When Cliven Bundy and his sons were in the headlines last year for the takeover of a remote Eastern Oregon wildlife refuge, it might have been lost that the original dispute was over his cattle grazing on federal lands.
While Bundy’s camp has always maintained that the government charging and monitoring ranchers on public lands is federal overreach, one group in the Blue Mountains of Oregon is working in partnership — ranchers, government and scientists — to research sustainable cattle grazing on federal lands.
They think there are ways to keep agreements in place that promote land conservation while allowing for financial success for small businesses.
Susan Charnley is a research social scientist with the USDA Forest Service at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Oregon, and she heads up the Blue Mountains Working Group.
