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OT - cattle grazing in the alps 18-Jan-2011 At 3:37:46 PM billk

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On 18/01/2011 bones wrote:
>True, it's definately a bad start.
>I don't know much about bushfires, but I wouldn't have thought cattle
>would eat most fuel types

Previous research showed that the cattle don't graze on the plants that make up most of the fuel load.

For all the "Alpine Grazing Stops Blazing" car stickers you see, I'm sure its just an ad hoc argument. The cattlemen mostly want to make a buck and the public that support them want to feel like defenders of a tradition.

The Mountain Cattlemen's Association has been good at portraying an image of themselves as carrying on the traditions we want to stay connected to. I'm not immune from the attraction of that. However, I don't see that those traditions get wiped out if the cattlemen don't get virtually free agistment in national parks, whereas I do see that lots of hoofed animals in national parks alter the ecosystems. And I think we beardy and drreadlocked types also have a right to our quiet enjoyment of some relatively pristine alpine ecosystems.