Get reliable rangeland science

Written by Aaron Lien, Assistant Research Scientist, School of Natural Resources & the Environment, University of Arizona

Introduction

While implementation of science-based management at the individual ranch scale is necessary to sustain healthy rangelands, ranch-scale stewardship is often not enough to achieve regional ecological, economic, and social goals. Rangelands are complex systems where changes at the ranch level can scale up to impact regional ecological health in expected and unexpected ways. Large landscape conservation is an approach to conservation and management that focuses on actions that are taken across large areas, such as entire watersheds. In contrast to a single ranch, large landscape conservation generally involves many ranchers, other landowners and users, government agencies, and conservation organizations. These different interests come together to identify specific, measurable conservation objectives that will enhance the conservation value of all lands, regardless of owner or use. Major goals of large landscape conservation efforts typically focus on management approaches that require a multi-ownership and multi-jurisdictional approach, such as reintroduction of fire into ecosystems, implementation of climate adaptation initiatives, and controlling development. Large landscape conservation efforts also acknowledge that conservation does not take place in a vacuum and generally seek to address economic and social challenges. In many places, large landscape conservation and related collaborative efforts have emerged as a critical approach to successful rangeland management at the regional scale.

Wildfires rolling across the African savannah. A hunter calling in an elk on a mountain meadow. Mongolian herders gathering their goats for the night. Reindeer herds grazing on the arctic tundra. These are all scenes that could be happening somewhere “out there” in the world’s arid wild lands, also known as rangelands.

Vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, and deserts: rangelands are the wild open spaces that cover about half of the earth’s land. Rangelands are known by many names across the globe including prairies, shrublands, deserts, woodlands, savannas, chaparral, steppe, and tundra.

Rangelands provide a vast array of resources, products and values, including forage for livestock, habitat for wildlife, clean water, renewable energy, recreational opportunities, open space, and magnificent vistas.

Search the Rangelands Gateway database of more than 25,000 resources

Rangelands are important to American Indian and Alaskan Natives with an estimated 46 million acres of rangeland managed by tribes. These landscapes have agricultural, natural resource, and cultural significance. Many unique issues also come up with these indigenous rangelands including conservation of sacred areas, land tenure rights, variation of land title with unique responsibilities and authorities, and cultural uses. Many of these lands occur in the western United States and are a critical resource for indigenous livelihoods and culture but have been neglected with many contemporary issues and legal cases emerging.

Although Indian lands are extensions of neighboring ecological landscapes and watersheds, they are strikingly different politically. Many reservations have several different classes of land title within them that are not managed by a single political entity: Indian title, allotted, federal, and fee simple are examples. Each class of land gives rise to unique responsibilities and authorities. This can make land-based natural resource issues and resulting decisions quite complex.  There are several land-related issues of key interest to American Indians and Alaska Natives today including: (1) sovereignty (2) undivided heirship and fractionated lands; and (3) the conversion of in held fee simple lands to trust lands ("fee to trust").

Written by Rachel Mealor and George Ruyle

In this section, we will look at important aspects of maintaining and improving rangelands. The purpose of monitoring rangelands is to document change over time in vegetation or other aspects of the range as they relate to management or natural processes. Monitoring documents existing conditions and establishes whether present land management is making progress toward achieving stated objectives, and if it is not, provides a basis for deciding what alternative management practices may be required.

The fundamental data components useful for rangeland management include inventory and monitoring data on soils and vegetation. An inventory is a survey of natural resources that documents the amount, kind, or location of different resource types at one point in time. The purpose of an inventory is to characterize all parts of a management unit (such as a soil survey) or estimate average values of certain attributes such as forage production. Rangeland monitoring means to make repeated measurements or observations over time to establish whether or not changes in selected resource attributes have occurred. The emphasis on change is what distinguishes monitoring from rangeland inventories.

Vegetation restoration is an important aspect in maintaining and improving rangelands. If rangelands have experienced degradation, there are several strategies that can be used to increase forage production, improved forage quality, and improve wildlife habitat. Strategies such as removal of undesirable plant species (e.g. mechanical, chemical, biological control methods), seeding desirable plants that compete with undesirable species, and using tools such as grazing or prescribed fire as means for restoration.

Overview

This phrase accurately describes how all the lands under jurisdiction of the USFSand the BLM are managed: with the goal of balancing a wide variety of uses across a massive, complex landscape. Millions of acres of public lands are used for grazing, but these same national forests, national grass lands, and other publicly owned lands are also used for hiking, boating, hunting, timber, mining, wildlife and many other uses. The USFSand BLM are required by law to balance all of these uses for the long-term benefit of the American people. Through the resources on this webpage, you can learn about how the USFSand BLM seek to achieve this goal, how they differ from other agencies, and what regulations they must follow when managing these lands. These resources place a special emphasis on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because it impacts all decisions about public lands grazing.