The West’s greatest deforesters; the enemy of biodiversity … beef cattle! Last week this writer drove Route 84, a 45-degree NW angle road from Salt Lake City, to Boise, to Washington’s Tri-Cities. Along the way, we saw a few deer and 100,000 beef cattle (most steers, cows are trapped in stalls, living areas, for much of their lives). After the Pioneer’s initial deforestation of this corridor (logging, fires, clearing), cattle have roamed for a hundred years and nary, but a few, conifers and deciduous trees have been allowed to grow; their seedlings candy to these beasts. Much of this corridor is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that controls use of 1/8th of the U.S.’s landmass. If 22 Western U.S. Senators (with 11 Governor’s support) would cease issuing grazing permits on publicly owned property and allow this land to naturally reforest, a great ocean of trees could cool America’s air flowing East (BC might also contribute greatly). It would create a carbon sink of grand proportions.  Perhaps the photo should be titled “bi-plant” because one can identify but 2 plant species, 1 less than a Douglas Fir plantation where Sword and sometime Deer Ferns are often found (compared to the Farm and Gardens’ 600 species of Cascadia’s 900; Photo: Cattle Grazing on the Crooked River National Grassland on the Ochoco National Forest close to Prineville, Oregon).  We could resurrect 30% the U.S., leaving private farms alone, by REWILDING THE AMERICAN WEST’s public owned land!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/letters-editor-catalinas-native-plants-110044452.html 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Land_Management  
https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Interstate_84_(Oregon%E2%80…

Cattle browsing on rare biodiverse annuals (~1/2 Cascadia’s species) prevents them from:

Surviving the winter
Spreading via their roots
Going to seed and then reproducing

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