Influence of Ecosystem Services on Management Decisions by Public Land Ranchers in the Intermountain West,United States

Ecosystem services are benefits humans obtain as a result of ecosystem processes and conditions. In the western United States, public rangelands are managed for a spectrum of ecosystem services on behalf of multiple stakeholders. Decisions of ranchers who hold public land grazing allotments must balance operational needs for forage with societal expectations for other ecosystem services. To better understand their choices regarding ecosystem services, we interviewed ranchers to learn about the bases for their management decisions and identify services they believe rangelands provide. A total of 19 services were identified, many of which reflected ranchers’ recognition that they manage within the context of a broader social-ecological system (e.g., maintaining open space). We then conducted a mail survey of Bureau of Land Management grazing permittees in six states to understand the importance they personally place on different services, as well as the extent to which they manage with those services in mind. Fourteen of the 19 ecosystem services identified in interviews were reported by at least 50% of the survey sample (N = 435) as influencing their management decisions. Most respondents reported trying to manage deeded and leased land to the same standard. Aside from forage for livestock (ranked #1), ranchers were less likely to report managing for provisioning services than for cultural, supporting, and regulating services. Importance ratings for ecosystem services followed a similar pattern, although there were a few differences in rank order. Ranchers tended to report managing for more ecosystem services if they had larger operations, earned at least 50% of their income from ranching, spent more time out on the ranch, and relied on multiple sources for information about range management. Results indicate public land ranchers believe they are managing for multifunctionality, balancing their own operational needs with those of society.     

Using Behavioral Change Models to Understand Private Landowner Perceptions of Prescribed Fire in North Dakota

In the northern Great Plains of North America, Kentucky bluegrass has become a conservation concern on many remaining rangelands. Reintroduction of fire may be one of the best ways to combat bluegrass invasion in the northern Great Plains, but perceptions of risk and other societal constraints currently limit its use. We mailed a self-administered questionnaire to 460 landowners in North Dakota to identify landowner attitudes and perceptions toward prescribed fire and understand major factors that limit the use of fire in rangeland management of this area. We draw from the theory of planned behavior and the transtheoretical model of behavior change, two widely used behavioral models, to better understand differences in motivations between ranchers and nonranchers and then formulate engagement actions conducive to a change in fire application behavior. Our results indicate that 55% of nonranchers and 38% of ranchers saw prescribed fire as a beneficial tool, with 25% of nonranchers and 9% of ranchers having performed a prescribed fire on their land. We therefore deduced these two groups were in different behavioral stages. Increasing understanding of the benefits of prescribed fire to forage quality and increasing overall acceptance of fire in North Dakota may be effective for ranchers, whereas approaches that address the lack of labor and equipment would be more applicable to nonranchers. Results also show that once respondents have decided to include the periodic use of prescribed fire as part of their management plans, there is a strong likelihood that they will perform a prescribed fire. On the basis of these findings, we propose that focusing on sociological factors influencing behavior of landowners can inform targeted strategies for increasing prescribed fire perceptions and application in the study area.     

Landowner Perceptions of Legal Liability for Using Prescribed Fire in the Southern Plains,United States

Suppression of fire in the Southern Plains has led to proliferation of woody plants and fuel load accumulation that spurs wildfires. These effects have led to calls for widespread application of prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads, but there is substantial landowner resistance to the use of this land management tool. Here we explore factors that affect perceptions of landowners in the Southern Plains about prescribed fire liability and their willingness to apply this land management tool. This region was selected for the study because of the preponderance of private landholdings and widespread woody plant encroachment. The study used a mail survey of 1 853 landowners in 16 counties in Texas and Oklahoma, resulting in a data set from 680 respondents (37% useable response rate). Logistic regression models were developed to test three hypotheses relating to the likelihood that a landowner will apply prescribed fire. The study corroborated that landowners who perceived higher levels of fire-related legal liability were less likely to apply prescribed fire on their land or assist with its application on other properties. In addition, burn bans were found to inhibit landowner willingness to apply fire during periods that result in higher woody plant mortality. Oklahoma respondents, landowners who believed prescribed fire to be an affordable woody plant management tool, and members of prescribed burning associations (PBAs) were more likely to use prescribed fire. These results have important implications for policies aimed at overcoming resistance to the use of prescribed fire to curb woody plant encroachment and reduce fuel load accumulation. Specifically, language in state statutes pertaining to prescribed fire should be modified to reduce landowner concerns over legal liability; PBAs should be established more widely; and public cost-sharing funds for woody plant management should prioritize prescribed fire.     

