Study: Livestock polluting Sierra water supply
By Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee
As director of the emergency room at the UC Davis Medical Center, Robert Derlet always wondered what made people sick.
Each summer, on hiking trips into the high Sierra, he brought that curiosity along, asking himself: Where do you get infections in the wilderness? The most obvious possibility, he believed, was the water.
Now, after 10 years of fieldwork and 4,500 miles of backpacking, Derlet knows for sure. What he has learned – after analyzing hundreds of samples dipped from backcountry lakes and streams –
Cattle near Bridgeport. Photo/Daryl L. Hunter
is that parts of the high Sierra are not nearly as pristine as they look.
How about the beavers that the feds planted up there generations ago? How about when a mountain sheep dies near a stream? There are MANY causes of bacteria in streams and ponds and any backpacker worth his/her salt knows not to drink directly out of any standing water source, and very carefully from a moving one. You’ve always been encouraged to filter or sterilize natural water before drinking it.
This is more enviro-stupidity trying to kick all the incorrect users out of the mountains. They’re currently trying to ban all motorized vehicles out of huge swaths of the hills in Nevada where the guys all love to ride, all in the name of “wilderness”. It hasn’t been “wilderness” in over 100 years!
If you enjoy cycling or motorsports or camping in the Pinenut area, go to http://www.cfpa-nv.org. While you still can.
Pretty good story, like your too Dogwoman,if anyone remembers the cattle were removed from the Barton Meadow years ago. Little cattle crap never hurt any one if you got a strong stomach.lol ,just the trillions gallons of lake water right?
If you got the youthful legs , great health, the upper high hiking trails back around Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon loop (75 miles),are unbelievable(Rae lakes area) ,it’s above the 10,000 foot elevation,never had to purify the water there. There’s a Paradise Canyon there with a 1000 year old pine tree with Hell craved on it’s entrance,this place is Adam ,Eve, to any that wonder what is what like in the beginning of time.Wild Onions grow 7 to 10 foot high with beautiful purple flowers. The fish back there are so hungry they eat hooks with out bait.Really!You can hang longer if you got the time.
The Mt. Whitney – 14,495′ gathers clouds all the time you there in back ground,but the water up there the best tasting water you’ll every drink.Be sure take a small solar battery charger to keep the itunes playing.Peace
I think the Sierra Club is at it again.
It’s… common sense! With cow dung comes bacteria, and lots of it. Whether it’s acceptable to you or not depends on your point of view. These meadows are owned by you and I. The grazing leases bring in less money than it costs to maintain the meadows. If you think that its a good use of our tax dollars to subsidize beef production, then the situation is ok. If you think that the economy works best when the price of a product includes all the costs associated with its production, then you would believe that those running cattle should pay to mitigate the damage caused by the cattle.
Common sense, Show me where tax dollars are being used where all us benefit.
If you want be a carrot head that’s your choice , you pass on the mitigate fee then some won’t be able to afford beef at 25 dollars a pound.Then you can eat The Quagga Shell”.
Frankly ,”I don’t give a damn.”
People wonder why there’s no factories belching out american products, It’s because of the green movement, they got smart moved their manufacturer companies to foreign lands . It was cheaper to to that than have to fool with investing trillions to keep the stacks of industry producing products here.
China air pollution ends up right here in the basin and there’s not one thing the T>R>P>A> can do about it. Put that in your pipe ,see if it comes out green.
Is this not the same stuff you buy at the nursery and apply liberally to your vegeatable garden ?
Hard-to-make-a-living, why resort to ad hominem attacks?
You apparently missed my point. I said that the free market works best when the price of a product includes all the costs associated with its production.
Follow the “Read the whole story” link at the end of the article:
“The Forest Service takes in so little from grazing, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has reported, that it loses millions of dollars administering the national program.”
I’m not a “green.” I’m against corporate socialism. I don’t think that taxpayers should subsidize people who make money off public land. It happens all the time with mining. Taxpayer pay millions to clean up old mines while the mining companies keep all the profit. It happens with timber harvesting, and also with beef production.
Tell ME ABOUT IT, THEY ARE PAYING 1.5 BILLION TO CLEAN UP MY PEOPLES LAND.
DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR THEY DESTROYED
OUR WATER AND EARTH WITH LEAD AND TOXINS FOR BOMBS AND ANIMATION.
OVER 230.000 TONS LEAD LIES IN EYE VIEW(SURFACE) IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM.
INDIAN GAMING AND THE BIG BUCKS ROLLED IN, WE GOT ONE HELL OF A ATTORNEY.WE WON THE SUIT.
SO I GUESS YOU ARE BUMMED,WE AREN’T !
THE FOREST SERVICE HAS BEEN MISHANDLE FOR YEARS.YOU WOULD RATHER THE FOREST BURN DOWN OR CHOKE THE PEOPLE DOWN WIND WITH SMOKE,THAT PROMOTES GLOBAL WARMING IN THE NAME OF FOREST HEALTH.
SPEND SOME THAT DAMN MONEY, PUT PEOPLE TO WORK CLEARING IT TO BE USED IN WAYS WE ALL CAN BENEFIT.CHRIST SAKE, NO RUBBER WHEELS ARE GOING TO SCARE THE LAND LONGER THAN A COMPLETE BURIED UP FOREST.
ALL THESE AGENCIES THAT MAKE THINGS HARD ON THE COMMON TAXPAYERS ARE THE ONE’S WHO WASTE THE MOST MONEY ,IT COMES FROM WASHINGTON ,DON’T TRY FLATTER THE GENERAL POPULATION SAYING YOU WANT SAVE THE MONEY,THAT’S COMPLETE “BS.
USE YOUR COMMON SENSE TO GET THINGS DONE ,TAKE THAT SCIENCE IN BIOLOGY APPLY TO THINGS THAT WORK.
“CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW”?
HTMLiT, When you’re right, you’re RIGHT!
CommonSense got it right HTMALIT…you should really read the whole story before posting a rambling diatribe replete with multiple mis-spellings.
Agreed–the Forest Service is guilty of gross mis-management (along with many if not most other governmental agencies) and pointing out these blunders is the first step in correcting them.
If the true cost of beef production makes hamburger $25 lb.—-so be it. It would wake people up to all the downstream costs that aren’t currently included in the price of meat, plastics and a host of other common consumer goods. Wouldn’t hurt the national economy to reduce the cost of running an illness care system saddled with the rising cost of obesity related, preventable diseases.
Now—if I haven’t already stepped in it enough—shall we talk about the thousands of piles of smelly, bacteria laden dog poop that litter our trails, meadows and streets???
grrrrrrrrrrrr