Overview

Rangeland ecosystems are dynamic and offer new challenges requiring different management approaches.  Livestock management on public lands has always been difficult due to changing conditions over the course of a year or even across multiple years.  However, regulations often required a fixed number of livestock for each grazing allotment and allotment permittees had to follow fixed grazing schedules.  

Today, both the BLM and USFS allow for adaptive management, which is designed to allow adjustment to a livestock management plan when things do not go as expected. There are many different definitions of adaptive management and different ways it is implemented, but it always has two essential components: establishing a set of management goals and conducting regular monitoring to track progress toward meeting those goals.

On public lands grazing allotments, adaptive management is now written into Allotment Management Plans and Annual Operating Instructions. These documents set the rules permittees must follow over the life of their 10-year term grazing permit. By including adaptive management in these documents, the BLM and USFS are able to provide ranchers with more management flexibility allowing the agencies and ranchers to work together to solve problems as they come up. But this can only happen if adaptive management is written into the Allotment Management Plan. As a result, it is essential that ranchers ask that adaptive management is included for their allotment at the time of permit renewal.