NEPA--Environmental Assessment
NEPA--Environmental Assessment
NEPA--Environmental Assessment
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which includes ranching as well as farming, provided 6% of the all county jobs in 2006, but only 1%<br />
on the personal income, and is a shrinking sector of total jobs.<br />
Social Factors: Montrose County is fairly homogeneous ethnically and racially. Whites make up<br />
about 82% of the population, with Hispanic or Latinos contributing about 15%, American Indians<br />
about 2%, and about 5% other races (percentages add up to more than 100% because some<br />
individuals report more than one race). The county is considered average for economic<br />
specialization, with in over-reliance on construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and<br />
an under-reliance on manufacturing and finance industries.<br />
The importance of the ranching sector is highlighted more as a social benefit than as an economic<br />
base to the area as a whole. It is an important part of the people’s heritage in Montrose County.<br />
Ranching operations in the area often operate at a loss or close to the margin and their profitability<br />
can be substantially affected by a variation of market conditions. If access to federal lands for<br />
livestock grazing is altered appreciably, this change would affect ranching profits and possibly<br />
overall business viability. Ranching is the significant portion of the income for all five permittees for<br />
this landscape.<br />
The regional economy surrounding sheep grazing includes more than just livestock production. The<br />
related economics of winter pasture rental and agricultural products currently also play a role in the<br />
regional agricultural economy as a whole.<br />
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES<br />
Alternative 1 –No Action<br />
The No Action Alternative would reduce public land available for livestock grazing by roughly<br />
172,000 acres. This acreage includes Forest Service and BLM acreage from all the allotments in the<br />
landscape except the one allotment (Silverton Watershed) that is already closed to grazing. From a<br />
regional perspective, this loss of public livestock grazing acreage would not be noteworthy.<br />
However, locally this acreage is important because it contributes greatly to the viability of five<br />
private land ranches. The private ranch lands are not economic units in themselves, and rely on the<br />
public lands for viability of their operations. High land prices prohibit the addition of more private<br />
lands for ranching. Besides the obvious value to the ranching families, the viability of the ranches is<br />
valuable to the community at large for open space, wildlife habitat, and other amenities.<br />
Preservation of the ranching sector is essential to the economic health of the region (PSU 2001).<br />
Alternative 1 would have the greatest negative social impact to local communities as the elimination<br />
of all livestock grazing on all allotments would cause dependent ranching operations to go out of<br />
business. If individuals and families move from the area, communities may lose their leaders,<br />
volunteers, participants, or other types of community energy and capacity in terms of residents. In<br />
addition to loss of human resources, selling of ranches often results in the splitting and subdivision<br />
of value-rich lands.<br />
Alternative 2<br />
Continuation of the current situation would not create any further costs to operations grazing on<br />
FS/BLM lands. Outside forces, such as interest rates, fuel prices, or market conditions could change<br />
the margin of profit for any operation regardless of AUM’s grazed on federal lands, but there would<br />
likely be no change from the current economic situation due to FS/BLM action.<br />
Alternative 3<br />
Alternative 3 requires allotments be managed more actively than Alternative 2 due to new design<br />
criteria. Because of the flexible nature of adaptive management, it is difficult to predict the impact<br />
to ranching operations. Some operators may be effective in monitoring and adjusting to adaptive<br />
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