Cattle-Free for 10 Years!

Big Whitney Meadow after a Decade of Rest From Cattle Impact

Photographs and text produced by Todd Shuman, August, 2011. For more information, email Todd at tshublu@yahoo.com

The Big Whitney Meadow Complex is in the Whitney Grazing Allotment, Inyo National Forest (NF), just south of Mt. Whitney (the highest mountain in the lower 48 states), on the Kern Plateau and in the Sierra Nevada of southeastern California. It is in the designated Golden Trout Wilderness,

near Lone Pine, some 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.

The Inyo NF authorized and implemented a decision to rest the Whitney and Templeton Grazing Allotments from cattle grazing in early 2001 for a

period of ten years. The Inyo NF may authorize a new decision to re-stock these allotments with cattle within 3 years.

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Map from Conservation Assessment and Strategy for the California Golden Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita) Tulare County, California, September 17, 2004, CA Department of Fish and Game, San Joaquin Valley and Southern Sierra Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sacramento Office, USDA Forest Service,

Pacific Southwest Region, Inyo National Forest, Sequoia National Forest, Figure 6, page 26.

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The large meadow area in the distance (Big Whitney Meadow/Stokes Stringer Meadow Complex) has not been grazed and trampled by cattle since year 2000. What does this meadow area (which is at nearly 10,000 feet elevation)

look like after ten years of rest from livestock grazing?

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Golden Trout Creek and upland wet meadow fen, Big Whitney Meadow, at southwest

meadow corner, July 2011

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Golden Trout Creek, at southwest area of Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Wet meadow/fen in Big Whitney Meadow, southwest area, July 2011

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Wet Meadow, Big Whitney Meadow, southwest corner, July 2011

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Sedges (grass-like plants) covering the banks of Golden Trout Creek, at southwestern end of

Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Native grass and grass-like plants near banks of Golden Trout Creek, Big Whitney Meadow,

southwest corner, July 2011

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Burrows by native rodents. Big Whitney Meadow, southwest corner, July 2011

Andelt and Case note that gopher burrowing activity promotes healthy soil resources: “Their burrowing activities increase soil fertility by adding organic matter in the form of

plant materials and feces. Their burrowing increases soil aeration, increases water infiltration, reduces compaction, and increases the rate of soil formation by bringing up

subsoil subjecting it to weatherization.” Native rodents constitute prey for native predators like owls, hawks, badgers, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats.

“Managing Pocket Gophers” by W.F. Andelt and R.M. Case (5/06), Colorado State University Extension Publication no. 6.515.

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Upland moist meadow, with flowers, western central Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Wet meadow along the banks of Golden

Trout Creek, at western central part of Big Whitney Meadow,

July 2011

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Wet meadow along banks of Golden Trout Creek, July 2011

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Wet meadow and stream, central Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Wet/moist meadow, eastern central Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Current adverse impacts to Big Whitney Meadow appear due to pack stock (horses and mules) and hikers on pack/

hiking trails. This impacted area is next to Golden Trout Creek, western central Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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A close-up view of pack stock-disturbed meadow soil near Golden Trout Creek trail crossing, at western

central part of Big Whitney Meadow, July 2011

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Wildlife activity on parts of Big Whitney Meadow (such as rodent burrows and probable wildlife vegetation consumption in the picture below) may

also be generating impacts that make vegetation recovery on some meadow areas appear less than robust. Big Whitney Meadow displays areas with both robust vegetation growth and modest (or even minimal)

vegetation height—with the latter probably due to soil site characteristics, plant species composition, wildlife consumption/burrowing effects, and/or

continuing adverse impacts from previous livestock grazing.

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Nonetheless, most of the meadow vegetation and soil resources of Big Whitney Meadow appear to be recovering from the adverse impacts of nearly 150 years of cattle and

sheep grazing, leading to “aesthetically pleasing surroundings.” After ten years of rest from cattle grazing, this meadow area appears increasingly healthy and aesthetically attractive. The rest from cattle impact appears to be promoting recovery of

valuable habitat for many native plants and animals, including the Volcano Creek Golden Trout, the California State Fish.

