Ranching is for the Birds

By Steven H. Rich

Birds as a class are great indicators of rangeland health. They have high metabolic rates and therefore need lots of high quality food on a continuous basis. They have very specific habitat requirements for feeding and nesting. Most species need to drink water at least daily. Because of all this, birds love well managed ranches. Good ranches have it all; and they get healthier year by year.

I make these statements with considerable certainly. At this writing I have on the desk in front of me several inches of scientific studies bearing the same message. I also have many years experience as an environmental educator, rangeland consultant, rancher and outdoorsman. A series of recent experiences reinforced the scientific ranching /bird connection very powerfully.

I drove from Utah, through Wyoming and Colorado to North Dakota, then down to Texas, into New Mexico and Arizona for the propose of interviewing researchers and other experts for a film about the effects of scientific grazing practice on ecosystem processes and wildlife. I was doing this film as a follow-up to a film we did with U.S. Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, called “The New Rangeland Compact” 12 years ago. I found an important bird story everywhere I went.

None was more instructive than the interviews I did in North Dakota with Dr. Jimmie Richardson (well know soil scientist at NDSU) and Gene Goven, (rancher and private researcher) on Gene’s place at Turtle Lake.

On a prairie hilltop Dr. Richardson found 11 species of native grass growing along side diverse wildflowers. There were birds all around, from waterfowl to hawks to sparrow and hummingbirds. He explained that Gene’s management (1 or 2 annual grazings for brief periods at conservative to moderate levels with time for regrowth) had increased plant diversity from nonnative grasses and one native with a 5-inch root zone to over a hundred combined species of native grasses, gramanoids, forbs and shrubs and a 40-inch root zone. This had profoundly changed the soil hydrology of the site. In a dry year after a long dry spell, the hilltop was dark green. There was dew on our shoes and pant legs. We found a frog on the hill over 80 yards from water, happy in the moist grass, hunting insects. The frog was found among plant species normally found in bottomland in the eastern Great Plains, not this hilltop short grass site. The good Doctor was enthusiastic. Gene’s management was building soil, re-watering the landscape, increasing soil nitrogen, increasing native biodiversity, making a great return on investment and setting a wonderful example.

Gene pointed to a wooded draw on his land which ran from Turtle Lake to a prairie pothole and up to a little glacial-till hilltop like the one where we stood. He showed us a bird species list generated in a half mile birding excursion sponsored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Audubon Society, from lake to hilltop and back they identified over 100 species of birds.

To place this species diversity in context, please realize that according to my Salt Lake City friend Mark Stackhouse of “Westwings” birding tours (who guides birders in sites ranging from Utah to Arizona and New Mexico and down to Meso-America) “There aren’t many places on Earth where 100 bird species come easily in a day of birding.”

Karen Smith and Craig Hultberg of Lostwood and Audubon National Wildlife refuges confirmed Gene’s findings. Both had seen big increases in Native plant diversity and a return of native upland (including endangered Bairds Sparrows) bird diversity and a huge decrease in nonnative and invader species (plants) as well as bare ground as a result of a regime of prescribed grazing and prescribed fire. When I asked Karen what her message to Congress and the American people was, she said, “Stop protecting the prairie to death. It needs fire. It needs grazing. It dies without disturbance.”

Karen told me how Lostwood Refuge looked 20 years ago. “ I was supposed to be managing a grassland/wetland complex, but years and years of little or no grazing and no fire had turned the grassland to brush land. So the native upland birds were gone.” Before he began his prescribed fire and grazing program Craig Hultberg used to spend much of his time spraying poisons on thistles and other nonnative invaders. Now the spray rig stays in the garage. Craig spoke of an “illusion of health” created by years of rank old growth from European grasses, etc. due to years of rest. “It’s really a biological desert,” he said. “It doesn’t fool the birds and other wildlife though. They leave and they don’t come back till the native diversity if restored, along with natural nutrient cycling.”

I had seen what he meant on other sites around the state while touring his impressive bio-diverse rangeland. Rancher Ken Miller showed me nearby land that had been rested 30 years. It had 2 grass species and leafy spurge, a destructive invader plant, and no prairie flowers at all. Researcher Paul Nyren at the Central Grassland Research Station, guided me to long rested research plots. They all looked the same, had the same foul smelling soil surface and had few native plants on birds.

