Jon:
>Of course the Valley itself
>is full of all sorts of Pleistocene-era lakes/marshes and their
>associated birds.

The valley area (the Warner Valley Potholes) is a mix of private
and BLM land, with the typical seasonal hay land being private and
the series of scattered lakes surrounded by sage-steppe being
BLM. These latter lakes have a long history of being subjected
to heavy grazing pressure.

A few years ago, The Nature Conservancy bought one of the key
ranches in the valley along with the water rights, with perhaps
the best of the flood-irrigated hayfield systems. Pressure
groups had been working over the BLM for years to improve the
grazing regime around the potholes, and the TNC purchase was
designed to be transferred to the BLM on condition that they
manage the entire area for the benefit of wildlife, primarily
birds.

The result was that the entire area has been designated an
Area of Critical Environmental Concern. I have the planning
document around here somewhere, don't feel like digging it out,
but do remember some pertinent points. First, the Potholes
themselves were surveyed and ranked as being most "poor" in
condition for the production of waterfowl - not too surprising,
as cattle were allowed to graze right up to water's edge all
those years. I can personally attest that most of these
small lakes had little vegetation around the perimeter. The
plan called for improving the majority of the potholes to "fair"
or "good" status in ten years for a cost of $10K-$20K, to be
invested in fence, mostly, to keep cows out of the ACEC.

There was then the issue of mitigation of lost AUMs for the
two or three ranchers affected, with the majority of the
impact being on a single rancher. There are a total of roughly
3,000 AUMs in the area. To mitigate, the BLM offered to invest
roughly $250,000 in new crested wheatgrass plantings (most of
the money being in infrastructure - fence, cattle grates, etc).

As part of the proposal, the BLM set aside some funds for interpretive
signs, trails, parking lots, toilets etc. If you visit, be sure
to engage in a discussion with the locals. They'll be more than
glad to rant a bit about the government boondoggle as represented
by the nearest double-holed toilet - but are sure to be quiet
about the large sum taxpayers have invested in new wheatgrass
plantings to mitigate the loss of cattle production brought
on by keeping the cows out of the potholes.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>