Get reliable rangeland science

In the face of a changing climate, the two hundred million acres of public rangelands in the western United States must be managed sustainably, in partnership with ranchers, the primary users and stewards of these federal lands. Rangeland ecosystems, which cover 70% of the global land surface and provide a large portion of the world�s food production, are important for carbon sequestration, and are vital to air and watershed health. To address the complications that climate change will present for rangeland science and management, in 2007 the Southwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), under the authority of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), mandated that ranchers grazing on public lands include adaptive management as a part of their allotment management plans. Adaptive management theory recognizes that rangelands are not static and thereby allows land managers to respond to unexpected environmental stressors, such as drought, by adjusting the intensity, season, and duration of grazing. The 2007 adaptive management rule is thought to be an improvement over prior, conventional practices, but its efficacy has not been scientifically tested. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the ability of the 2007 adaptive management rule to improve the provision of rangeland ecosystem services. Evaluation of the present question will involve ecosystem service assessments derived from both USFS region-wide monitoring data and ecological fieldwork of a smaller subset of ranches.