Redwood Reader

Redwood Reader salutes Humboldt/Del Norte Cattlemen. They make their living as land stewards and have been at the forefront of many of the issues we are dealing with, such as sustainability, maximizing the benefits of natural systems, inheritance taxes, coho restoration, habitat and riparian protections, the General Plan and private roads. All of these are landscape wide issues and they directly impact their finances and their ability to sustain that income. Humboldt cattlemen have had the opportunity to see what happens when too many animals are on the landscape, here and elsewhere, just as some early timbermen were determined not to destroy the forests they believed would last forever. Many have working the same acreage for generations, demonstrating sustainability. Cattle and dairymen are innately aware of consequences of glomalin destruction since overgrazing is one way to diminish the landscape in future years. Some areas save on stored feed in the summer if the soil moisture remains later in the year. In any case the need for a replenishable supply of grass is their economic lifeblood. Glomalin management requires the same thinking as the dairyman who needs every square inch of his property in grass, or the cattle and timber man saving trees because his cattle need watering places in the hills. Glomalin is at the heart of either type of operation. These folks probably know more about soil moisture than foresters.
When we come to identify all of the players in the glomalin story, and they will vary in all kinds of habitat, we will find places left alone the longest will be the richest in biodiversity. This will be true even in those areas grazed continuosly. The soil moisture won't penetrate quite as far as in woodland but there should be a decent amount of buildup in the soil. We see the results of good stewardship and recognize it without even fully knowing how or why or what is happening . Other issues will be proven such as the importance of relying on perrenial grasses. THe annual grasses have taken over a lot of range land providing good feed into the summer. Cattle are then forced to find moister areas where there is green grass or be fed hay. A shift back may give feed later into the year and improve landscape water resources. Since both of these benefit the rancher economically there is a good chance of being put in their toolbox of management choices.
Glomalin has saved crop farmers millions of dollars. Here so far it is a threat to business as usual. When we work within guidelines that promote glomalin we wind up sustainable, which may not convert enough landscape into dollars for some.
I have been talking and demonstrating how glomalin impacts all kinds of environmental issues. Now I will try to expand my thinking into user friendly activity ratings. We need a whole ton of research for hard numbers but trends and rules of ttumb can give us some mighty insights, and we can go forward on some issues and feel good about a few others. Again, we salute our cattlemen and their strenuous efforts toward sustainability, and their recognition of their role in related issues such as coho recovery, and as being part of the positive general trend for our profitable and stable landscape goals and we hope to supply them and others information that will enhance their operations