Integrating Conservation and Financial Objectives on Private Rangelands in Northern Colorado: Rancher and Practitioner Perceptions

Payments for ecosystem services and other approaches seek to expand conservation outcomes from working ranches in rangeland systems. Making these strategies attractive to ranchers and effective in achieving conservation goals requires information that is largely lacking about the human dimensions of aligning conservation, agricultural, and financial objectives on working ranches. This exploratory study addressed this knowledge gap about perceived strategies, barriers, and opportunities by interviewing a purposive sample of 23 ranchers and natural resource practitioners (e.g., government agencies, conservation nonprofits) involved in a collaborative stakeholder group in Larimer County, Colorado. Interviewees’ responses demonstrated a wide range of potential strategies for ranchers to adopt, yet their discussion of ranch-scale and regional concerns demonstrated the multiple interlinked ecological, financial, and social factors that pose challenges for mainstreaming opportunities. All interviewees expressed interest in developing a regional payment for ecosystem services program, seeing an opportunity to simultaneously support ranchers and improve conservation stewardship. However, substantial concerns were expressed regarding possible restrictions to the ranch operation, profitability, and other management and legal factors that would diminish attractiveness to ranchers. Our findings suggest that characteristics of our study system, including proximity to urban areas and the presence of a collaborative stakeholder group, contribute importantly to the opportunities and challenges perceived by interviewees. Furthermore, interviewees’ responses highlighted how factors beyond the ranch-scale can affect the viability of ranch business strategies to achieve conservation and agricultural objectives. Future research with representative populations across rangeland systems in the American West and in contexts with and without collaborative groups will build constructively upon this exploratory study.     

Knowledge in Practice: Documenting Rancher Local Knowledge in Northwest Colorado

For more than 150 years, ranchers in the West have gained insight about natural systems through daily interaction and management of landscapes, but this knowledge has never been systematically documented and analyzed. We interviewed 26 ranchers from a single watershed to understand how ranchers acquire their knowledge, document what they know about rangeland ecosystems, and explore how this knowledge varies within the ranching community. This exploratory study offers insight into the types of knowledge ranchers possess without attempting to survey all rancher knowledge or ascribe this set of knowledge to all ranchers. We identified three major knowledge categories in interviews: active knowledge applied to management decisions, embedded knowledge from living in place, and integrative knowledge that links ecological, economic, and social aspects of rangeland systems. We found rancher knowledge complemented scientific knowledge in its ability to provide site-specific information on management practices and ecological responses, and insight regarding potential indicators of rangeland health. Knowledge varies widely within the ranching community, and knowledgeable ranchers are readily identified through community referrals. Ranchers gained their knowledge primarily through experience and social interactions, and this knowledge is an untapped source of context-specific information. We did find that economic constraints, social norms, and proximity to the system might limit application of knowledge to practice. There is also a danger that this accumulated and dynamic knowledge base will be lost over the next generation, as many family ranches are sold to new ranchers or for nonranching uses. Based on our findings, we propose that more dialogue within ranching communities and between ranchers and scientists may lead to more sustainable land management practices and effective outreach efforts, and could expand and strengthen the informal social networks through which much rancher knowledge is shared and on which the social sustainability of ranching communities depends.     

Knowing the Land: A Review of Local Knowledge Revealed in Ranch Memoirs

Lack of long-term ecological monitoring presents a challenge for sustainable rangeland management in many areas of the western United States. Ranchers and other land managers have local knowledge gained from ongoing experience in specific places that could be useful for understanding ecological change and best management practices. Local knowledge is defined as knowledge gained by daily contact with the natural world and ecological processes. Unfortunately, little is known about ranchers’ local knowledge, and few studies have systematically examined the types, depth, and validity of this knowledge. Ranch memoirs offer an unexplored entry into rancher knowledge acquisition, categories, and context. In this study, we coded and analyzed eighteen ranch memoirs from the western United States to investigate the specific types, depth, and quality of local land knowledge. We found that ranchers possess knowledge of both management and ecology, and that these knowledge realms are intertwined and often inseparable. In addition to learning from experience, social interactions are an important part of rancher education and create a shared knowledge culture. In most of the memoirs, ranchers revealed very little knowledge of long-term patterns of vegetation change. In all the memoirs reviewed, ranchers articulated a deep sense of responsibility and connectedness to the landscapes they manage and steward. This review of ranch memoirs provides a framework for future studies of local knowledge by identifying how ranchers gain their knowledge of the landscapes they manage, describing some of the distinctive types of knowledge that ranchers possess, and challenging conventional classifications of rancher knowledge.     