Gene Govern and Dr. Richardson had given me an in-depth explanation on Cropland Reserve Program (C.R.P). land (rested 18 years) near Gene’s ranch.

“New C.R.P. land has slots of wildlife – sharp tailed grouse, nesting ducks, deer, songbirds, the whole works, “Dr Richardson explained. But in 6 years or so they’ll mostly be gone. Look at this.” Here he plunged his sharpshooter spade into the ground. “See, six inches!” He tried several other spots. “Five inches penetration is the average here. Below that the soil has no structure. It’s cloddy and unhealthy. You can’t dig it any more than you could concrete. Five inches is the root zone and is as deep as the water goes.” Then he held a sample of shallow soil on his spade and poured water on it. “Nine seconds is the test for water repellency, “ he said. Gene counted out ninety seconds. Then Dr. Jimmie poured the water off. “This is due to a fungal coating that makes the organics repel water,” he explained. “Now smell this soil.”

I took a big whiff. The stink made my eyes water.

“That’s the smell of the fungus”, he went on. It like we’d waxed the soil surface. The soil hydrology is ruined. Water runs off this land, floods the lowlands, then the land and ponds dry up by late summer. Look at this vegetation.” He pulled up one of the widely spaced alfalfa plants. “It’s pale yellowish green, and it’s old and course. Listen!” He bent the stems which crackled and broke. “Full of lignin and cellulose. Wildlife would starve on this stuff. Between the bad nutrition and the dewatering of the landscape it’s no mystery about absent wildlife.” Dr Richardson went on. “No bird can take the risk of nesting here. Ponds dry up before young waterfowl are fledged. It’s devastating to them and to upland animals as well, the forage has low water content and little nutrition.. Survivors and successful breeders return to successful sites. No survivors, no returners, no wildlife.”

Gene sent his dog out on several sweeps and found nothing. Not even a mouse. After a while the dog got discourage and had to be ordered to try. “The dog’s not fooled” Gene chuckled, “It’s just the humans who can’t tell.”

Rancher Gabe Brown later told me it’s a common practice among rural people in North Dakota to send rude or intoxicated bird hunters and bird watchers to C.R.P. ground where the country folk know they won’t see anything.

Gabe’s ranch swarms with wildlife. He doesn’t miss a change to do them a good turn. Of course, the trees and berry producing hedges around his house and farms are filled with birdsong.

So is Deseret Ranch, in high, dry, cold northeastern Utah. Mark Stackhouse has identified 274 bird species on the property including a trove of sagebrush obligates like Weavers sparrows and Sage Grouse. On 1% of Utah’s potential habitat, Deseret has 20% of the Sage grouse counted into the state. Gallinaceous Bird expert _______________, of Utah’s Department of Wildlife Resources told me that year after year on an apples to apples ecological site to ecological site comparison Desert has ten times more Sage Grouse then land managed on B.L.M. doctrine.

Like Gene Govens’ land, Deseret’s once a year, brief, conservative to moderate grazing has produces plant communities and soils that hold water. So, now that there’s lots of water in the soil, the native meadow complexes have reappeared, thousands of acres of them, and growing. The flowering plants and native grasses have also returned.

Mark Stackhouse made it clear in our interview that growing sagebrush obligate birds and animals like pygmy rabbits a bunch of sagebrush does them little good. They need Sagebrush Steppe ecosystems not just the bushes. The reappearance the wet meadow complexes and upland herbaceous community is a Godsend to many creatures.

It’s not hard to understand. Sage Grouse chicks need insects and tender, high energy, high protein plant matter. The farther Momma Sage Grouse has to trail her brood to get them, and water, the more they’ll be exposed, the more scent they’ll leave and the more of them she’ll lose to predators. On Deseret, it’s a very short trip.” That was John Kimball, former head of Utah’s Department of Wildlife Resources. He shares that theory with ____________________, Rick Danvir, Deseret Ranch wildlife manager, Mark Stackhouse and every other biologist I spoke with.

