Citing poor range conditions and inadequate facilities, the BLM is currently considering cutting back the grazing permit of the largest livestock manager in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

The recently completed environmental assessment of eight grazing allotments Wesley Wallace has applied to renew or acquire in the national monument is open for public comment until Monday, March 5. Two of the allotments include Sand Canyon, a popular recreation area for mountain biking and hiking in the monument.

On Monday, Vicki Wallace asked the Montezuma County Commissioners to comment on the environmental assessment and join with her and several others in asking the BLM for an extension to the public comment period. Wallace previously asked the BLM for a 60-day extension and was granted two additional weeks to respond after the initial Feb. 18 deadline.

"We’re trying to keep ourselves in business, but this makes it impossible," she told the commissioners.

Bob Ball, a BLM range conservationist at the Mancos-Dolores ranger district, said the BLM is "inclined" not to renew the Sand Canyon West, Sand Canyon East, and Goodman Gulch allotments because they "lack livestock water and adequate fences," and "have not been grazed for many years." The three allotments are adjacent to each other and lie north of McElmo Creek starting at the Sand Canyon parking lot and to the east.

Wallace counters that he did run a few cattle on the three Sand Canyon allotments last spring. He says that he doesn’t always graze cattle there because "I’m short of water and they (the BLM) don’t want to let me fix the reservoir."

Penny Wu, the BLM’s recreation specialist recommended not renewing grazing privileges in the Sand Canyon East and West allotments. "Since most visitors are not accustomed to experiencing cattle grazing in this area, introducing cattle would negatively effect the experience of the recreationist," she wrote.

The BLM’s assessment also recommends removing cattle from the adjacent allotments of Flodine Park and Hamilton Mesa during the April and May critical plant growing season in order to improve range conditions that have been "poor" or "fair" for 15 years. The two allotments lie south of McElmo Creek and run to the Utah state line.

Ball said the BLM was inclined to allow the Wallaces to continue running cattle on the Yellow Jacket and Cahone Mesa allotments if the pastures were rotated more diligently and the cattle came off the permit in March.

Wallace believes the land is still in the condition to sustain his cattle operation. "Every time a new guy comes to this country everything is in bad condition, but that range hasn’t changed for the last 60 years," said Wallace.

Finding spring pasture for the Wallace’s cattle elsewhere would be "about impossible," according to Wallace. "You just can’t buy spring pasture."

Ball agreed "I think there is no question that April and May are probably the two most critical months for cattleman in this part of the world."

BALL-RIM

In addition to renewing their traditional allotments, the Wallaces applied this fall for a new 440 acre allotment — the previously unpermitted Under-The-Cannon-Ball-Rim allotment. The environmental assessment charges that this area, which abuts Wallace’s private property, has already been heavily grazed by the Wallace’s cattle without BLM authorization, and is in "poor condition".

"It’s a small area, but it’s being very intensely used," explained Ball, who said that most of the allotment could not be grazed because it is rocky and steep.

In 1997, the Wallace was issued a realty trespass number for constructing an unauthorized silage pit and hay stack on part of the allotment. According to Ball, the hay stack has been removed, but "the silage pit built partially on public lands has not been filled in or reclaimed. In fact, some soil from public lands adjacent to the pit were recently pushed onto private lands for use in a bridge approach ramp."

Wallace was also issued two violations for constructing partially bladed fencelines near McElmo Creek, reported Ball.

"Despite a survey that identified where the line is, Mr. Wallace continues to irrigate and cut hay off of a very small piece of public land," an attachment to the assessment asserts.

Wallace claims this is ridiculous. "Well, in three cuttings I might get a half a bale of hay off of it," he said. "It’s only a little triangle that is probably 10 or 12 foot wide."

The Wallaces have denied the BLM’s assertions that the range is in poor health, or that they have done anything other than what is required of them.

"We’ve done everything they’ve asked us to do," Vicki Wallace told the commissioners. "Half of what they say in the EA is lies —as far as improvements to the country."

In 1998, two representatives from the Colorado Cattleman’s Association’s BLM Liaison Committee were asked to tour the Wallace’s winter and spring range permit and determine whether they were in compliance with the Colorado Standards for Public Land Health.

The representatives, Dale Albertson of DeBeque and Jim Coleman of Saguache, recommended rest and increased rotation on each allotment, other than Sand Canyon, which they predicted may not be economically viable considering the water developments needed and the limited amount of forage.

On the face of it, the timing of the environmental assessment might seem to justify landowner suspicions that the BLM has a hidden agenda to reduce grazing in the new monument. BLM officials counter that the assessment began before the monument was "even a twinkle in Bruce Babbitt’s eye." Cal Joyner, the BLM manager who will likely issue a decision on each allotment, said that no matter what he decides, "We (the BLM) would have made the identical decision whether the monument was declared or not."

Grazing permits come up for review every 10 years. Wallace’s permit, which includes each allotment, expired on Dec. 1, 1998, but the BLM granted two one-year extensions to conduct the environmental assessment. Prior to a court ruling in 1997 that required the BLM to conduct an environmental assessment on each permit renewal, the BLM had reissued permits based on an internal analysis.

"Before we can re-offer a grazing permit we have to write an environmental assessment and see whether it is appropriate to reauthorize grazing and if so, at what levels," explained Ball.

"The purpose of the analysis is to look at the health of the land and make a decision based on what we see in front of us and what we can project to have occurring in the future based on a reasonable and conservative look at weather patterns and such. In the future, if things look better than we anticipated, we can always reconsider," said Joyner.