Dear Mr. Crow:
I want to thank you for the ink well spent in your Comments (Re: “Sustainable benefits” on pg. 2 of the Dec. 3 issue) on ecosystem services and values that ranchers and farmers provide. We who live in “The Flyover Country” need some articulate person who buys ink by the barrel and/or has a large megaphone to tell our story. You qualify for all three.
One theme common to all in farming and ranching is we have “something” that is coveted by others. Land with a view, livestock and lifestyle, water and wildlife, the wind that blows over and the minerals lying beneath—all wanted by someone. In property rights law, these are the sticks in our “Bundle of Sticks.”
With the exception of air, the other three necessities for life—food, water, and lumber for shelter—are provided for us or managed by a hard-working farmer, rancher, or logger. Now the question you touch on in your “Comments;” what are they worth? What value, both seen and unseen, do they have for “US,” provided by “THEM?”
Regardless if current drouth cycle is short or long term, in headwater states we all need to pay attention and work together or our grandchildren will most certainly curse us. The “buy and dry” policies of the last 20 years already fit that category.
Several good folks in the West are working hard to seek balance between food production, water for food production and water for other uses, AND WE NEED THEM ALL. Alternative Transfer Methods (ATM), Deficit Irrigation, Partial Fallowing, and other terms are being used to seek this balance. When we take or lease one of the sticks (in this case, water) what is its value to us, and what are the total costs to the rancher?
A farmer in Sterling, CO, may remove irrigation from corn and plant dry land wheat and still have a crop, and may receive $500 or $600 per acre through an ATM. If a rancher in Carbondale, CO, leases his water, the value and costs could be much higher. If he produces 3 tons/acre and buys replacement hay for $300/ton, that’s $900/acre direct cost. What do you do with underutilized labor and haying equipment normally irrigating and haying all summer? Can we do this two or three years in a row without some damage or weed control? Direct and indirect costs to the rancher with diminishing values to us, as once green meadows turn brown, wildlife, birds and livestock will soon be scarce.
Leadership in government must be bold enough to raise municipal and industrial water rates to reflect its true value in the arid West. Higher rates for higher consumption will, in time, reduce lawn size, swimming pools, car washing, etc., and make us see water with a higher value. This increase in funds, used wisely to rebuild and expand our aging water infrastructure, will help fulfill the governor’s Colorado Water Plan from 2015 and pay the rancher or farmer for his stick we need and cherish.
Mr. Crow, you noticed the failure to “pencil in” the benefits public lands ranchers provide us as well. Many Western ranches are a well-balanced unit depending upon private and public land for long-term sustainability. We also may have a stick or two of our bundle directly tied to the public domain. Private water rights often originate from, are stored on, or pass through our public lands. Who built, paid for, and maintains this asset that is enjoyed and used by wildlife, hunters, and hikers without a thought?
Recent devastating fires in the West have proven that “no management” is a poor management plan for our forests. Loggers should be paying us for a valuable and renewable resource. Instead, we pay billions fighting fires. The lives and homes lost have no price. With millions now living in the wildfire interface, we must demand a better plan of attack. Planned logging along with managed livestock grazing can build and maintain firebreaks anywhere we desire. These man-made buffers around communities may not stop the fire, but at least we have a fighting chance.
There are too many “unpaid” benefits to list that farmers and ranchers provide, but for “Pete’s sake,” let’s use some ink and spread the word. Thank you. — Bill McKee, Colorado rancher