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However, the improving ecological and aesthetic condition of Big Whitney Meadow may be slowed, stopped, and possibly reversed, if

cattle are allowed to return to this area. If cattle return, and the apparent upward trend in ecological health and aesthetic quality ends, what might

Big Whitney Meadow and the other currently-rested meadows of the Whitney and the Templeton Allotments look like in the future?

20

Dead calf and heavily cattle-grazed meadow in Stokes Stringer Meadow (in the eastern part of the Big Whitney Meadow Complex), Whitney Allotment, September, 1997

21

Cattle damage to the South Fork of the Kern River, inside Tunnel Meadow exclosure, due to cattle

trespass violation, Whitney Allotment, Summer, 1995

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A cattle-grazed, adversely-impacted stream and meadow. Left Stringer, at the headwaters of Volcano Creek, in Volcano

Meadow, Whitney Allotment, Summer 1998

This stream is relatively wide and shallow, and without overhanging banks, willows, and the lush streamside sedge vegetation that constitute high quality golden trout habitat. In August 1998, an Inyo National Forest Interdisciplinary Team assessed two of three stream segments in this meadow as “functioning at risk, with a downward trend.”

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Cattle-damaged meadow with hummocks, Ash Meadow, Mulkey

Grazing Allotment, east of the Whitney Allotment and southeast

of Big Whitney Meadow, Summer,1995

Hummocks occur due to “reduced riparian wetland water retention and overgrazing by cattle. As the water supply diminishes, any cattle movements through a riparian wetland erode away the drying humic material at increasing rates. Affected riparian wetlands then become hummocked areas rather than true riparian wetlands. As rates of desiccation [drying] increase after hummock formation … only a small percent of the humus or humic material from former times remains to retain moisture. These hummocks no longer function as water retention bodies.”

Quotes from Ray Corning, see Rangenet, http://rangenet.org/directory/corningr/sweetwtr/impacts1.html

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Cattle-grazed meadow area on Mulkey Meadow, Mulkey Grazing Allotment, just east of the Whitney Allotment and

southeast of Big Whitney Meadow, July, 2011

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If we prefer that the currently-rested meadows of the Golden Trout Wilderness continue to recover, and we prefer that these publicly-owned meadows remain aesthetically attractive (and become even more attractive in the future), then we must insist that cows stay out

of the Whitney and Templeton Allotments in the future.

South Fork of the Kern River, flowing through an ungrazed, protected-from-cattle exclosure area in Templeton Meadow, Templeton Allotment in autumn of 1998.

(The Templeton Grazing Allotment is adjacent to and southeast of the Whitney Grazing Allotment. The South Fork of the Kern River flows through both allotments. See map on slide 2.)

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The Inyo National Forest (NF) has started an environmental review process

to determine whether cows will be reintroduced to the Whitney and

Templeton Allotments. If you wish to participate in the process and wish to let the Inyo NF know how you feel about the

current conditions on these allotments and the possibility of future livestock grazing on these rested meadows,

please do so and also request to receive the scoping notice and the draft

environmental impact statements concerning this area when they are

issued. Send your name, mailing address, and preferably, an email

address to:

Lesley Yen Inyo National Forest

White Mountain Ranger Station 798 N. Main St. Bishop, CA 93514

ph: 760-873-2524 email: lyen@fs.fed.us

When you are invited to comment on proposals or analyses, please send in or

email your comments to the Inyo National Forest. Feel free to use the quote by the U.S. Congress on the

following page.

Flower on western border of Big Whitney Meadow July, 2011

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The U.S.Congress declared, in Title 1 of The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, [Sec. 101 (b) (2)]: “In order to carry out the policy set forth in this Act, it is

the continuing responsibility of the Federal Government to use all practicable means, consistent with other essential considerations of national

policy, to improve and coordinate Federal plans, functions, programs, and resources to the end that the Nation may … assure for all Americans safe,

healthful, productive, and aesthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings.”

Final Note: The Inyo NF has initiated the Kern Plateau collaborative process. This

process currently includes ranchers who support the reintroduction of cows onto the Whitney and Templeton Allotments. Broad participation in this process will likely

increase pressure on the Inyo NF to authorize the reintroduction of cows. For this reason, most environmental group representatives, and many environmental citizen-

activists such as myself, have refrained from participating in the collaborative process.28