Dr. Roy Roath of Colorado State University showed me the same thing on Cold Springs Mountain Allotment in northwestern Colorado. Wet meadows were expanding stream flow increasing, spring were reappearing, even in a severe drought, and so are the Sage Grouse. “Bigger Broods, more of them, higher survival." he grinned. He was standing among aspen sprouts that were invading the drowning sage. Sage Grouse are increasing “Dynamically,” along with pronghorns, deer, elk, and songbirds. And the grazing process is the same, too. “Grazing periods average seven days. Conservative to moderate grazing on average, leaving plenty of residue”. (The cattle and the ranch bank account are also doing better.) The improved nutrition also allows female grouse to lay more fertile eggs, increasing brood size from the start.

Deseret Ranch has been designated a worldwide “Important Bird Area” by the Audubon Society. In the letter informing Utah’s Rich County Commissioners of this honor, Audubon stated that they estimated “more than 2,000 waterfowl, more than 7,000 Canada Geese, 20 breeding pairs of Long billed Curlow, 50 breeding pairs of Franklins’ Gulls, 30 breeding pair of Burrowing Owls, 100 breeding pair of Virginia’s Warblers, and 50 breeding pairs of Broad tailed Hummingbirds.” If you added 50 pairs of Willow Flycatchers on a short reach of Lost reek and Blue Fork, Ferruginous Hawks, lots of other raptors (many eagles) the Sage Grouse and other Sagebrush Obligates, 8000 (combined) deer, elk, moose, pronghorn along with pelicans (no kidding) on manmade rookery island, you start to get the picture (100 species in a birding days is easy here too.)

In southwest New Mexico I visited David Ogilvie on the U-Bar Ranch. It is famous for hosting the largest population of Southwest Willow Flycatchers known anywhere (260 pairs) along with neighbors in the Gila-Cliff Valley.

Less well know is the fact that Forest Service scientists have found the highest and most species diverse population of non-colonial riparian birds, (including endangered birds other than flycatchers) anywhere in North America on the U-Bar Ranch and Gila-Cliff Valley as well. This land has been ranched and farmed since the late 1800’s that may be why it also still hosts high numbers of endangered cyprinid fishes, rare on public land.

Another less known fact is that the kind of habitat Willow Flycatchers actually like can be created easily. They do not choose to occupy classic gallery forest habitat along the Gila River for many miles north and south of the Gila-Cliff Valley. But if someone creates a slack water slough anywhere in the valley, it is immediately occupied. The Flycatchers live primarily in narrow stringers of secondary forest containing Box Elder trees on slow-moving irrigation ditches and the afore-mentioned sloughs. The Federal Government has so far rejected an enlightened proposal to increase prime habitat apparently because such man-made structures and resulting vegetation are not politically correct even if they are beautiful and assist in saving several endangered species. (This is particularly odd since the U.S. Department of Agriculture pays tens of millions to create such wetlands elsewhere on private land.) The proposal is also designed to protect fully occupied Flycatcher habitat in immanent danger of destruction by floods.

David Ogilvie and his employers and partners should be honored and their example widely followed. Again, the grazing is planned. Upland use if of short duration and use levels targeted for plant health and soil cover. Forage is kept fresh. Grazing, nutrient cycling and water dynamics keep it green in a vegetative state much longer. Wildlife benefit immensely.

Many environmentalists know this ranching/wildlife symbiosis. Bob Bud, Director of Land Management at the Nature Conservancy’s Red Canyon Ranch in Wyoming (also an Audubon important bird area) told me that the Ranch was operated to demonstrate the healing potentials of scientific, feedback-based management. Bob’s management has a achieved wonders similar to those described above. Bob is anxious for people to realize that intense weather events, climate, wildfire (resulting in floods, etc.) and other powerful natural forces play a major role. “A tough winter can concentrate elk and moose so they chew the heck out of the willows and streamside vegetation I’ve been so carefully husbanding for nesting habitat and brood rearing. Then the heavy snows melt and away it goes. It’s happened that way for tens of thousands of years.”

“A four-inch rain on a rocky mountainside or burn area can cause a cascading blowout of beaver dams and wash years of careful management down the canyon,” he said. “It’s important to grasp that in these mountain locations, it’s gonna happen.”