Practical Challenges in Private Stewardship of Rangeland Ecosystems: Yellow Starthistle Control in Sierra Nevadan Foothills

Private landowners are often de facto stewards of biodiversity and ecosystem services. In California's Sierra Nevada foothills, ranchers frequently present the only defense against biological invasions in private rangelands. Although ranchers' land management goals (e.g., the desire to control invasive species) can be consistent with ecosystem protection, practical constraints often limit their success. Considerable research on the invasive weed, yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.), has produced numerous control strategies. Nevertheless, the range of this noxious weed continues to increase. We used surveys and interviews to document the weed control efforts of 202 ranchers and to identify practical limitations to their efficacy. Overall, 86% of ranchers who had experienced yellow starthistle infestation had attempted control, using one or more of 19 methods. Early response reduced negative effects from yellow starthistle. Control methods learned from agricultural advisors were reported more effective than those learned elsewhere. Limitations to yellow starthistle control in our study population resulted from incomplete information regarding control methods, complexity of weed control in heterogeneous landscapes, inconsistent application of methods, and lack of long-term planning for weed control. Such hindrances make it difficult for landowners to implement control methods promoted by researchers. This gap between science and practice contributes to the continued increase of yellow starthistle within the study region. To shrink this gap, researchers and agricultural advisors can incorporate environmental heterogeneity into applied agricultural research, use land stewards' knowledge and experience, and increase public education.     

“The Range Problem” After a Century of Rangeland Science: New Research Themes for Altered Landscapes

The rangeland science profession in the United States has its roots in the widespread overgrazing and concurrent severe droughts of the late 19th century. These drivers contributed to rangeland resource degradation especially in the American Southwest—what E. O. Wooton (1908) called the “Range Problem.” Although logical for the time, the scientific activities and resulting policies that arose out of this catastrophe were based on reductionist experimentation and productionist emphases on food and fiber. After a century of science and policy, there are two additional perspectives that shape our vision for the emphases of the future. First, rangeland landscapes are extremely heterogeneous; general principles derived from scientific experimentation cannot be easily or generally applied without adjusting to the distinct societal and ecological characteristics of a location. Second, rangeland management occurs at spatial scales considerably larger than those that have typically been addressed in range science. Scaling up science results is not a simple, additive process. The leading features of the emerging science are 1) research at landscape scales and 2) over longer time spans that 3) approaches conservation and management practices as treatments requiring scientific evaluation, 4) incorporates local knowledge, 5) is explicitly applied in nature, and 6) is transparent in its practice. We strongly argue for a science that supports resource management by testing hypotheses relevant to actual conservation practices and iteratively applying its findings in partnership with managers in an ongoing, adaptive fashion.     

锡林郭勒盟草原旅游资源与特点及管理对策分析

锡林郭勒盟草原旅游资源丰富,自然和人文景观独特,旅游业在内蒙古乃至全国占有重要的地位,将成为地区经济发展的重要支柱产业.随着草原旅游业的迅猛发展,所带来的资源开发,环境建设和景区管理等一系列问题已成为当今旅游业可持续发展中亟待解决的问题.本文在分析锡林郭勒盟草原与景观类型和旅游资源的基础上,阐明了草原旅游资源特点和草原旅游的内容,指出了草原旅游所带来的环境问题,提出了草原旅游的管理对策,旨在对锡林郭勒盟草原旅游业的可持续发展提供参考.     

Grassland bird response to vegetation structural heterogeneity and clearing of invasive bramble

Spatial and temporal patterns of disturbance and the subsequent heterogeneity are critical in maintaining biodiversity within grassland ecosystems. Grassland birds have evolved within this ‘shifting mosaic’ to become reliant on specific habitat characteristics maintained under varying levels of both natural and anthropogenic disturbance. Unfortunately, grasslands in South Africa have been extensively transformed and remain poorly conserved, threatening grassland avifauna. Mistbelt grassland is a threatened vegetation type endemic to the province of KwaZulu-Natal, of which only 0.3% is formally protected. This study investigated seasonal and patch type heterogeneity in a Mistbelt grassland avian community by determining avian community structure and composition in four patch types, i.e. i) untransformed open grassland, ii) burnt grassland, iii) bramble-invaded and, iv) bramble-cleared grassland, during winter and summer. Avian assemblages were significantly different between the different patch types for each season. The bramble patch type negatively affected grassland bird species diversity. Bramble-cleared grassland and untransformed grassland had similar vegetation structure and avian communities in the summer, suggesting that the grassland bird community benefitted soon after the clearing of invasive vegetation. This study provides further evidence that bird diversity is enhanced in structurally heterogeneous grassland landscapes. Furthermore, the protection and appropriate management of privately owned Mistbelt grassland, conserved in the form of rangeland, is an important refuge for threatened and endemic avifauna, such as the globally-threatened blue swallow (Hirundo atrocaerulea) and wattled crane (Bugeranus carunculatus).     

