What is Rangeland Management?. Rangeland Management is: The use and stewardship of rangeland resources to meet goals and desires of humans. A Planning.

What is Rangeland Management?

Rangeland Management is: The use and stewardship of rangeland

resources to meet goals and desires of humans.

A Planning Process

Planning examines different alternatives to see which is the “best “ future world.

CURRENT FUTURE

What is “Best” It depends on your point of view.

Preservationists Conservationists Utilitarianisms Pragmatists Etc. etc.

What is “Best” Preservationists –

Emphasize protecting large areas of land from mining, timber, grazing & development so they can be enjoyed by present and future generations.

Founders of the preservation movement were John Muir and Aldo Leopold.

Conservationists – View land as a resource to be used now to enhance economic

growth. But, protected from degradation by efficient management, based on scientific principles, for sustained yield and multiple use.

Early conservationists were T.R. Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Wesley Powell.

Utilitarianists – View land as a substrate for saleable products. Management is

based on land manipulation and exogenous inputs (e.g., fertilizer or herbicides) are usually required to keep production at an optimum level.

Rangeland Management

CURRENT FUTURE

Source of Decision??

?

??

Rangeland Management

CURRENT FUTURE

Source of Decision?tradition

hunches

guessesinformation

Why do we need science? Mangers must integrate scientific

knowledge with ideas, hunches, traditions, etc., to make wise decisions.

To understand the physical, biological, and social processes that affect rangelands.

To discover principles on which to base the wise use of rangelands.

Others?

Rangeland Management

CURRENT FUTURE

What kinds of decisions do we make?

• Political – laws and policies• Economic – buy, sell• Direct actions

What is the role of Education? Convey what is known to society Stop non-objective views Lead to wise land use discussion and

support for actions.

Rangeland Management is: The use and stewardship of

rangeland resources to meet goals and desires of humans.

What do people want from rangelands?

Forage

Recreation

Livestock Production

Open Space

Native Plants

Water

Wildlife Habitat

Why are rangelands important?

Energy Minerals

Rangeland Management is: The use and stewardship of

rangeland resources to meet goals and desires of humans.

What tools do we have for Range Management?

Climate

Change

RangelandsGrasslands, Shrublands, Woodlands

Forces & Impacts

FireHerbivory

Invasion

Human Uses

Development,

Fragmentations,

& Recreation

Ecological Services& Resources

• forage for livestock• wildlife habitat

• watershed management• biodiversity conservation

• open space• carbon sequestration

Climate

Change

RangelandsGrasslands, Shrublands, Woodlands

Forces & Impacts

FireHerbivory

Invasion

Human Uses

Development,

Fragmentations,

& Recreation

Tools for StewardshipFire LivestockGrazing

WeedMgmt HumanImpacts Restoration/Rehabilitation

Ecological Services& Resources

• forage for livestock• wildlife habitat

• watershed management• biodiversity conservation

• open space• carbon sequestration

Tools of Range Management Fire Livestock grazing Integrated weed management Human impacts

Recreation Development

Restoration & rehabilitation

Rangelands are renewable resources; they can produce on a sustained yield basis if properly managed.

Rangeland must be managed to maintain soil and water quality and health and basic biogeochemical cycles.

Rangelands are managed by extensive and ecological principles, not intensive and agronomic principles.

Rangeland Management – Basic Concepts

Rangeland Management – Basic Concepts

Rangelands produce a variety of products (e.g., forage, recreation, water) therefore principles of multiple use are important in range management.

Many important public concerns on rangeland happen across multiple ownerships (i.e., fire, water quality, weeds, open space).

You can’t please all the people all the time. What one person wants my not meet the desires of plans of another.

Principles of Rangeland Management Rangelands change through succession and

disturbance. All we can really do as managers is apply, control, or respond to disturbance based on our knowledge of succession.

The only constant on rangeland is CHANGE. Conditions change from place to place (spatially) and time to time (temporally). We need to understand and accept change.

If you do nothing the land will probably not return to some pre-human paradise.