Published: January 15, 2008

by Wendell Wood

It's ironic that The Daily Triplicate's feature on Jan. 11 describing the hundreds of goats that have been placed on the Lake Earl peninsula was titled "Grazing with a Purpose." This is because neither of the agencies involved: the California Dept. of Fish and Game (CDFG) and the Arcata office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), has ever informed the public of what specific purpose is served for having placed so many animals in such a biologically sensitive and inappropriate location.

To the best of our knowledge, in early in November 2007, 1,410 goats were placed in an area of the Lake Earl Wildlife Area formerly reserved for non-consumptive uses including recreation, nature interpretation, and outdoor education. The goats were placed in this inappropriate location for no discernable purpose except to allow the goats, which are being raised for meat, to be grazed on these public lands prior to slaughter. According to the goats' Nevada-based owner, 530 of the initial herd were thus so removed on Dec. 8, with 880 animals still remaining.

The Lake Earl peninsula is an ecologically and culturally sensitive area where intensive livestock grazing generally has no place, and is not authorized here under any existing agency plan. Instead, the goats were placed here simply to be "warehoused" prior to being transported or herded at other claimed "restoration" locations. Conservationists that oppose this overgrazing are now being falsely accused of opposing needed restoration at other site specific locations.

While after-the-fact permits are now being applied for to further place unknown numbers of these goats at other sensitive habitat locations, no environmental permits have ever been sought or obtained for the hundreds of goats that are presently on the Lake Earl peninsula.

Under a signed agreement with the goat owner, these animals may remain here until Oct. 18, 2008. Additionally, neither the CDFG or the USFWS provided any prior public notice, nor conducted any legally required environmental analysis prior to placing the goats at the peninsula location.

Grazing is often explained to the public as being a "management tool." However, with the possible exception of providing short grass for geese, it is a tool that requires careful monitoring.
For intensive grazing to be appropriately used, the timing, intensity, and the duration of the grazing regime must first be specifically defined in terms of how it meets previously determined objectives as part of a grazing plan. Yet, on the Lake Earl peninsula no objective has ever been stated, and no plan has ever been defined. While CDFG and USFWS are trying to call this "restoration," the first rule of restoration, as in the first rule in medicine, is to "do no harm." These agencies can make no claim as to what the assumed "benefits" are to be, as no prior vegetation habitat studies were done to compare the resulting impacts with.

As but one example, the Lake Earl peninsula is within the USFWS's 2001 revised recovery plan area for the federally threatened Oregon silverspot butterfly. This is one of the most endangered species on the Pacific Coast, with presently only five known populations remaining. While other sensitive species also occur here, this area's principal silverspot butterfly population is documented only a half-mile away. The peninsula is part of the area where this and other sensitive butterflies' habitats need to be restored, not further degraded. Various native meadow wildflowers must be maintained and enhanced in this general area if this and other local sensitive species' populations are to be restored.

As a practical matter, there is little area outside of these state lands where this butterfly can be restored, and so private lands need not be affected.

Wendell Wood is a local wildlands advocate with Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC).