Rangeland Ecology & Management

Get reliable science

Idaho Standards for Rangeland Health and Guidelines for Livestock Grazing Management
Author
Not Available
Publisher
BLM
Publication Year
1997
Body

The Standards for Rangeland Health, as applied in the State of Idaho, are to be used as the Bureau of Land Management’s management goals for the betterment of the environment, protection of cultural resources, and sustained productivity of the range. They are developed with the specific intent of providing for the multiple use of the public lands. Application of the standards should involve collaboration between the authorized officer, interested publics, and resource users. Rangelands should be meeting the Standards for Rangeland Health or making significant progress toward meeting the standards. Meeting the standards provides for proper nutrient cycling, hydrologic cycling, and energy flow. Monitoring of all uses is necessary to determine if the standards are being met. It is the primary tool for determining rangeland health, condition, and trend. It will be performed on representative sites. Appropriate to soil type, climate, and landform, indicators are a list of typical physical and biological factors and processes that can be measured and/or observed (e.g., photographic monitoring). They are used in combination to provide information necessary to determine the health and condition of the rangelands. Usually, no single indicator provides sufficient information to determine rangeland health. Only those indicators appropriate to a particular site are to be used. The indicators listed below each standard are not intended to be all inclusive. The issue of scale must be kept in mind in evaluating the indicators listed after each standard. It is recognized that individual isolated sites within a landscape may not be meeting the standards; however, broader areas must be in proper functioning condition. Furthermore, fragmentation of habitat that reduces the effective size of large areas must also be evaluated for its consequences.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Technical Report
Collection
Keywords
Idaho
  • Articles, citations, reports, websites, and multimedia resources focused on rangeland ecology, management, restoration, and other issues on American rangelands.