Commissioners Triple Livestock Rule On Dry Land Doe Protests, Says Adding Animals Will Increase Dust, Pollute Water

It may get a little more crowded, and a lot more dusty, out on the range.

Spokane County commissioners on Tuesday tripled the number of livestock that can be kept on dry land.

Under the new rules, up to three head of livestock can live on every acre of non-irrigated pasture. That’s always been the limit for irrigated land, where lush grass helps prevent erosion and other problems.

Until Tuesday, the limit for one acre of non-irrigated land was one horse, cow or other large animal. County planner Wally Hubbard said the old regulation was “very difficult to enforce, practically impossible.”

“Somebody puts a garden hose out there and calls it irrigated,” he said.

The Department of Ecology protested the change in a letter to county planners.

Increasing the number of animals on small, dry lots will add dust to Spokane’s gritty air, wrote Vernice Santee of the agency’s environmental review section.

Animals kept in streamside pastures will make more trips to the water, causing more water pollution, greater loss of streamside vegetation and more erosion, Santee wrote.

The damage will depend on the animals, the land, and the care both receive, said Tom Platt, Washington State University extension agent for Lincoln, Adams and Spokane counties.

Platt said three sheep probably could survive on an acre. Three horses would wear the pasture to bare earth.

“Grazing animals are going to graze” regardless of whether they have supplemental food, he said.

Platt said most knowledgeable people who raise large animals on small plots limit the damage by confining the livestock to a corner of the land, “what we call a sacrifice lot.”

The change probably will be most noticeable in the Valley and other suburban areas.

Some Valley developers in the past marketed large lots as “horse acres,” attracting buyers who wanted to keep livestock but didn’t want to be far from town. Zoning codes now prohibit newcomers to the Valley from putting livestock on land where animals aren’t already grazing.