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.     

Conservation Program Participation and Adaptive Rangeland Decision-Making

This paper analyzes rancher participation in conservation programs in the context of a social-ecological framework for adaptive rangeland decision-making. We argue that conservation programs are best understood as one of many strategies of adaptively managing rangelands in ways that sustain livelihoods and ecosystem services. The framework hypothesizes four categories of variables affecting conservation program participation: operation/operator characteristics, time horizon, social network connections, and social values. Based on a mail survey of California ranchers, multinomial logit models are used to estimate the impact of these variables on different levels of rancher involvement in conservation programs. The findings suggest that ranchers with larger amounts of land, an orientation towards the future, and who are opinion leaders with access to conservation information, are more likely to participate in conservation programs.     

Livestock as Ecosystem Engineers for Grassland Bird Habitat in the Western Great Plains of North America

Domestic livestock have the potential to function as ecosystem engineers in semiarid rangelands, but prevailing management practices largely emphasize livestock production and uniform use of vegetation. As a result, variation in vegetation structure might not occur at appropriate spatial and temporal scales to achieve some contemporary conservation objectives. Here, we introduce the utility of livestock as ecosystem engineers and address potential benefits and consequences associated with heterogeneity-based management practices for conservation grazing in the semiarid rangelands of the western North American Great Plains. To illustrate the potential value of this approach, we provide specific examples where engineering effects of livestock could alter vegetation heterogeneity at within-pasture (< 100 ha) and among-pasture (～100 ha to thousands of hectares) scales to improve habitat for declining native grassland birds. Experimental evaluations of the efficacy of livestock to achieve desired modifications to vegetation structure are needed, along with the economic aspects associated with implementing heterogeneity-based management practices. Using livestock as ecosystem engineers to alter vegetation structure for grassland bird habitat is feasible in terms of application by land managers within the context of current livestock operations, and provides land managers important tools to achieve desired contemporary objectives and outcomes in semiarid rangelands of the western North American Great Plains.     

Understanding Management Decisions of Absentee Landowners: More Than Just Presence-Absence

Ownership and management of North American rangelands has become increasingly diverse, prompting a need to better understand how changing demographics and values relate to individual land management decisions and land cover. Absentee landowners, who reside away from their rural property, are a growing segment of this changing social landscape. The implications of absentee ownership are not clearly understood, perhaps because the absentee concept is ambiguously defined and inconsistently specified. We introduce the construct of involvement with one’s land to clarify and reframe the absentee landowner concept. We analyzed data from a mail survey of rangeland owners in central Texas to explore the relationship between absentee land ownership and the use of brush management to restore woody-plant invaded grasslands. We employed an information-theoretic approach to compare candidate models using indicators of absenteeism (permanent residence on land and distance of permanent residence from land) and involvement. We measured involvement with one’s land as hours per week operating or working one’s land. We conducted path analysis to examine the relationship between absenteeism and brush management as a function of involvement. Involvement in land management was the best predictor of brush management behavior. Absenteeism, as measured through presence-absence or as distance from land, had no relationship with brush management unless mediated by the involvement construct. Segmenting landowners based solely on the location of their full-time residence provides little information on brush management behavior because it neglects the relationship that landowners may have with their land, regardless of residency. The absentee landowner concept is central to understanding the dynamics of rangeland management and important to get right. Our analysis suggests that getting it right means knowing more than the location of the residence of the landowner.     

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.     

