Picture this: You’re hiking in a remote, high alpine area of the national forest in southwest Colorado. You haven’t seen another human in many miles, if at all, and so you’re a little more than startled when you encounter a herd of cows wandering through the recreation area.
Don’t panic. The livestock are supposed to be there – and you are, too.
Recreation and agriculture are two of Colorado’s largest economic drivers, and they often coexist in regions where there are abundant public lands. That’s why outdoors people seeking solace in the state’s wilderness have to share the trails with cattle, sheep, and goats that graze there in the summer equally as much as with other recreators and wildlife.
Grazing is one of several historic uses of public lands, alongside logging and mining, though it may come as a surprise to people who haven’t explored less developed natural areas, said Dana Gardunio of the U. S. Forest Service’s Ouray Ranger District. And the practice dates back longer than you might expect.
The Forest Service began regulating grazing in 1897 when it was a nascent agency. Regulators further codified grazing protocols with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934.
When ranchers settled in the American West in the 19th and 20th centuries, they embraced a free-for-all approach to grazing that not only depleted natural resources but also caused disputes, known as range wars, among livestock owners. The need for common ground – and the need to maintain fertile grounds – led then-Colorado Rep. Edward Taylor to introduce a bill that designated geographic districts where grazing was permitted.
Today, ranchers lease specific plots for their herds and those allotments exist in public lands overseen by both the U.S Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In Colorado, approximately 16 million acres are available for grazing on land managed by both agencies.
As those areas have become destinations for outdoor recreation, Gardunio said there’s been an increased need to educate folks about the terrain’s multiple uses.
“It’s become more of a thing where people haven’t had that interaction in other places they’ve recreated before, like national parks or city parks, county parks or state parks — places where they don’t tend to have grazing,” she said.
Having access to public grazing plots is essential for folks like fifth-generation farmer Adam Seymour. His family has 500 acres of farmland in the Coal Creek Valley where they raise cattle to sell to JBS Foods in Greeley and private buyers. Because Seymour also grows crops like corn and alfalfa there in the summer, he needs to relocate his cows to Grand Mesa for grazing.
Seymour owns part of a pooled permit with other ranchers that enables him to run 200 head of cattle on the mesa. The alpine terrain is ideal for grazing because it can’t be otherwise developed or farmed, Seymour said. Leasing public plots is more cost-effective than purchasing land and it’s also more dependable than renting private land that may eventually be sold or otherwise become unavailable.
“That’s why ranching does survive here in the Western United States because you can graze on public lands,” Seymour said. “If we had to go out and buy a $65 million piece of property just to graze cattle, people wouldn’t be raising cattle. They would be planting houses or they’d sell it to Oprah up in Telluride.”
Grazing provides ecological benefits, such as reducing fuel for wildfires, increasing plant diversity and helping maintain balanced ecosystems. Dwayne Rice, range program manager for the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service, described it as “an intentional disturbance, similar to mowing your lawn, that supports and aligns with multiple use management of our national forests and grasslands.”
Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management evaluate allotments annually to determine the impact of previous grazing seasons and to decide how many animals each one can support. The agencies will close certain plots of land if they have been overgrazed or if environmental conditions like drought are expected to deteriorate the area.
Ranchers pay a monthly rate based on how many animals they have. The Forest Service, for example, charges $1.35 per bull or cow-calf pair per month. It’s the same rate for one horse or five sheep or goats per month.
Livestock owners work with federal officials to monitor and maintain the grazing area, and ranchers are also responsible for the upkeep of infrastructure, such as fences, on their respective allotments.
“Because grazing ground is harder and harder to come, it’s relatively cheap to graze on public land, but there is a lot of work that goes into it,” Seymour said.
Hikers, backpackers and mountain bikers will often see clues that livestock have been grazing on public lands, such as cow pies on trails or trampled foliage. And while both Seymour and Gardunio said encounters between people and animals are common, they rarely hear about conflicts.
Cows are not typically aggressive unless they are protecting their young, Seymour said, though they are naturally curious. Young cattle especially like to investigate things – including humans – that they aren’t familiar with. That said, Seymour advised keeping pets on leash or under voice control when recreating in grazing areas.
“Cattle will chase off a dog if they feel it’s a threat and pretty soon you got a cow chasing a dog that’s running back to you,” he said. Not ideal, clearly.
Gardunio said most of the incidents she hears about involve guardian dogs, which can be aggressive toward passersby who get too close to sheep flocks. She’s also heard of individuals who thought the dogs were abandoned and took them to local shelters, and does not advise people to do that.
The best thing recreators can do is keep their distance from livestock, much like they would wildlife, should they encounter animals in the high country. Another rule of thumb is to leave gates and fences as they are since they divide the various allotments and keep livestock in their respective grazing areas. If you need to open a gate to stay on a trail, make sure you close it, Seymour said. If a gate is open, leave it that way.
“If you have a gate big enough for a four-wheeler or a side-by-side, it’s big enough for a cow also,” he said.
The Forest Service and BLM publish maps, dates and other details of its grazing allotments so the public can be aware of when there might be livestock in recreation areas they plan to visit. Another pro tip: If you plan to camp, you should do so away from lakes, rivers and streams where animals will go to drink.
“Even for people who are dispersed camping, it not uncommon that you might have cows wander into camp at night,” Gardunio said.
UPDATED June 25 at 7:45 a.m.: A previous version of this story erroneously stated herding dogs protect sheep. Those animals are known as guardian dogs.
