What is the importance of protecting rangeland?
In fact, the analysis found that 300,000 acres of rangeland under permanent protection by the California Rangeland Trust provide up to $1.4 billion a year in ecosystem benefits, including contributions to our food, water supplies and climate.
How can we managing rangelands sustainably?
Sustainable rangeland management makes use of the beneficial actions of livestock by moving and herding them in a bunch to a fresh place every day. The animals are moved according to a grazing plan; animals come to the same area only once during the growing season and once during the non-growing season.
What is the role of rangeland management?
Rangeland management specialists are working to provide such things as habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, clean water, and sustainable grazing and browsing. They inventory, classify, and monitor rangeland conditions to maintain or improve rangeland health.
What are the main goals of range management?
The first are responsible for administering and managing properties. Their objective is usu- ally that of maximizing sustained production by the use of current management practices. The second group undertakes investigations aimed at improving and raising the carrying capacity and productivity of pastures.
What is the importance of range land?
Properly managed rangelands protect watersheds from erosion and pollutant runoff that can contaminate waterways. Another important use of rangeland is for recreation. The open spaces and natural beauty make it ideal for outdoor activities, including hiking, fishing, hunting, biking, and driving off-road vehicles.
How can rangeland productivity be improved?
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.
Do you think is rangeland management is essential?
Range management is also important for the wildlife who cohabitate with cattle on these pasture lands. Ranchers are acutely aware of water sources and how they are used. A large pasture can be grazed more efficiently and effectively by providing water in various areas, encouraging cattle movement and equitable grazing.
What do we need from rangelands?
Rangeland ecosystem services are the benefits that society receives from rangelands. They include the provisioning of food, wood and medicinal resources, and services that contribute to climate stability, control of agricultural pests, and purification of air and water.
Which are the 4 basic principles of range management?
Cornerstones of Grazing Management (principles of range management)1. Proper stocking rate (most important)2. Proper season of use3. Proper kind of animal4.
What is meant by range management?
Range management is a professional field whose aim is to ensure a sustained yield of rangeland products while protecting and improving the basic range resources of soil, water, and plant and animal life.
What environmental factors that affects to the range management and explain why?
Environmental factors affect range plant growth. The three most ecologically important environmental factors affecting rangeland plant growth are light, temperature, and water (precipitation). Plant growth and development are controlled by internal regulators that are modified according to environmental conditions.
How do you manage land ranges?
Common management practices to that end include: dividing herds into categories so that they get the appropriate treatment, avoiding underage and unseasonable breeding; controlling parasites and predators; providing veterinary care; and using and maintaining breeds that suit their land and potential markets.
What are the five basic management practices that can be used to improve livestock foraging efficiency on rangelands?
1) defer or rest the key species, 2) obtain a more uniform use, 3) increase livestock productivity, 4) provide opportunity for sacrifice areas, 5) increase wildlife productivity.
How carefully managed grazing on a rangeland can increase its productivity?
Explain how carefully managed grazing on a rangeland can increase its productivity: Grazing by animals stipulates grass to grow and removes dead material. Grasslands cropped at their optimum capacity can be much more productive than if left uncropped.
What are the threats to rangelands?
A ubiquitous threat to rangelands is encroachment by non-native, invasive species, some of which benefit from increased levels of atmospheric CO2. Higher in biomass than most native species, invasives greatly increase the threat of wildfire.
What is the chief commercial use of rangelands?
Jun 23, 2018. The chief commercial use of rangelands is livestock grazing to produce food, fibre and draft animals.
Why are rangeland watersheds important?
Rangeland watersheds are important regulators of the quantity and quality of water in streams, lakes, and aquifers. Many species of fish and wildlife depend ...
Why are grasslands important to California?
California’s annual grasslands have soil Carbon storage capacity and offer an important resource for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. (Silver, et al. 2010)
What is the ecosystem service of pollination on farmlands?
Much of the natural vegetation promoting the ecosystem service of pollination on farmlands is rangeland. This is important for pollinator-dependent species, such as almond, melon, blueberry, and apple. Rangeland habits such as grasslands, meadows, savannah, and shrublands, predominantly managed with livestock grazing, support diverse bee communities due to the wide variety of nesting habitats they supply. (Chaplin-Kramer, et al., 2011)
What is the benefit of grazing?
Annual grazing studies have demonstrated the benefits of livestock grazing in reducing exotic grasses and increasing the federally endangered Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizard numbers. (USFWS 2010)
Why do we need to graze in coastal pastures?
Livestock grazing in coastal pastures can be used to provide a mosaic of vegetation heights, which would yield greater waterbird diversity as well as higher densities of some species. (Colwell and Dodd, 1995)
Do native bees pollinate rangelands?
A study of native California bees shows that both the amount and the stability of pollination services increased with more available habitat which is largely provided on rangelands (Kremen et al., 2004).
Do Western Fence Lizards live in grasslands?
Research has demonstrated that the abundance of Western Fence Lizards and Western Skinks is significantly greater in grazed grasslands. (David Riensche 2005).
Is grazing good for red leg frogs?
Managed livestock grazing at low to moderate levels has a neutral or beneficial effect on California Red-Legged Frog habitat. (USFWS 2006).
What is rangeland used for?
forest, cropland and pastureland are used as range by live- . stock and wildlife. Rangeland is the forage base for most of . the western livestock industry, but just as importantly it pro- . vides wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and off-site . water for millions of Americans. Much of our nation's energy .
How many people are in the rangelands?
will exceed 300 million. Nonetheless, the nation's rangelands
What is a sional organization?
sional organization comprised of individuals with a common
What is the classification system for rangeland?
The most current and widely used rangeland classification system is the ecological site. An ecological site — also referred to as "range site" — is an area with similar soil and climate conditions.
What is a well-designed monitoring program?
Have Data to Back You Up: Well-designed monitoring programs provide a record of responsible stewardship and success stories that can defend your management, and/or encourage other land managers to monitor.
How to determine if livestock is overgrazed?
Records of where and how long livestock graze in an area can determine if an area is being overgrazed or underutilized. Monitoring the amount of forage used by livestock each year, and where in a grazing allotment that use occurs, will help determine if changes are needed in stocking rate, the grazing schedule, the location of supplements, or changes in management to improve the distribution of livestock. Various monitoring methods have been developed to measure grazing animal use. The two main methods are utilization and stubble height.
What is monitoring livestock?
Monitoring the amount of forage used by livestock each year, and where in a grazing allotment that use occurs, will help determine if changes are needed in stocking rate, the grazing schedule, the location of supplements, or changes in management to improve the distribution of livestock.
What is an ecological site?
An ecological site — also referred to as "range site" — is an area with similar soil and climate conditions. These conditions determine the kind and amount of vegetation produced on that site. Monitoring sites should be selected to represent the different types of ecological sites on the unit.
What are the criteria for selecting a site?
Criteria used for selecting sites are generally based on seral state of plant community, topography, location of water, fences and natural boundaries, areas of animal concentration, and presence of species of interest. Also consider kinds of statistical comparisons or intended interpretations.
