The ranchers started early, weaving their horses in and out of the cattle to herd them from the pasture toward the old wooden gate and the road that would lead them north. Hi-ya pierced the drone of the mooing cows as they plodded toward Mancos.
The daylong process of herding his cattle to summer grazing grounds in the mountains is one that Gerald Koppenhafer has been doing for as long as he can remember.
Ranchers around the area are making the same annual migration, rounding up cattle from their winter grazing areas and heading into higher country where the animals will stay until the end of the summer.
For years, the time-worn tradition involved herding hundreds of cattle along the sides of country roads. But as highways and development creep farther into rural farmland, more farmers have switched to semitrailers to save the time and hassle of traversing through the ever-expanding networks of buildings and busy roads.
For the ranchers who still herd their cattle by foot, their steps reinforce the tradition of the generations before them.
Weve been doing this the same way for 100 years, said Mancos rancher Brent Alexander.
While providing an annual reminder of the areas ranching roots, the migration also dips into a long-simmering conflict about the environmental impact of grazing in the arid West versus the economic necessity of the activity. Its a disagreement that centers on the millions of acres of public lands where grazing has been permitted for more than 100 years.
The practice dates back to 1897, when Congress authorized the newly formed U.S. Forest Service to regulate grazing and permit it as long as it did not injure forest growth. Last year, 65 percent of almost 2 million acres of Forest Service land in the San Juan National Forest was allotted for grazing. The number was 85 percent on Bureau of Land Management land overseen by the San Juan Public Lands Office.
Ranchers said grazing permits on public lands provide dependable, affordable grazing vital to their survival in the industry.
Permits usually are issued for periods of 10 years, making them a much more reliable option than private lands, Koppenhafer said.
I cannot find enough private land to run my cows on here, and if I did find it, I may have it one year and not the next, Koppenhafer said. If you dont have a place to go with them, youre going to be selling them.
Though the federal government doesnt assess value to the permits, ranchers are required to pay $1.35 per head per month grazing fee plus costs to repair fences and other infrastructure, rotate cattle and maintain water quality.
Cattle that graze on public lands also have higher rates of death and disease, which raises ranchers total costs, said Brice Lee, vice president of the Public Lands Council, an organization that advocates for livestock ranchers use of public lands.
But that $1.35 per head doesnt begin to cover what it actually would cost to feed the animals and doesnt account for environmental degradation that results from grazing, said Jonathan Radner, director of the Colorado Office of the Western Watersheds Project, a group that works to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife.
Livestock grazing decreases vegetation, Radner said, which increases runoff and erosion and decreases water absorption in the soil. In the long term, plant species that are more sensitive to grazing, and usually most critical to local species habitat, die off and tend to leave low-quality or invasive species, Radner said. The effects are more exaggerated near water, where cattle spend most of their time, he said.
Many threatened and endangered species are in such a fragile state because of domestic livestock raising, Radner added.
While making a profit off of federal land, ranchers also help protect and maintain it in ways that government cant, Lee said.
We do a lot of looking after the publics interest, and if we werent up there, we wouldnt have that level of management, he said. You cant make money off poor land management.
Grazing permits also keep ranchers on land that otherwise would be snatched up for development, Lee said.
But the cows, not condos motto touted by ranchers doesnt hold up in Radners mind.
Several examples have shown that development is tied more directly to economic drivers than the amount of subsidies offered to ranchers, he said. Instead, if communities dont want subdivisions, then they need to zone the land to prohibit that use, he said.
(Cows, not condos) is basically a false dichotomy, Radner said.
For their part, public land management agencies seek a balance through environmental assessments and range improvements, said Mark Tucker, rangeland management program leader for the San Juan Public Lands Center.
If we work together to fix the problems when they occur, then (the process) works fine, Tucker said. We always have people who disagree with our findings, but we walk the middle line.