Contingent Valuation of Woodland-Owner Private Amenities in Spain,Portugal, and California

Most of the Mediterranean woodlands in Spain, Portugal, and California are managed as agrosilvopastoral enterprises, producing some combination of livestock, wood, cork products, and crops, as well as wildlife habitat and diverse environmental services. Private amenity benefits to landowners have been suggested as an explanation for high land prices and the persistence of such rangeland enterprises despite apparently marginal cash returns. In this study, private amenity values are estimated using a contingent valuation technique in surveys of private woodland owners as part of five case studies, using a design developed to separate landowner amenity income and capital values. Nonindustrial private landowners were asked about the maximum amount of money that they were willing to give up (to pay) before selling their property to invest in more commercially profitable assets, and the proportion of the market price of their woodland that they think is explained by privately consumed amenities. Amenity values were found to be relevant because, in all cases, landowners were willing to pay &spigt; &euro;120 · ha^-1 · yr^-1, at 2002 prices, and attributed &spigt; 30% of land market price to amenities. These values represent an amenity profitability rate &spigt; 2% in all case studies. The data analysis shows some similarities, but mostly divergences, in the different land-simulated and amenity-simulated markets.     

Perceptions of Landowners Concerning Conservation,Grazing, Fire,and Eastern Redcedar Management in Tallgrass Prairie

Successful prairie restoration will depend in part on convincing private landowners with agricultural and recreational use goals to implement appropriate rangeland management practices, such as prescribed burning and cattle grazing, to control invasive species and encroachment of woody plants. However, landowners have been slow to adopt appropriate practices in the US Midwest. The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes and behaviors of private landowners toward prescribed burning and moderate stocking as rangeland management tools. A survey was mailed to 193 landowners (response rate 51%) in the Grand River Grasslands region of southern Iowa and northern Missouri. While 68% of landowners viewed grazing as a legitimate land management tool, only half of landowners thought of fire as a legitimate tool. Over 75% of respondents believed that the increase in eastern redcedar and other trees in grasslands was a problem, with 44% considering it a major problem. Although 84% of landowners said that they had taken action to control eastern redcedar, only 25% had participated in a prescribed burn. Income from agriculture and recreational goals were negatively and significantly correlated (-0.252, P = 0.035). While holding recreational goals constant in the analysis, landowners reporting income from agriculture goals as very or extremely important were negatively and significantly associated with reporting environment and grassland factors as very or extremely important. Adoption of prescribed burning by private landowners might be more widespread if proponents focus on the effectiveness of fire for controlling eastern redcedar, which is viewed as a problem by most landowners in the region. Intervention efforts must include landowners with different goals as part of the promotion and educational process.     

Developing Tools to Encourage Private Forest Landowners to Participate in Early Successional Forest Habitat Management

Wildlife organizations often engage landowners in habitat management. Landowner typology research can provide suggestions for how to work with diverse types of landowners. We explored how typologies can inform selection of tools to engage landowners in early successional habitat (ESH) management. Using a survey, effectiveness of three kinds of tools were assessed: (a) basic needs, (b) learning, and (c) social. Across all types and typologies, learning tools were most likely to influence landowner behavior, whereas social tools (e.g., recognition) were least likely. Continuing adopters were the only type of landowners that reported basic needs tools would influence them at the same level as learning tools. In each typology, landowner types with higher behavioral intention were more likely to be influenced by all of the tools. Thus, tools may reinforce behaviors, rather than engage the unengaged. We suggest learning tools be initially prioritized to encourage ESH management.     

Are Natural Resources Conservation Service Range Management Investments Working at Cross-Purposes With Wildlife Habitat Goals on Western United States Rangelands?

Wildlife conservationists and agencies have recommended managing rangelands for vegetation heterogeneity to improve wildlife habitat, particularly for many grassland birds. However, range management focuses on livestock production and associated practices and structural items (fences, water developments) that are applied to improve livestock distribution. This article assesses the occurrence of livestock distribution–oriented grazing management in the spending and applied practices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the federal agency charged with assisting private landowners with implementation of US Department of Agriculture conservation programs. NRCS applied practices and spending both suggest an emphasis on livestock distribution and associated structures, with almost 20 million ha of prescribed grazing systems, 10 000 km of fence, and 127 000 water facilities implemented in 17 western states with assistance from NRCS programs between 2004 and 2007. Ninety percent of funding for 2005 Conservation Security Program grazing enhancements supported investments or management related to livestock distribution. We suggest that increasing the emphasis of NRCS conservation programs and financial assistance on maintaining or increasing compositional and structural heterogeneity of vegetation, rather than on livestock distribution, could be an approach that unifies livestock production and wildlife habitat objectives. In particular, including vegetation heterogeneity as a central goal for upland wildlife habitat management could be a key opportunity to increase incentives for heterogeneity-promoting management on privately owned rangeland.     

