CEAP is a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental effects of conservation practices and programs and develop the science base for managing the agricultural landscape for environmental quality. Project findings are used to guide USDA conservation policy and program development and help conservationists, farmers and ranchers make more informed conservation decisions. Assessments in CEAP are carried out at national, regional and watershed scales on cropland, grazing lands, wetlands and for wildlife. This work contributes to building the science base for effective conservation, and includes research, modeling, assessment, monitoring and data collection, outreach, and extension education. The Grazing Lands component of CEAP began in 2006 with a combined bibliography (2006) and individual literature syntheses completed for rangelands (2011) and pasturelands/haylands (2012). Using these documents and effective partnerships as springboards, CEAP-Grazing Lands is now developing computer modeling methods and protocols to simulate and quantify the environmental effects of conservation practices on grazing lands. This presentation provides an overview of emerging CEAP modeling to be applied to western U.S. rangelands. These lands are unique in their heterogeneity of plant communities, soil and climate, wildlife habitats, resistance and resilience factors, functionality mechanisms, spatial and temporal management scales, multiple uses, economics, and provision of various societal goods and services. Modeling is intended to capture multiple resource concerns and treatment scenarios, including wildlife habitat. CEAP Wildlife component assessments conducted on western rangelands described in the following presentations inform CEAP Grazing Lands modeling efforts.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.