APR: Vision vs. Reality

American Serengeti. The fauna of the real Serengeti must migrate because of seasonal weather conditions. Those conditions do not exist in our more temperate climate. Also, read the fascinating 2002 Guardian article by George Monbiot (available online), in which he describes the creation of the real Serengeti as an “ethnic cleansing programme” of “possibly the longest-inhabited place on earth.”

History. The Original Americans have a long history in this area. The Blackfeet were cattlemen. Small pox decimated the Blackfeet. (Actually, this is linguistically inaccurate. Decimation was a punishment in the Roman army. One out of every ten soldiers in a unit was executed, a rate similar to the ravages of the Black Plague in Europe. In this continent, European diseases slew as many as nine out of ten.) This allowed burgeoning bison numbers. Twenty years later, Lewis and Clark’s journals (I recommend G.E. Moulton’s The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark; check out the month beginning May 6, 1805, in Vol. 4) leave no doubt about the environmental damage done to the area. In fact, it made Lewis and Clark’s journey easier. They complained about cactus along the Missouri. Can you imagine pulling those boats upstream through willows, trees, deadfall, and tangled piles of trash left by floods? A dust storm in our area shut down progress. Lewis and Clark were saved from a flash flood by Sacajawea. Does anyone have any guesses about what caused the bare ground that is a prerequisite for dust storms and flash floods? It wasn’t sodbusters or domestic grazers, there were just bison and prairie dogs and Blackfeet horses to bare the ground.

Foreign Entrepreneurs. Foreign entrepreneurs trailed herds of Southern cattle into our area hoping to get rich quick by fattening them on “free grass.” Hard winters wiped out 99 percent of those cattle. Montana rancher Granville Stuart lost 40 to 60 percent, because he naturally practiced better stewardship in order to remain sustainable, rather than the get-rich-quick model. The APR (Annual Percentage Return) plans to get rich quick by providing philanthropical tax deductions for the very rich. This leaves other citizens with higher taxes, compromised food supplies, and an indebted government. The foreign entrepreneurs in Granville Stuart’s time left him dealing with introduced diseases such as Texas tick fever and a grassland habitat ravaged by the free ranging grazers. However, the true consequences are the same now as they were in the 1800s: healthy land and water resources are sacrificed. Monetary greed rules. Those indigenous peoples with connections to their land and homes are displaced.

Numbers. Free-ranging grazers without controlled numbers will damage land and watersheds. APR has not proven their ability to manage numbers.

Water. APR’s vision includes removing man-made water sources. This will adversely affect resident fauna: wildlife, birds, amphibians, etc. It will also concentrate the free-ranging bison along the rivers so conditions found by Lewis and Clark will be re-created.

In conclusion: APR claims they are special. I agree. They have not read history. They do not understand livestock management. They do not understand management of prairie resources. They want to possess more money to the detriment of other US citizens.

In short, they have no true connection with the prairie except the desire to use it for monetary gain. Private jets and helicopters are not the way to educate themselves.