Cattle browsing in the watershed can harm fish and wildlife habitat, and water quality. Cows will understandably enter the streams for water, damaging these riparian areas. Soil disturbance and destabilized stream banks increase erosion and reduce biodiversity. Sediment added to streams harms fish habitat and water quality. The presence of cattle raises fecal coliform counts in the water.
Cattle walking through a clear-cut can damage seedlings and they browse on newly growing native plants which offer shading to the seedlings. This soil disturbance and plant disruption can create a more welcoming environment for invasive plants, which affects wildlife habitat.
Cattle are an “invasive species” in the watershed ecosystem and do the same kind of damage as other invasive species that can out-compete the native wildlife for forage, shelter and refugia.
Hundreds of miles of abandoned barbed wire fence exist in the Peachland watershed, as there is no requirement for ranchers to remove it. Hikers, bikers, wildlife and domestic animals are regularly injured by hidden barbed wire fencing lurking in the underbrush.
