11/15/05 MOU on grazing DFW lands

Washington Ag November 15, 2005 A Memorandum of Understanding between the Washington Cattlemen's Association and the Department of Fish and Wildlife could lead to increased grazing on lands the department owns. The MOU was announced at last week's cattlemen's convention in Chelan. WCA president Pete Guglielmino calls the MOU a huge development. He says Fish and Wildlife has traditionally allowed very limited grazing even as it acquired more land and has had trouble managing it. Guglielmino: "It will be on a limited basis at first, pilot projects, but if they can define their management goals and then we can provide them with grazing plans to achieve it, it is a huge step. Not only will it save them money but it helps in the multiple-use concept, in the local communities and it is beneficial to wildlife." And benefitting wildlife says Guglielmino will mean benefits for hunters too. Guglielmino: "As many of the sportsmen know that a lot of the best hunting is on private ranches and it is not necessarily because they control the hunting but because the habitat is better. You will see some of these game department lands where the hunting will come back and it will be as good as it is on private ranches." I'm Bob Hoff.