BLM destroying The Gulch in GSENM

[Bob Wire]

On April 23rd I hiked down the Gulch "wild and scenic area" in GSENM and the grazing destruction has to be seen to be believed. Grasses were grazed almost to extinction. Saplings struggling to gain a foothold on banks were nipped to the stems, rabbitbrush beat back to the twigs, sagebrush cropped to the stems and dying, gullying and soil erosion rampant. This is a complete dereliction of duty on the part of BLM land managers. Their first priority by law is to protect the resource. If they don't they should be demoted or better yet fired. There are %5 people in the Range division at least. What are they thinking. This is our public land and it is being abused and permanently altered by a few cattlemen with the permission of the NPS See below

I don't think they will stop unless we all put pressure on them but maybe thats idealistic. Personally I don't think they care until it all looks like this

 

[slc_dan]

I've been in & around the Gulch twice this past year, I can honestly say I didn't notice as much damage as you have shown. For the most part, I am against cows in public land. I've certainly seen my fair share of miserable cows on the HITTR, and thought, "Boy does that look shitty." I've had the unfortunate experience of running into dead cows stuck in slots too. I don't think any tight canyons are any place for cows. I will be contacting the BLM office to recommend a visit into what destruction you have described.

This exact area is mentioned in the podcast, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/243/later-that-same-day
Interesting ideas there. Certainly challenge some of my thoughts.