A look at how local ranchers view and deal with growing recreation: Part 1

Working ranches are unique to resort valleys…

By Ceighlee Fennel

(Editor’s Note: Freelance writer Ceighlee Fennel from Red Bluff, California passed through Crested Butte this spring and pitched an idea about a story highlighting the relationship between recreation and ranching in the valley. With her agricultural background we gave her the green light to do the story. Part 1 deals with some of the increasing issues ranchers are dealing with as the valley changes…)

A range rider stares at another open gate, knowing that most of their day will be spent wrangling up wandering cattle as a result of the mistake made most likely by a biker or other recreationist. This, along with other reasons, has local ranchers worrying about their industry getting left in the dust if they cannot keep their businesses afloat.

Ranchers in the Gunnison Valley weren’t always worried about the industry’s survival. In the late 1800s, ranching was one of the region’s founding industries that drew people to the area. It continued to take off and eventually surpassed mining as the top industry in the valley. 

From one of the first cow camps that provided beef to the Ute Indian Agency to current day ranching operations, many of the ranches are still run by the same families. These ranches span generations, and ranching is a part of the cultural identity of this community and landscape. 

However, local ranchers are facing increasing pressures from a growing recreation-based economy, changes in wildlife grazing patterns, high land prices, interested buyers, and more because of the finite resource in the Gunnison Basin: land. In a county with more than a million acres of public land, there’s tension around the conversation about the usage limitations; multiple parties share it, but use the public land for different purposes. 

The Spann Ranch runs a cow-calf operation for beef production, which requires ample rest and food for their cattle to grow in numbers and size. They move their herds to federal land during the summer months of June and July, which happens to be when recreational activities are also busy on those lands. Recreational activities cause strain and damages on ranching operations.

“It’s very hard to do what we are trying to do with all of these people just out there playing all of the time. They are right in the middle of what we are doing,” Doug Washburn, a ranch manager and family member of Spann Ranch, said. “Every tourist that shows up makes my job harder.”

Out in the quiet grazing lands, damages look like open gates, spooked cattle and loss of vegetation. 

The recreational damage to grazing lands reduces food for the cattle and the noise from motorsports and other recreationists disrupts the herds causing less weight gain. When people leave gates open, cattle can escape their grazing plots and cost the ranchers money in time and labor.

Washburn said one of the reasons people are drawn to Crested Butte is because it is different than anywhere else in Colorado as a result of the ranching, but many don’t understand the impacts of the intersection of ranching and recreation on public lands. 

“We are keeping viewsheds open along the highway that aren’t developed and we have green irrigated hay meadows which you can’t find anywhere else in the state. But once people get here, they are pissed because we are in their way, our cows are in their way and they don’t want us,” he said.

He speaks to the uniqueness of the Gunnison Valley where everyone uses the shared public lands. Local ranchers whose families have raised cattle for generations are having to adapt operations to continue working alongside the impacts from an increasingly recreation-oriented valley.

“One thing that is pretty unique about our valley is that we still have a very active ranching community and many of our trails go through public access easements on private lands and ranchers have grazing lands on public lands,” Andrew Sandstrom, the marketing director for the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP), said. “The human to cattle interface has increased with more people. So, there’s impact there.”

TAPP is an organization focused around growing overnight visitation, outdoor recreation public land access and local economic development. They also help close the communication gap between ranching issues and tourism through social media and paid marketing.

One example of how ranchers have adapted is how they move their cattle throughout the basin. Historically, cattle were moved primarily by way of cattle drives along Highway 135, but ranchers are running into complications from the increase in traffic and vehicles on the road. 

Trampe Ranches hires trucking companies to move their cattle. Spann Ranch still uses the highway, but they break up the cattle into smaller groups to move them to other fields.

Another adaptation is how ranchers put their cattle on public lands. The increase of recreation and drought in forests has changed wildlife patterns. So now elk and deer are grazing on permitted land at a higher volume than in the past. This is an issue because the cattle do not have as much feed and need to be relocated more quickly.

Ranchers only have a 60-day growing period for hay to feed their herds for more than half of the year. They have to get the cattle off of their private property and into the national forests to grow enough feed. If they move their cattle off of public lands and onto their private pastures too early, this reduces hay and puts herds at risk for future winters. 

“Most of what we have to do is utilize federal ground to get our cattle off of our own private ground so we can raise hay for them for the winter,” Washburn explained. “These land values are so high, we really don’t have much deeded ground of our own, we just can’t afford it. But our cows eat hay more days of the year than they don’t.” 

Other adjustments caused by increased recreation may involve more conservation easements to protect agriculture from public access. “Protecting working lands with conservation easements without public access is the bread and butter of our work,” said Jake Jones, the executive director of the Crested Butte Land Trust. 

The Crested Butte Land Trust owns and manages conserved land that has intersections between public access, ranching uses and wildlife habitats. Some of these lands have the highest recreation use but are also important to agriculture. “It’s an important aspect of our work to maintain a balance of recreation and ranching on the land we own,” Jones said.

Next week, Ceighlee looks at some of the challenges ranchers deal with in terms of communicating to the public…