WESTERN RANCHES: WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY

Many big-game animals spend their summers in the mountainous U.S. Forest Service lands, spring and fall on Bureau of Land Management lands and winters on the lower, more productive private ranch land, according to a 1996 report by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. In many regions, up to 70 percent of big-game animals remain on private land during winter, a season critical to the survival of most such species, the report says. But these private lands are being threatened in the West.

"Twenty-acre ranchettes will sound the death knell of western ranches and the wildlife they harbor," said Lynn Cornwell, a beef producer from Glasgow, Mont. and chairman of the NCBA Federal Lands Committee. "Condominiums are spreading across the West, carving up the wide-open landscape. Sportsmen, agriculture groups and conservation groups have been successful in preserving open space. But, much more needs to be done."

Cattlemen are working to improve communication with the sportsmen's community. Last fall, sportsmen and agricultural groups held a summit to discuss areas of mutual concern. Topics included the fragmentation of land in the West, maintaining a healthy range resource on public lands, keeping access open to public lands and battling activist extremism that is anti-cows and anti-hunting. A second summit is scheduled for this October and will focus on the multiple use policy of public lands, riparian and range health and land fragmentation. NCBA also has developed an information kit on western ranching for sportsmen's groups.

According to Cornwell, these efforts must be stepped-up. Other areas where cattlemen feel both groups can benefit by working together include: elimination of the death tax which encourages land fragmentation and destroys ranches and wildlife habitat, and the passage of a grazing bill that encourages wildlife conservation.

The management and use of renewable resources, including rangeland, must be based on scientific principles, Cornwell said. Efforts such as Congressman Bob Smith's, R-Ore., Forage Improvement Act, approved last fall by the House of Representatives, would require that sound, verifiable science be used to monitor range health and help ensure sensible range management decisions, he said. The forage bill has been introduced in the Senate by Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and is expected to be considered by the full Senate this fall.

The forage bill will give ranchers more stability, encouraging them to invest more to improve range condition and wildlife habitat. Higher quality wildlife habitat can sustain more wildlife, which will result in increased hunting opportunities for the sportsmen's community.