For the past two years, the district has analyzed whether there is a way to allow grazing within the Glaze Cattle Allotment without harming the area's old growth trees, wildlife and sensitive plants and watersheds.

The allotment is within the Metolius Old Growth Area.

The district has concluded that although there are environmentally sound alternatives to closing the Glaze Allotment, they are difficult and expensive to implement.

Sandy Hurlocker of the Sisters Ranger District said eliminating cattle from the area will allow vegetation to grow for trout cover, stream banks to stabilize, and water temperatures to lower in conformance with state standards.

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Grazing affects the bitterbrush and snowberry shrubs that are an important part of old growth ponderosa pine ecosystems, according to Hurlocker. Many comments submitted to the Forest Service during the public comment period reflected concern that grazing was incompatible with old-growth management goals.

A large amount of Peck's Penstemon, a rare plant, is within the Glaze allotment. Cows eat the flowers and seeds.

Alternatives to closure of the Glaze Allotment would have permitted fewer cattle and reduced the grazing season, along with fencing a watershed and creating a new water source (a well with pipes and water tanks).

The preferred alternative would have reduced the current 105-day season to 45 days, and called for herding cattle away from water areas. However, monitoring costs for this option would have been more than $5,000 per year, plus roughly $5,000 in start-up costs.

The Forest Service's decision notice stated, "the monitoring necessary to ensure resource protection requires about 13 percent of the Forest's entire range budget."

The notice concluded that, instead of reducing grazing, closing the Glaze Allotment "provides the greatest benefit to the old growth habitats..." and that the monitoring costs were not feasible.

Stuart Garrett, Conservation Chair of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, said closure of the area to cattle "is a good thing to do," and that "continued grazing would have interfered with rehabilitation of the meadow area."

He noted that the grazing "decreased aspen, woody shrubs, willows, mullein and thistle, and exotic plants."

Paul Dewey of the Sisters Forest Planning Committee lauded the decision. "Grazing was totally inappropriate in an old growth area. Grazing was contrary to sound plant biology and was adversely affecting Indian Ford Creek."

Tim Lillebo of Oregon Natural Resources Council agreed. "It is about time, but they definitely made the right choice. I hope it is for the right ecological reasons, and that the Forest Service really evaluated the value of grazing relative to all the other values of the forest -- the old growth, wildlife, Peck's Penstemon and recreation. I hope economics is not the most important reason."

The area cannot formally be closed to cattle until 1999, because the Forest Service must give the permittees two year's notification. However, the permittees, Gary and Colleen Haynes of Powell Butte, have not grazed cattle in the Glaze Allotment for a number of years.

Hurlocker noted, "If there had been grazing on the allotment this (closing the allotment)
may have been more of a pressing issue."

Also, Karen Shimamoto, the Sisters District Ranger during most of the process, was trying to secure a replacement grazing allotment for the permitees.

A group of high school student volunteers hopes to "re-root and transplant maybe 100 willows and 100 cottonwoods in the next couple of weeks" in damaged areas of the Glaze Allotment, said advisor Cheryl Butler.