12-1 NWR Eradicating junipers

12-1 NWR Eradicating junipers

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
This is your Northwest report for Thursday, December 1 I'm David Sparks and juniper trees are in the news. Karen Launchbaugh, is the Director of the University of Idaho's Rangeland Center. There is a program to eliminate junipers from 940 square miles in Owyhee County in southwest Idaho. Since junipers are common throughout the Northwest I chatted with Dr. Launchbaugh about the reasons behind eradicating junipers on rangeland. "The Juniper is crowding out the sagebrush but it is also crowding out grasses which the cattle eat. So if you remove Juniper, you increase the production of forage or herbaceous grasses. That is what a cattlemen benefit. Also elk, deer and other wildlife that eat grasses. What I would work on is targeted grazing. So I use grazing to reduce fires and weeds. Let's get into your research. Grazing reduces cheat grass problems. Go into to that for me. One of the challenges with fire in the West now is the amount of cheat grass. There is much more than there used to be. It was introduced about 100 years ago and has expanded its range since then. The problem is that it is such an excellent fuel."

Elsewhere, we have been reporting on the peril to the world's bee populations for years and there are all kinds of explanations for CCD or colony collapse disorder. Pesticides, mites, viruses, bacterias are just a handful of suspected causes. But deliberate human actions? my northwest.com has reported that hundreds of thousands of bees were poisoned at the Sequim Bee Farm and the keepers believe vandals are to blame. Farm co-owner Meg Depew says about 20 of their hives were affected.

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