Bob’s illustrations of his point echo’s Dr. Al Medina’s excellent observation on that topic. “People stand in canyon topography and demand no erosion. They don’t realize they’re being absurd. Where did the billions of tons of rock go? Streams need a bed load of silts, sands and gravels to heal flood and other damage and for substrates fish and other organisms need for spawning and other uses. Also, many fish don’t reproduce without muddy water. We should manage carefully for watershed stability and productivity, but we shouldn’t pretend these big flood events won’t happen or shouldn’t. Mountains wash away eventually and wildlife adapts and persists in the process. It’s part of the overall ecosystem.”

David Ogilvie and I watched herons fishing in the Gila River pools black with endangered spike dace and other minnows. “No flood, no fish, no herons, no cottonwoods, no new channels (natural, from floods, or man-made), no second growth box elders, no flycatchers.” Far fewer and less of all the other birds that live around here,” he chuckled. “We need to quit blaming each other and get on with executing a shared vision that works for everybody including wildlife.”

That’s a sentiment shared by Jim and Sue Chilton of the Montana Allotment near Arivaca, Arizona. Their ranch is a birdwatchers Mecca, like so many in Southern Arizona. Mearns Quail, Masked Bobwhite and many other sensitive species thrive there, as do Coues Whitetail and Mule Deer, javelina, mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, coati mundi, and many species of small mammals and reptiles. Sue serves as President of the Arizona Game and Fish Department Wildlife Board. The Chilton’s love to host visitors on their beautiful forest Service Allotment. Sadly, some have abused this hospitality and accused the Chilton’s of mismanagement.

“That is a very unfortunate irony,” says Dr. Jerry Holechek of New Mexico State University, “This is one of the finest examples of scientifically monitored and documented grazing success in the southwest. There has been a huge shift from short grasses to native mid-grasses on this place - excellent watershed and excellent repairer health.” He and Dr. Dee Galt (formerly of NRCS) beamed with pleasure at the beautiful diverse mountainside and stream areas. (They had designed, monitored and published scientific papers on the rest rotation grazing system, conservative use levels, and the resulting explosion of life and riparian healing)

As John Kimball, former director of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources put it, “The only future for Wildlife in the west is in shared vision which brings all interests together, using our best efforts and information and our mutual resources. We need to honor, trust and respect ranchers who manage toward habitat goals.” He went on, “People need to learn about ecosystem processes. Land that has been used by animals looks used. It smells used. It doesn’t matter if wildlife or livestock used it. If it was used properly , it will grow back, and it will be better than before it was used.” (While he spoke my mind flashed on Mark Stackhouse telling me he could always find Curlews in a certain meadow on Deseret Ranch. “Their bills are perfectly adapted for hunting insects under cow pies.”)

Still quoting John Kimball, “Wildlife needs to coexist with livestock on western ranges. Well managed collaborative ranching creates income for rural people. It prevents rangeland being sold off for other, incompatible uses and preserves open space. Grazing management can achieve what wildlife mangers want. It’s the best and least expensive way to do it and it puts primary responsibility for rangeland management back in the hands of those most qualified to do it – the people who live on the land.”

He said the above in a reply to my question, “What do you wish environmentalists understood about grazing? His first response was to start laughing. He understands the huge disconnect between the facts on ranching and the urban publics misinformed beliefs.

So does Jerry Holechek. Managed grazing is good for birds as a class,” he told. “That’s what the research shows. I have study after study in my files that reinforce that idea. Responsible scientists know that. Managed livestock grazing favors wildlife in general. It’s irresponsible and unethical to draw conclusions about ranching based on studies about unmanaged livestock use. Some people stretch some very narrow points to draw anti-grazing conclusions, but in the real world where wildlife live, their ideas are irrelevant at best and usually destructive of wildlife survival.”

To use on old-time negative phrase, a lot of uninformed people think ranching is “for the birds”. Out on the range, the birds vote with their wings. Where the abstract theorists get their way as they did in the Ruby Marshes in Nevada (a whole other story) the birds leave and go to the ranches. Ranching is for the birds.