Keep sagebrush land wild
With the rainfall we have been fortunate to have this Summer I’ve been enjoying time spent in sagebrush country.
Spending time there has shown me that it’s beauty lies in the details. In the shade of sagebrush a rabbit hides out the afternoon heat. In the culverts, dry now, are mapped where water once ran by the blooming thickets of wildflowers. Evenings last light brings out the nighthawks calling back and forth in the sky. Sage Thrashers, Green-tailed Towhees and Sparrows fill the morning air with their songs.
For over a century people have fought over sagebrush land and how it should be used. Everyone wants a piece of this seemingly empty land.
I read an article recently which states that a vast amount of land, 54 million acres, under the Bureau of Land Management’s care is not meeting its own required land-health standards, largely due to drought and overgrazing.
“Flourishing landscapes are integral to the public and economic health of the West’s communities and indigenous nations, particularly those whose ancestral lands are involved. Research by Headwaters Economics and the Center for Western Priorities extensively documents the tremendous value that public lands hold for nearby gateway communities. But a prolonged megadrought in the Western U.S. poses an ongoing threat to already stressed landscapes and the communities that depend on them, as do overlapping issues, including climate change, the spread of invasive species like cheatgrass, and the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfire.”
- Kylie Mohr, 54 Million “Failing” Acres, (Published in High Country News, May 2022.)
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