Telling The Story of Grazing

Grazing good for more than cattle
BY ASHLEY GEBB-DN Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/30/2008

Grazing controls vegetation, keeps watersheds clean and provides food for humans, but not everyone knows how beneficial it can really be.

Tehama County Resource Conservation District hopes to change that this weekend when it hosts Working Landscapes The Environmental Benefits of Grazing. The Saturday seminar is part of Farm-City Week and is intended to promote support of the ranching community as well as highlight the importance of grazing and valley agriculture. A reception with local food and wine will follow.

This is a great opportunity for the public to celebrate our community, support our agriculture and to taste firsthand the incredible products grown and produced right here in Tehama County, said Laurie Kehrer, TCRCD watershed specialist.

Dan Daggett, an environmentalist-turned-grazing proponent, is the keynote speaker. An environmental activist for 32 years, he learned grazing s positive effects through personal experience and science. He was involved in several studies in which livestock were removed for preservation only to cause a species to decline or disappear. Read More

Anytime producers have the opportunity to share what they do and why they do it with members of their community they need to take it. Most of the time it is the use of modern management techniques that are in the line of fire, but there is also a definite movement against grazing as well. The very thing that the animal rights crowds are demanding is what the environmentalists consider evil. For example, the Sierra Club has been trying for years to eliminate grazing on all public lands. So congratulations to the Tehama County Resource Conservation District for telling their story.