EBMUD<\/p>\n
Representatives of the District have stated that the principal reason for leasing
\nwatershed land is to reduce the amount of forage by controlled grazing, thus reducing the
\ndanger of fire. Traditionally this purpose was accomplished<\/p>\n
by leasing pasture to cattlemen. The OHA lease was the District’s first lease for the
\ngrazing of horses used for recreational purposes. As lessee the Association has been
\ncareful to observe not only the letter, but the spirit of the lease. Generally it has been
\nthe responsibility of the President to represent the Association, however, to provide
\ncontinuity and to take advantage of experience, a former president has performed this duty
\non occasion.<\/p>\n
Bob Lewman, President during much of the 1970’s represented OHA with the EBMUD and
\nestablished excellent relationships with the Districts property management people, notably
\nHarry Dano and Bill Hartman. As a result, the District often provided services benefiting
\nOHA members, such as moving water troughs, minor grading and gates and supplies.
\nSucceeding presidents have continued maintaining good relationships with District
\nrepresentatives<\/p>\n
.As is typical of Northern California’s climate, the last thirty years have witnessed a
\nsuccession of dry and wet years. This has required flexibility on the part of the
\nmembership to adjust behavior to the changing conditions. The OHA has cooperated
\nresponsibly thus gaining confidence of the District’s officers. It has been the practice
\nto regularly discuss the condition of the pasture and anticipated feeding procedures.<\/p>\n
Annually, EBMUD surveys its range lands to determine the animal carrying capacity of
\nthe forage and its anticipated growth during the season. The numbers of AUMs produced may
\nvary widely from year to year, depending largely on rainfall. Animal Unit Months – (AUMs)
\nare allocated by the District to lessees, and the allocation determines the number of
\nanimals which may be pastured without supplemental feeding. The calculations are made
\nfiguring that 1.25 Animal Unit = 1 horse for 1 month, 1 ton hay = 3 animal units, 1 ton
\ngrain = 5 animal units. For many years now OHA has been allowed 398 \/AUMs per year.<\/p>\n
Before the mid-1970’s drought, thirty-two horses were kept year-round on the Upper
\nPasture. During the extreme drought of 1976-1977, the allocation of AUM’s was reduced. OHA
\nresponded by not replacing horses leaving the pasture and increasing supplemental feeding
\nby its members. At the conclusion of the drought the census was restored to a total of
\nthirty-two horses grazing both the upper and lower pastures. In January 1985, President
\nLinda Furtado reported to the membership on a meeting with Stephen Abbors, Range -forestry
\nSuperintendent of EBMUD. Abbors indicated that at the end of the grazing season at least
\none thousand pounds of forage per acre should remain to prevent erosion, to provide good
\nwater quality and to provide ample seed for next year’s growth. At that time, he reported
\nthat the OHA pastures had sixteen hundred pounds per acre and generally were in excellent
\ncondition.<\/p>\n
In July, 1989, EBMUD strongly requested that OHA use 100% of the Animal Unit Months
\n(AUM’s) allocated as the pasture was underglazed. Over the protests of a few members, the
\nBoard voted to add six more horses and selected a committee of six to interview and select
\ncandidates for membership<\/p>\n
Over the years, reflecting changing public attitudes, the District has developed
\npolicies to further the environmental protection of the land and the wildlife present on
\nthe property. The OHA has been very supportive of these objectives and has cooperated with
\nthe District in solving problems which arise. During the 1980’s, the primary interest of
\nthe District shifted to the total ecology of the pasture. It was prepared to embark on new
\ngrazing policies: to require rotation of horses among the pastures; to re-seed damaged
\nareas; and to involve itself more closely in the management of the land resources. This
\nhas been the experience of the last fifteen years.<\/p>\n
President Morris Older reported to the membership in August 1989, that even in drought
\nyears, EBMUD recognized that the OHA pasture stays green longer because of late afternoon
\nridge shadows covering the pasture during the hottest part of the day and fog and dew
\nkeeping the grass moist. As a result, EBMUD staffers repeatedly acknowledged that the OHA
\npasture was perhaps the healthiest ecosystem of all the grazed EBMUD pastures.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated 2\/9\/93, addressed to its grazing lessees, Mr. Robert C. Nuzum,
\nDirector of Natural Resources Department, indicated that the District was holding hearings
\nas part of drawing up a new master paln for the watershed lands. This would be the first
\nrevision to the District’s “Land Use Master Plan” since 1970. Mr Nuzum stated
\nthat reconsideration could substantially modify the land uses in which OHA and other
\nlessees were involved, as the District’s goals and priorities had changed since 1970, with
\ngreater emphasis now to be placed on certain environmental problems which the District
\nwill mitigate or eliminate. He expressed the intent of EBMUD to address identified
\nproblems over the next three years by January 1995, and develop a mechanism which will
\nallow OHA to work cooperatively with EBMUD staff to determine how best to meet the
\n“no net impact” objective. Measures that were considered included banning
\ngrazing on District lands, limiting grazing, and fencing livesotck away from streams and
\npoonds<\/p>\n
In testimony before the Citizens Advisory Committee, Morris Older pointed out that
\nhorses were less damaging to the ecology of grazing lands than were cattle since the
\nformer were not subject to the economic pressure prevalent in the cattle business. Also,
\nthe habits of horses differed from those of cattle which tend to “hang out” near
\nponds or streams, while horses tend to gather on high windy plateaus. EBMUD staff, while
\ncondemning cattle grazing, seconded these arguments in their testimony. While the adoption
\nof the master plan led to elimination of some cattle leases, the reduction of others, and
\nthe fencing off of sensitive riparian wildlife habit areas on district lands grazed by
\ncattle, OHA remained mostly unaffected. Rather than fencing off the pond, the pasture
\nrotation timetable was changed, which has allowed the reeds to take over larger areas of
\nthe pond, providing increased sanctuary to the birds, fowl and turtles living there As the
\nresult, it was decided to defer indefinitely the fencing off of the lake, much to the
\napproval of the OHA members. The most concrete consequence of the adoption of the master
\nplan on the OHA pasture to date has been the fencing off of the creek running through the
\nNorth corral in 1997.<\/p>\n
Other EBMUD policies affect members of the OHA, sometimes not to their liking. For
\nexample for years OHA members had been able to share the pasture experience with their
\ndogs as well as with their horses. In the late 1980’s, however, EBMUD decided that in
\norder to protect the wildlife sharing the pasture with the horses, dogs would no longer be
\nallowed anywghere on the pasture. OHA members and others protested the policy which
\nsubsequently was modified to permit dogs on leash “for personal protection and
\nsafety, but not for pleasure anywhere in the pasture except in the vicinity of the pond,
\nand off-leash when ascending the trail from the south gate on El Toyonal up to the gate
\ninto Tilden on Seaview Trail at the top of the upper pasture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EBMUD Representatives of the District have stated that the principal reason for leasing watershed land is to reduce the amount of forage by controlled grazing, thus reducing the danger of fire. Traditionally this purpose was accomplished by leasing pasture to cattlemen. The OHA lease was the District’s first lease for the grazing of horses used… Read More »Relationship with EBMUD<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":147,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/217\/revisions\/822"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}