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.     

New Rangeland Residents in Wyoming? A Survey of Exurban Landowners

Rapid conversion of rural land to exurban development and the ensuing impacts on natural resources have been well-documented, but information about exurban landowners is lacking. To address this knowledge gap, we surveyed exurban landowners in six Wyoming counties and documented demographic characteristics, motivations, knowledge, and attitudes about natural resources and land management. The overall response rate was 55.6%. Generally, respondents were of retirement age, had lived in Wyoming for about 13 yr, and were raised in areas with a population < 10 000. Wyoming respondents lived in exurbia for the lifestyle and aesthetic values and did not expect economic gains from their property. Most respondents had knowledge about, and interest in, invasive species, water quality, landscaping, and gardening. More than half of respondents (54%) had never looked for information regarding land management. Information from this study can be used to strengthen the development and delivery of educational programs. Programs that focus on water quality or weed control likely will appeal to more exurban landowners than those that focus solely on grazing management. Our findings provide an accurate characterization of this audience and their motivations and attitudes regarding land management, and suggest that using a multipronged approach for outreach efforts, which includes both cost- and time-efficient ways to conduct important land management practices, might increase participation in educational programs.     

Wildlife or livestock? New directions for developing communal rangelands in South Africa

The paper agrees with three fundamental points raised by Vetter (in this issue), whilst highlighting an emerging trend in wildlife land use, which should be considered in policy making. Firstly, the paper supports the argument that communal rangelands are important as objects of biodiversity conservation and, secondly, the argument that livestock production alone is not sufficient as a mechanism for alleviating poverty, but rather livelihoods diversification and multisectoral strategies are required for this purpose. Lastly, the paper supports the need for mechanisms to ensure tenure security for sustainable use of communal rangelands. I argue that the historical shift to wildlife land use previously observed on private farms in South Africa is now inevitable on communal rangelands and will require explicit consideration in the policy on communal rangelands. Although such development in the communal rangelands has potential to meet the important goals of livelihoods diversification as indicated by Vetter, it also has potential to threaten existing rural livelihoods. The paper suggests several issues to be considered as wildlife becomes part of the rural landscape in some areas, in addition to issues raised by Vetter relevant to policy making.     

Land Manager Perceptions of Opportunities and Constraints of Using Livestock to Manage Invasive Plants

The ecological impacts of rangeland invasive plants have been widely documented, but the social aspects of how managers perceive their impacts and options for control have been relatively understudied, and successful, long-term invasive plant management programs are limited. In particular, though a growing body of research has identified livestock grazing as the most practical and economical tool for controlling invasive rangeland plants, to date there has not been a systematic assessment of the challenges and opportunities producers and other land managers see as most important when considering using livestock to manage invasive plants. In-depth, semistructured interviews with California annual grass and hardwood rangeland ranchers, public agency personnel, and nongovernmental organization land managers were used to address this need. Although interviewees broadly agreed that grazing could be an effective management tool, differences emerged among the three groups in how they prioritized invasive plant control, the amount of resources devoted to control, and the grazing strategies employed. Interviewees identified key challenges that hinder broad-scale adoption of control efforts, including the potential incompatibility of invasive plant management and livestock production; a lack of secure, long-term access to land for many ranchers; incomplete or insufficient information, such as the location or extent of infestations or the economic impacts to operations of invasive plants; and the temporal and spatial variability of the ecosystem. By identifying key socioecological drivers that influence the degree to which livestock are used to manage invasive plants, this study was able to identify potential pathways to move our growing understanding of the science of targeted grazing into practice. Research, extension, and grazing programs that address these barriers should help increase the extent to which we can effectively use livestock to slow and perhaps reverse the spread of some of our most serious rangeland weeds.     

