21st Century Ranching: Protecting the Environment for a Sustainable Future

The public narrative on grazing seems to be overwhelmingly negative.  It seems like the PR campaigns of environmental and animal rights activists, though misleading if not completely false, are abundant and largely winning the hearts and mind of a well meaning but otherwise naive audience.  This is evident when news agencies take activist environmental propaganda and cite them as majority opinion or fact.  I noticed this recently in an article by NPR when they wrote about grazing and cited the Center for Biological Diversity over and over on why all grazing, no matter what, is bad for the environment.  The victory of these environmental groups over the years is evident it the parade of regulations that has steadily driven ranchers out of business. 

The fact of the matter is that grazing can be a tool to manage the landscape and can be good for the environment.  I started with Alan Savory's TED talk.  If you haven't watched it the gist of it is that high intensity short duration grazing can restore grasslands, knock back shrubs, and increase the carbon holding capacity of soil.  He's a little over board and a bit optimistic with his whole "cure global warming" shtick, but his methods have been quite effective in many areas.  

Savory Institute Before and After photo of how high intensity grazing can restore grasslands

Today's rancher has more to think about than just feeding livestock.  There is a holistic consideration of what type of forage, the diversity on the landscape, watershed quality, soil stability, and environmental sustainability.  There are intangible benefits to grazing that are very difficult to quantify.  What is the value of the landscape vs condos?  Environmentalists are quick to point out how much a tree is worth with its soil holding capacity and converting CO² to oxygen, yet they fail to look at a landscape carefully managed by a rancher in the same way.  Increasing biodiversity, increasing herbaceous cover, reducing soil erosion, protecting watersheds should all be viewed as beneficial products of the sustainable ecosystem all carefully managed by the rancher.  That is worth a lot and should be acknowledged. 

Figure from the National Audubon Society's Grazing publication. 

Grazing is also effective as a specific tool in land management.  The National Audubon Society is not a ranching society, yet it uses cattle grazing at different intensities as an effective tool to benefit a wide diversity of birds.  The Nature Conservancy is not a ranching society and yet they use cattle grazing to maintain grasslands.  Targeted grazing of invasive weeds have been used effectively on such notables as leafy spurge, spotted knapweed, Japanese Brome and yellow star thistle.  And grazing strips near fences has been used to reduce fuel loads to protect homes from wildfire.  The benefit to using grazing in these scenarios is that you are not only effectively accomplishing your goals, but selling the livestock means that this becomes a low cost, or a cost neutral, management tool.  Cost neutral when mechanical, chemical, or prescribed fires can cost hundreds to thousands per acre.  That is huge, especially for those non-profits who already have tight budgets. 

A devastating fire in the Sagebrush Steppe, stopped at the fence where grazing reduced fuel loads.

Cows used on the side of the road to eat weeds and incorporate native seeds into the soil.

The 21st century rancher is more than just a livestock operator converting forage into dollars.  They have to understand the intricacies of biodiversity, hydrology, soil ecology and how that relates to their specific landscape in order to improve and sustainably use the land.  It really should be appreciated for the biodiversity that is promoted and the landscapes that are protected.