 because of 
     pressure from cheaper imports, the loss of federal wool 
     subsidies and other factors, a difference of a few cents per 
     acre of forage can be critical.
       Although both wool and lamb prices have rebounded recently, 
     the 1990s have been tough for America's sheep producers, 
     according to Peter Orwick, executive director of the American 
     Sheep Industry Association. Average wool prices, which hit 
     $1.40 per pound in the 1980s, went as low as 51 cents a pound 
     three years ago, he said. And between 1991 and 1994, lamb 
     meat sold for 50 cents a pound or less, compared with $1.50 
     today.
       ``On the lamb side, the biggest factor we face is 
     imports,'' Orwick said. ``Imports have gone from 7 percent of 
     consumption in 1993 to over 20 percent today.''
       Pat Sturgeon, 57, a second-generation sheep rancher who for 
     the past half-dozen years has contracted with the state of 
     Colorado to graze his 900 head on the Oak Ridge Wildlife Area 
     from last May to early July, has his own sheep-ranching 
     economics index.
       ``In 1970 I could buy a new pickup with 100 lambs,'' 
     Sturgeon said as he showed off his flock to a visitor. ``Now 
     it takes 250 lambs. We don't drive new pickups anymore.''
       Being able to graze sheep relatively cheaply on state land 
     for 45 days early in the season before federal grazing 
     allotments open up ``gives us an advantage,'' Sturgeon said. 
     Under his contract with the state, he pays about $2 a month 
     per head for grazing the wildlife area. That is several times 
     higher than his cost later in the summer to graze on federal 
     land, but it is still cheaper than what he would pay for 
     private land.
       ``I need pasture in the spring,'' he said. ``It lines me up 
     to get on my national forest permit later.''
       Just how much of a dent sheep and goats can make in the 
     leafy spurge problem is subject to considerable debate.
       George Beck, a professor of weed science at Colorado State 
     University who has been experimenting with sheep, both alone 
     and in tandem with flea beetles on test plots outside Denver, 
     said they are effective against spurge but not a silver 
     bullet.
       ``It's not the answer, because spurge is such a troublesome 
     plant,'' he said. ``You'll never get perfect control, but 
     they are a valuable part of it.''
       Don Smurthwaite, a Bureau of Land Management official in 
     Boise, Idaho, is more enthusiastic. The federal agency this 
     year imported 240 Angora goats from the Navajo Indian 
     reservation in Arizona to help control spurge on 2,000 acres 
     near Pocatello, and Smurthwaite said the experiment has 
     ``exceeded our wildest expectations.''