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Cattle Grazing- Oak Seedling Chalenge Number Three
As
if the gauntlet were not long enough, let’s suppose that some small
blue or valley oak seedlings were to survive so far. Now they face the
effects of animals out there that are looking for something green and
tender, particularly during the dry season of late summer. Cattle will
browse away at the tips of the growing oaks.
Worse, it was thought that clearing oaks would make more grass for cattle. Between 1945 and 1975, about 32,000 ac of oak woodlands were cleared each year. Eventually, cattle growers recognized that any benefits from removing old-growth oak forests were short-lived, and the "range improvement" only lasted 15 years. In recent years, the rate of range clearing has dropped to less than 2,500 acres per year.
Sustainable ranching has become a goal of many landowners with the long view of oak woodlands. Some ranchers, for example George Work of southern Monterey county, have used fencing and herd management to keep cattle away from seedling oaks, and encouraging oak reproduction. The Work ranch is also planting oak seedlings. Planting and protecting only a few oaks each year will eventually produce replacement oaks on the ranches.
Federal agencies with large areas of oak woodlands have tried to limit the effects of grazing on oaks. One of the only examples we know of valley oak seedlings in good numbers is on the upper San Antonio valley on Fort Hunter Liggett. There, cattle had overgrazed the land so severely that up to 10% of the herd died of starvation each year. Now, after some 20 years without cattle, some valley oak saplings are appearing. One of the side-effects of typical winter grazing by cattle is soil compaction. When soil is wet, hooves of sheep or cows compact the soil. As soil dries out in spring, it hardens into a brick-like consistency, dramatically reducing the ability to absorb water or seeds. After 200 years of grazing every year, many soils see dramatic reductions in their productivity or ability to grow even annual, weedy, non-native grasses.
Cattle are clearly very damaging to oak seedlings, but there are many places that continue to show very few oak seedlings, even if cattle have been removed. For example, Hastings has been without cattle for nearly 60 years, yet oak saplings are very rare there. Recently, Hastings started planted many valley and blue oaks with gopher protection.