我国高等草业科学教育发展的道路及其在世界的地位

世界上存在着不同特色的高等草业教育和教学指导思想。俄罗斯的草地经营学高等教育始于19世纪末20世纪初,由于认为草地经营是饲料生产的一个组成部分,它的任务是在合理利用和改良天然草地的基础上,生产干草、半干贮草、青贮草、放牧饲料、草粉以及其他饲料,因此,俄罗斯的草地经营学教育至今仍是畜牧学教学的一部分。英国的草地科学史悠久,草地科学教学以土—草—畜系统理论为指导,形成了以草地科学为主要内容的农业教育,没有建立独立的草地科学专业。美国的草原管理学教育始于20世纪初,在利用草原的多种功能,把草原的流域水土保持、野外游憩与放牧饲养家畜结合在一起,全面发挥草原的重要生态价值和经济价值的科学思想指导下,建立了独立和庞大的草原管理学专业教育体系。我国的草业科学教育始于20世纪30年代,50年代建立了独立的草原专业。80年代以来,在草业系统工程思想和草业生态系统理论的指导下,草业教育有了极大的发展。与俄罗斯、英国和美国的草业教学思想相比,我国草业科学的教学指导思想具有更丰富、更系统的科学内涵,也具有更强的产业概括性,为我国的草业教育奠定了科学思想基础,在草业生产的推动下,实现了草业教育的高质量、健康和快速发展。     

Effect of management on rangeland phytomass,cover and condition in two biomes in South Africa

In rangelands, grazing management is a main driver of rangeland condition. Due to masking effects of seasonal climate fluctuations, little is known about (dis)similarity of management effects on rangeland condition and forage provision across major dryland biomes. Taking a macro-ecological perspective, we analysed if management effects differed between South Africa’s central grassland and Kalahari savanna biomes. We recorded proxies of forage provision (phytomass, vegetation cover and their ratio) over five seasons, annual rainfall to account for seasonal climate fluctuations, and rangeland condition (through relative abundances of increaser and decreaser species). Regarding forage provision, we found effects of management for the savanna, where, irrespective of rainfall, rotational grazing management resulted in higher phytomass and phytomass–cover ratios than management with continuous grazing. In the grassland, however, this difference was only discernible for phytomass–cover ratio in two years with above-average antecedent rainfall. This suggests that management effects are biome-dependent and that modulating effects of annual rainfall are stronger in the grassland. In either biome, management effects on the dominance of increaser and decreaser species were negligible, i.e. rangeland condition did not differ across management types in either biome. We conclude that investigations on management effects should account for interactions with biome and rainfall.     

我国南方地区天然牧地营养价值和生产能力评价及其开发潜力

在我国南方地区,西部天然牧地的营养价值与东部比较接近;生产力后者较高;生产量前者显著高.中高山地带天然牧地的营养价值高于丘陵低山地带,但生产力和生物生产量低于后者;营养生产量,西部以前者高,东部以后者高.与北方牧区比较,南方地区天然牧地的生产力较高,营养价值和生产量较低.从开发潜力看,南方地区西部高海拔地带以人工牧地较大;东部以农林用地生产饲用植物的较大.     

草原人口承载力评价——以陈巴尔虎旗为例

人口增长、环境退化、资源耗竭威胁着区域农业可持续发展,在我国北方草原地区,农牧民的生活主要依靠农村的自然资本,自然资源的利用超过资源的再生能力就会导致资本贮量的损耗,通过综合资源核算,比较农产品的产量与牧民的需求,监测资本贮量损耗对评估区域农业可持续发展是非常必要的。本研究从资源供求的角度构建了一个模型来评估区域人口承载能力,并且应用模型评估了内蒙古草原地区的农业可持续发展水平。模型的构建建立在研究区域生产力以及消费模式调查的基础上,将土地生产力、土地利用方式、生产经营方式、农产品价格等因素作为模型的输入参数。对1990和2003年陈巴尔虎旗的人口承载力作了评估,最后,提出区域发展的合理性建议,在草地植被保护的前提下,提高牧草的总体生产水平和草地的经济利用价值,减少草地因过度利用而引起退化,实现草地资源的永续利用。通过改进饲养放牧方式,提高母畜比重、繁殖成活率和出栏率,加速畜群周转,增加畜产品产量,提高群体经济效益。     

