The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee,
Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests held a hearing on the “Major
Environmental Threats to the Great Basin in the 21st Century” in Las
Vegas, Nevada, on October 11, 2007. Senator Wyden (D-OR) chaired the hearing;
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) attended the hearing. Witnesses, including
the coordinator for the Great Basin Restoration Initiative, a scientist
employed by the U.S. Geological Survey, a rural county commissioner and
the president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, presented testimony
on the effects of global warming, climate change, weed invasion, and unnatural
fire on sagebrush steppe. Unfortunately, none of the witnesses professed,
nor did Senator Wyden or Reid inquire, about the contributions of livestock
grazing to the invasive weed-fire
cycle in the Great Basin. (Indeed, the county commissioner and livestock
industry representative both contended that increased grazing would help
control fire.) The Senators were thus left with an incomplete description
of the problem and solutions available to address the weed-fire cycle in
sagebrush steppe. No conservationist was invited to testify at the hearing,
although the Sagebrush Sea Campaign did submit a
statement for the record that identified grazing as part of the problem.
Even before the hearing,
Representative Simpson (R-ID-2nd) had urged Congress to allow
BLM to reseed burned areas with nonnative forage plants; open more areas
to “emergency” grazing; and study “the value of grazing
as a management tool for fuels reduction on federally-owned lands.”
The Dept. of Interior (BLM) may already
be considering changes to loosen restrictions on public lands grazing
to reduce fire fuels on public lands and the Secretary of Interior has
created a task force to study the effects of climate change on sagebrush
steppe.
Idaho Governor Otter has created his own state-level
fire rehabilitation committee to explore ways to address wildfire in sagebrush
steppe.
Conservationists will offer an alternative, ecologically viable plan for
restoration of sagebrush steppe to Congress in 2008-2009.
Los
Angeles Times 
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