Rangeland Management

Post by Clemson Undergraduate Erin Doege

Before this class I never really thought about rangelands and their management practices. In fact I did not really have a good grasp on what a rangeland is. But if I did think about rangelands I would have thought about the wildlife and how they use the land, not domestic animals or vegetation.

Rangeland can be thought of as undisturbed land that can meet the needs of grazing and browsing animals. What is defined as a rangeland can actually vary depending on economic and social values. The Great Plains have flipped back and forth between rangelands and croplands, all dependent upon the price of beef versus the price of grain. For me, rangelands are not just areas of uncultivated land with a wide variety flora. To me, taking a holistic approach of including the present day flora and fauna that can be supported is what makes a rangeland.

When you want to conserve an ecosystem you cannot pick and choose what pieces you want to protect. An ecosystem is comprised of many pieces and by picking and choosing you can alter the fate of species present. Every species of plants and animals plays an interactive role with each other. When conserving a rangeland you need to step back and think about what shapes its past, present and future.

The Great Plains area has seen many changes. Bison are a native species to North America, they were present before the arrival of the Europeans. Europeans actually brought cattle and horses to North America. Even though cattle are not native to North America they both come from the same family, Bovidae. Coming from the same family, bison and cattle share many of the same roles in the ecosystem so their introduction was not a drastic change. The civil war and the Homestead Act also facilitated changes to the Great Plains area. The changes may start out small and go unnoticed and then reach their climactic end and you are left to deal with the consequences, such as The Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was the consequence of 50 years of abuse inflicted by people. Rangeland landscapes have and will be shaped by more than just biotic conditions. They also have and will continuously be shaped by abiotic conditions, such as precipitation and climate.

Rangelands are all unique, there is no “one size fits all” for management plans. Designing a management plan is like building a house. The science in the management plan is the like the foundation and the framework. But the art in the management plan is like the personal touches that make a house a home. Keeping this in mind, the first thing you need to do when designing a plan for someone is know their goals. Different goals will require different courses of action. Rangeland management deals with both plants and animals rather than with just plants or animals. Animals have different ecologies and it is important to keep this is mind to ensure the landscape can provide the baseline and the individual can compensate for the deficits. For example, cattle are specialists and deer are generalists. Cows will go through and eat their favorite forage before anything else and deer will eat whatever forage is available to them. The most elusive and challenging part of rangeland management is accounting for the weather. Science can only take you so far when trying to account for it. You do what you can with the science to plan for the extremes but the weather forces you to be adaptive and innovative.

The common theme for the guest speakers this week was that ranchers and conservationist can truly work together and when they do everyone benefits. We went to the 60,000 acre Matador Ranch that is a grass bank founded by The Nature Conservatory. A grass bank is a program where land owners lease land to ranchers at a discounted price and in return, ranchers practice wildlife friendly projects on their land. When we were on a tour of the Matador Ranch a rancher, Budd, was there as a representative of the ranching community participating in the grass bank program. Budd told the group that at first the ranchers were hesitant because of the stereotype that ranchers have to own their own land. But in fact the grass banking takes out the peaks and valleys of ranching. Only half of their herds are brought on the leased lands and the other half remains on their own lands. This increases the available amount of forage for their herds, so in particularly dry seasons this is an invaluable resource for them. Budd and the director of the Matador Ranch, Brian, also pointed out that a grass bank program makes it easier for younger generations to pursue ranching.  We also met with John Pfister who is an extension agent from MSU. He stated that 99% of good agricultural people are good producers and know that they have to take care of the land because that is how they make their living. They are truly good stewards of the land and know if they are not they will go broke because of it. As an agricultural extension agent John Pfister is charged with educating the community with the latest science so the community can put it to work through their agricultural practices. He told us that at first changes are hard but if we do not embrace change we will never see progress. The best example of this was when The Frost’s started selectively managing their forest. John Pfister had members of the community come and ask him to talk to the Frost’s because they were “destroying the forest.” He told us and the community members at the time, that even if he had the power to do so that he did not disagree with them. Then in 2012 a crown wild fire broke out at 9:30 in the morning about 19 miles away from their location. By 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon the fire was extinguished because when it jumped the road to The Frost’s property there was not enough fuel for the fire. In their area 4 out of 17 houses survived, theirs, John Pfister’s who also thinned his trees, and two others. John told us that after this fire he had one member of the community come up to him and ask if he remembered him and he said yes. This gentleman a few years prior was upset with the idea of thinning his forest. The forest was one of the reasons he lived here. But in the wildfire he lost his home, he told John it is not a good feeling to wake up and the next day to have nothing. Without factoring in wind, with every foot of fuel removed the fire decreases in intensity by half. You do not want the crowns of trees touching each other, you want space in between them. This is just one of the many changes that the ranching community has faced and has started to embrace.

I never would have guessed how much went into ranching and rangeland management. There are so many different and intricate working parts. It is truly incredible and gives me a great deal of respect for the ranching community. They have been doing it for so long and are very successful despite the many high stake challenges that most people will never face in their career. Another admirable trait of the ranching community is there sense of pride. They do not want handouts, they want to work and earn their living. I stated above that I would have thought about a rangeland as wildlife and how they used the land. But a rangeland ecosystem is not unidirectional. It is a bidirectional ecosystem where everything has a role and plays off each other.