Conservation nightmare

Ernie O'Byrne nargsbs@efn.org
Thu, 24 Jul 2003 04:01:15 PDT
Well, I do believe that goats are being maligned here. Goats happen to be
very efficient browsers and can subsist on the poorest of scrub vegetation
in areas that sheep and cattle cannot. I'm afraid that they are often blamed
for damage that has already occurred through logging, poor agricultural
practices and erosion. Then someone introduces goats because they are the
only possibility in such a degraded situation and then the goats are blamed
for the damage.

This is not to say that the idea of the Forest Service is necessarily a good
one, or that I think that goats are not responsible for any damage, but
let's be fair. It is not the fault of the goat, it is the poor practices of
the managers of the land that is responsible for such degradation, including
the introduction of too many animals for the amount of browse available.

My two cents, but this is also off topic, in my opinion.

Ernie O'Byrne
Northwest Garden Nursery
86813 Central Road
Eugene OR 97402-9284
USA
Phone: 541 935-3915
FAX: 541 935-0863

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we
arrive at that goal."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php


More information about the pbs mailing list