Wildlife Conservation on the Rangelands of Eastern and Southern Africa: Past,Present, and Future

Our objective was to assess the status of the large native rangeland mammals in the eastern and southern African countries focusing on conservation strategies that will benefit the animals, their rangeland habitats, and the people who live in this region. Eastern and southern African rangelands are renowned for supporting a globally unique diversity and abundance of large mammals. This wildlife legacy is threatened by changing demographics, increased poaching, habitat fragmentation, and global warming, but there are reasons for optimism. After sharp declines from 1970 to 1990 across Africa, wildlife populations in some countries have subsequently increased due to incentives involving sport hunting and ecotourism. National parks and protected areas, which have been critically important in maintaining African wildlife populations, are being increased and better protected. Over the past 50 years, the number of parks has been doubled and the areas of several parks have been expanded. The major problem is that no more than 20% of the national parks and reserves set aside for wildlife are adequately protected from poaching. The southern African countries where wildlife has recently thrived have robust hunting and ecotourism programs, which economically benefit private landowners. Considerable research shows rural communities dependent on rangelands can be incentivized to participate in large mammal conservation programs if they can economically benefit from wildlife tourism, sport hunting, and the legal sale of animal by-products. Community-based wildlife conservation programs can be economically and ecologically effective in sustaining and enhancing African wildlife biodiversity, including rhinos, elephants, and lions. Low-input ranching wild ungulates for meat and hunting may be an economically viable alternative to traditional range livestock production systems in some areas. However, in many situations, common-use grazing of livestock and wildlife will give the most efficient use of rangeland forages and landscapes while diversifying income and lowering risk.     

Historical Changes in Stocking Densities on Texas Rangelands

Stocking density, both current and past, is a major determinant of the nature and condition of rangelands. Despite this fact, there have been few detailed examinations of historical trends in stocking density. We used data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture to track the density of domestic livestock from the early 1900s to the present, for six rangeland regions in the State of Texas: (1) the Edwards Plateau; (2) the Trans-Pecos; (3) the Lampasas Cut Plain; (4) the South Texas Plains; (5) the Rolling Plains; and (6) the High Plains. We find that stocking densities have declined across the state—ranging from a decline of about 40% in some regions to as much as 75% in the Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau regions. The period of sharpest decline, which began in the middle of the last century, reflects important, but not fully understood, socioeconomic changes. These most likely include changing land ownership, fragmentation of land holdings, and increasing emphasis on wildlife conservation. Other factors potentially contributing to the destocking of Texas rangelands include woody plant encroachment and a rise in predation. We argue that the dramatic reduction in stocking densities documented here has profound socioeconomic, ecological, and hydrological implications that need to be better understood.     

Ranchers and Beavers: Understanding The Human Dimensions of Beaver-Related Stream Restoration on Western Rangelands

The past decade has seen a rapid rise in beaver-related stream restoration (BRR) using beavers and beaver dams (real or artificial) as a tool. Potential benefits of this low-cost, nature-based restoration approach include restoring aquatic and riparian habitat and recovering of threatened species dependent on it, improving water availability and stream flow regulation, reducing erosion and stream incision, and supporting climate change adaptation. Although the ecological restoration literature acknowledges the importance of addressing the human dimensions of restoration, there is a gap regarding the human dimensions of BRR. To help fill this gap we examined six projects involving riparian revegetation or artificial beaver dams to identify central elements of a supportive social environment for BRR on western rangelands. Our research questions examined how beavers, beaver dams, and BRR affect ranching operations and how ranchers view them; the policy context for BRR; and how BRR practitioners, regulatory agencies, ranchers, and partners work together for successful BRR. We synthesized our findings across cases and identified six social factors important for BRR: 1) ranchers who perceive the benefits of beavers, beaver dams, and BRR to outweigh the drawbacks; 2) education and assistance to help landowners adopt nonlethal mitigation techniques for nuisance beavers; 3) grazing practices compatible with BRR; 4) low harvest pressure on beavers; 5) a regulatory environment that enables experimentation, flexibility, and adaptive management; and 6) proponents, ranchers, and partners willing to take risks, innovate, be flexible, and stay committed.