mlswm

Mattole Landowners for Sensible Watershed Management
P.O. Box 214
Petrolia, CA 95558

We find your draft of "Standards and Guidelines for Rangeland Health in California and NW Nevada" practical and pertinent.We approve that public lands maintain multipurpose land usage. It is understood that some habitats are more sensitive to livestock grazing than others. Our main concern is that individual areas are considered on a site by site basis.

Our "Sensible Watershed" group consists of over 1000 property owners, large and small, owning over 70% of the land in the Mattole Waterich is adjacent to the Kings Range Conservation Area in Humboldt Co.

Some of our members do lease a portion of the Kings Range. We are concerned that this area retains the grazing leases for at least 6 months of the year, preferably for 8 to 9 months. It is an economic necessity to these small family owned ranches. Raising cattle here in the valley is marginal. With out these leases these ranchers would be forced to sell their property or sub divide it so that more people would populate the valley and further degrade the land and Mattole River salmonoid runs. Having read over the DEIS draft we see no reason to abolish these leases. The livestock grazing is beneficial to these nutritional pasture lands. Grazing helps prevent fires caused by hikers and hunters carelessness. `The cattle do not compete with any flora or fauna. Wildlife is thriving on the Kings Range. Mountain lion and bear are plentiful In fact, a fisher was sighted a couple of months ago. They were considered extinct in this portion of the Mattole from over hunting in the 1920's. We feel that the mouth of the river and estuary should be more protected from any errant cattle and will encourage the person that leases nearby pasture to keep fences mended.

Again, we commend the thoughtfulness and science of your draft of Guidelines and Standards. The Ukiah plan seems most suitable to our area.

Sincerely,

Lorene Etter
Secretary MLSWM