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Tricked By Mother Nature
Grass Needs Eating

© 1997, 1998 Streamline Publications


"Whadda you mean, 'Go to the mountains and eat grass'? If it ain't Club Med and Caesar salads, include me out!"
Sometimes Mother Nature reacts rather ungratefully when we try to protect her from us. She can be pretty rude and thankless, thumbing her nose at our good intentions.
Ranchers commonly observe that in certain "non-grazing" areas where their cattle were kept away to protect the plants, that the plant population was actually reduced.
Without cattle to graze on the new growth of invasive plants, such as ripgut brome, the species, previously controlled by grazing cattle, became dominant and displaced other plants. Biodiversity was reduced rather than increased or preserved.
The difference between the grazed and ungrazed areas is striking. The land may become worthless for future grazing because the mature dominant plant may be indigestible.
A casual observer could conclude that biodiversity is enhanced by grazing animals. But that analysis would be flawed as well. What we should divine from this example is that nature's balance resists our efforts at control and that grazing, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. Balanced grazing leads to a balanced grazing environment.
The ancient practice of moving domestic herd animals to mountain pastures in the spring and to lower elevations in the fall followed the cycles of growth and renewal and prevented overgrazing. Mother Nature didn't seem to mind that arrangement.

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