@Chucklehead -
Since you seem to imply I'm talking smack and that my "anecdotal" story comes off as sour grapes, I'll back my smack with with reality.
Here's two out of dozens pics I took around that drainage of the aftermath of that rancher abusing his grazing privileges. I took these approx Sept 9 at about 9,500ft and before the snow hit, the plants the cows would not eat were still green, no heavy frost yet. The only plants left in that drainage were the ones the cows couldn't graze lower than their lips or the plants they wouldn't eat-- and that's after they ate most of the low branches off the younger aspens. Cow pies everywhere.
Makes the concept of "land stewardship" a complete joke. Let me know if you need more pics or higher resolution...
I stand by what I said: The Grinch himself would have left more grass than this rancher. I ran into a handful of old timers out there on mules and they said they'd never seen that valley look so devastated-- and they had not seen a single elk either.
If you think I have sour grapes, the elk and mule deer must be beyond pissed.
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I'd rather pay more for beef than see this done to our national forests. Not a single wildflower in the entire drainage.
JL