TRPA to examine livestock grazing

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 | 9:39 a.m.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency board members could adopt an ordinance to regulate corral and barn upgrades as well as grazing practices. Management plans would be due by 2002.

Grazing is believed to have significant impact on the water quality of the streams running into Lake Tahoe, mostly from additional sediment runoff and also from manure.

TRPA staff recommendations follow several meetings of an advisory committee in 1997 and 1998.

"It's time to move on, get it done and help the people to do the work," says TRPA planner Joe Pepi.

The bistate TRPA looked at similar recommendations in October, but several board members still had some questions - like the costs for ranchers.

Rough estimates range from a few thousand dollars up to more than $100,000 for some ranches with a lot of U.S. Forest Service land.

TRPA governors also wanted to know how much damage livestock causes to Lake Tahoe. Pepi says there's really no way to know exactly - but "any degradation of Lake Tahoe is unacceptable."

Shirley Giovacchini, a Genoa, Nev., resident who owns a 2,200-acre ranch around Cold Creek, is upset with the proposal.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of time TRPA has spent on the grazing issue," she said. "They should spend more time checking into what damage is being caused by golf courses. What the golf courses are spewing off into the lake is a lot worse than what my little bit of cattle are doing."

It may cost up to $5,000 for Giovacchini to come up with a grazing management plan and nearly $80,000 to implement it. Her family has owned the ranch since the early 1900s, and she's afraid the ordinances will cause her to lose it.

"I want families and kids to be able to enjoy animals and have that as a healthy outlet," adds Mary Lou Mosbacher, who owns a small farm on five acres in Christmas Valley. "I don't want to see any of those little boys and girls in Christmas Valley grow up without being able to keep a horse for the summer."

"What are we going to do? We're not kids. We can't just pick up and move," she says.

"Some people it will put out of business," says Shirley Taylor, owner of the Celio Ranch. "When the time is up, they'll just pick up their stakes and leave, call it quits."

Taylor's family purchased ranch land in 1863 and once owned thousands of acres in the Tahoe Basin. She still owns about 100 acres, including 63 for grazing of up to 15 horses.

She feels the livestock's damage is minimal compared to other sources of contamination.

"Since the introduction of the beaver in 1944, they have done a tremendous amount of damage on (The Upper Truckee River) and every other tributary in the basin," she said.