Conservation of Pattern and Process: Developing an Alternative Paradigm of Rangeland Management

This article examines the question of how well the rangeland management profession has served conservation of patterns and processes that support multiple ecosystem services. We examine the paradigms under which rangeland management operates and argue that our profession developed under the utilitarian paradigm with the primary goals of sustainable forage for livestock production. While optimization of multiple rangeland products and services has always been a consideration, a comprehensive set of principles have not be been developed to advance this concept. We argue that fire and grazing, often viewed as mere tools used for production goals, should rather be viewed as essential ecosystem processes. Rangeland management continues to operate under the utilitarian paradigm appropriate to societal values of the 20th century and by and large has failed to provide management guidance to reverse degradation of several highly valued ecosystem services. We support this argument with evidence that biodiversity has declined on rangelands in the past half century and that much of this decline is due to management goals that favor a narrow suite of species. The full suite of ecosystem services valued by society will only benefit by management for heterogeneity, which implies that there is no one goal for management and that landscape-level planning is crucial. Explicitly incorporating heterogeneity into state-and-transition models is an important advancement not yet achieved by our profession. We present new principles for rangeland management formed on the basis of conservation of pattern and process. While recognizing that many rangelands have significant deviations from historic plant communities and disturbance regimes, we suggest that management for conservation of pattern and process should focus on fire and grazing to the extent possible to promote a shifting mosaic across large landscapes that include patches that are highly variable in the amount of disturbance rather than the current goal of uniform moderate disturbance.     

草原的生态系统服务:IV.降低服务功能的主要因素和关爱草原的重要意义

草原/草地生态系统服务的价值大小取决于草地的自然资本大小和生态系统功能。影响草原生态系统服务功能的最主要因素是,1.改变草地生态系统的用途,2.草地破碎化,3.火,4.草原退化;对它们影响草原生态系统服务功能的原因和机制进行了论述。草原分布广泛,约占地球陆地面积的40%,有40个国家的草地面积占国土面积的50%以上。世界上有17%,即9.38亿人生活在各类草地上并以草地为生,尽管已经证实草原对全世界和全国人民极其重要,但草原提供的生态系统服务———生态服务和产品服务仍没有得到应有的认识和足够的重视。由于生态系统服务的影响深远,健康的草原及其生态系统服务惠及全国和全世界人民;相反,破坏、损失草原自然资本殃及全国和全世界人民。因此,关爱草原,使草原走可持续发展的道路,是全人类共同的责任和义务。     

Range Education in the 21st Century: Striking the Balance to Maintain a Relevant Profession

Range science education programs strive to keep pace with the changing needs of the range profession and to ensure that range graduates are knowledgeable, skilled, and able to address contemporary, complex problems unique to rangelands. Today, range education programs face many challenges in our ability to meet the demands and needs of our profession and society. First, our capacity to meet the demands for range science graduates has been diminished by 1) elimination or restructuring of academic rangeland science programs, 2) reduced numbers of range-trained faculty teaching rangeland courses, and 3) limited public awareness of degrees and careers in rangeland science and management. Second, range education programs are challenged to strike a balance between retaining traditional basics and modernizing curriculum to include contemporary concepts and technologies. Third, range science graduates need to understand the current social, political, and economic context of resource management, including global change issues that are of paramount concern to society. We propose multiple approaches to meet these challenges: 1) perform needs assessments with diverse stakeholders to ensure that range education programs are relevant to society's needs and address the future of the profession; 2) find innovative approaches to strike the educational balance between fundamental concepts, practical field experiences, and mastery of technical and interpersonal skills; 3) collaborate across institutional boundaries to share educational resources and incorporate course formats that meet the diverse needs of today's students; 4) examine and align professional qualifications, educational standards, and curriculum by defining learning outcomes and core competencies needed by well-trained range professionals; and 5) communicate the unique features of the rangeland profession that solidify its position among the disciplinary pillars of natural resource science and management.     

基于项目管理的草地资源管理制度在扶贫项目管理中的应用

开发利用草地资源通常被广大贫困人口认为是最为有效、最为优先的增收途径。但是,由于各级政府部门对草地资源的经济社会属性和其自然资本价值的认识不足,因此,在采用以项目干预方式促进减贫的进程中,通常忽略对草地资源的科学管理。通过借鉴西部扶贫世界银行贷款项目中对草地资源管理的经验,研究并提出通过采用基于项目管理的草地资源科学管理制度,来提高草地资源开发利用的质量和效益,是实现贫困农户经济持续增长和草地生态可持续发展“双赢目标”的有效途径。     

加强草牧场基本建设发展牧区集约化畜牧业

鄂托克旗是内蒙古自治区较大的一个纯牧业旗,天然草场总面积171．7万hm^2,占土地总面积的83％,长期以来,由于人口的急增加,牲畜数量的快速增长,以及全球性气候干旱的影响,草地沙化,退化严重,草畜矛盾日益突出,近年来,在旗委旗政府的高度重视下,随着“双权一制”的落实,防灾基地,草原建设项目,牧区示范工程和草地生态建设项目的逐步落实和实施,给草原带来良好的生机,以水为中心的配套草库仑建设蓬勃发展,人工种草,种灌木的积极性空前高涨,截止到1998年,畜均占有0．009hm^2灌溉饲料地1．1hm^2围栏蓄场,大大减轻了天然草场的压力,草场植被得到恢复,草地生态环境有所改善,使草原畜牧业逐步走上舍饲,舍饲集约化经营之路,牲畜头数稳定在140万头（只）左右（牧业年度）,连续获得了第15个丰收年。     

Effects of Livestock Grazing Management on Grassland Birds in a Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecosystem

Grassland birds have undergone substantial population declines throughout much of their historic ranges in North America. Most of the remaining grassland bird habitat is restricted to rangelands managed for livestock production, so grazing management has strong implications for grassland bird conservation efforts. We conducted 1 830 point-count surveys at 305 sites during 2016–2017 to evaluate the relative effects of three livestock grazing systems on the abundance and community composition of grassland birds in a northern mixed-grass prairie ecosystem of eastern Montana, United States. Our objectives were to 1) evaluate effects of grazing management on abundance and community composition of grassland obligate birds, focusing specifically on grazing systems, stocking rates, and interactions with rangeland productivity; 2) evaluate the importance of local vegetation characteristics for grassland birds within grazing systems; and 3) assess the effectiveness of rest-rotation grazing to create patch-heterogeneity in rangeland vegetation through the alteration of structural components and the response of grassland birds to these treatments. Overall, we found inconsistent responses in abundances of grassland birds relative to livestock grazing systems and no discernable differences among grazing systems relative to community composition. However, local abundances were often driven by interactions between grazing system and rangeland production potential, suggesting the effects of livestock grazing management were generally mediated by rangeland productivity. In addition, associations between avian abundance and grazing management parameters (e.g., stocking rate) were species specific. Ubiquitous guidelines for livestock grazing systems may be inappropriate for grassland bird conservation efforts in the northern mixed-grass prairie, and high stocking rates may negatively impact populations of dense-grass obligate grassland birds in this region.     

Remote Sensing and the Rancher: Linking Rancher Perception and Remote Sensing

In recent years, steps have been taken to implement a new crop insurance program for rangeland and pasture. Unlike traditionally insured row and cereal crops, which have directly measurable yields, there is no such simple, ideal yield standard for rangeland and pasture because of uncertainties regarding how to generally and objectively quantify annual production. With remotely sensed imagery acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer transformed to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), we derived a proxy relative yield measurement for rangeland and pasture vegetation. This proxy measurement could potentially solve a critical component of the yield quantification problem facing implementation of a rangeland insurance program. In order to evaluate this proxy measurement and how ranchers might accept it, we surveyed a group of Kansas and Oklahoma ranchers to determine how their perception of rangeland productivity compared to NDVI-based proxy measurements of rangeland productivity in the surveyed rancher's county for the growing seasons of 1999–2003. At the scale of the ranch, correlation analysis showed that perception was not highly correlated with the satellite indices. Higher correlations were observed when perception data were aggregated and compared to rangeland indices at the county and study area levels, with performance comparable to using precipitation information. The year with the strongest correlation was the worst drought year of the 5, a desirable outcome in the context of an insurance program. Results from this case study provide some support for using remote sensing data in a national rangeland and pasture insurance program. Such a program would be an important new risk mitigation tool for ranchers.