DRAFT 12/20/02
PLC Monitoring Task Force Recommendations

Public land livestock grazing has come under increasing political criticism over the past several decades.  Frequently, both the public land management agencies and the public land ranching industry have insufficient data on ecological condition and trend of rangelands to defend against legal and political challenges.  There is a pressing need to identify an industry-wide framework for obtaining adequate science-based data to guide THE MANAGEMENT OF and defend our grazing use of public lands.  The Task Force has identified the following 3-step monitoring framework as an industry approach to provide a scientific basis for managing public land grazing.

1.   Allotment Level Monitoring: The requisite information base needed to guide and defend on-going grazing management on all public land allotments is a written record of annual events occurring on each allotment and the periodic record of trend or change in important resource characteristics over time.

The annual event record documents actual use, intensity and pattern of grazing use, season of use, pasture rotation, growing conditions and any other significant vegetation-impacting event such as fire, insects or heavy wildlife or wild horse use.  Yearly observations of events and changes should be captured in a continuing written record, particularly on public rangelands.

The trend record should track changes in resource characteristics that are related to management objectives or at least important resource values (ie-gain or loss of desirable plant species or changes in ground cover on uplands, or riparian greenline transects and photo points).  Such changes can be documented every 3 to 5 years on permanently located photo points and transects by measuring cover, density or frequency.  What specifically is measured, and how, and where it is measured will likely vary between allotments.  However, consistency over time on a given allotment  is far more important than is consistency between allotments.

Interpretation of monitoring data is important.  The annual event record is used to interpret any apparent changes documented in the trend record. This interpretation then becomes the basis for changes in management to correct resource problems or to defend existing management.

The entire process of range monitoring should be simple and straightforward, and jointly accomplished by the livestock manager and the range manager.  The fieldwork for most grazing allotments usually requires no more than 1 to 3 days at the end of the grazing season. This is usually sufficient time to jointly inspect the allotment, record the observations, discuss range events of the season and determine how grazing will be applied next season.  On public lands, the management of grazing is of necessity a joint venture.  The livestock manager and the range manager must work together to observe, analyze and adjust range grazing.  The absence of working together generally leads to unilateral decisions and subsequent conflicts and appeals.

The Task Force recommends that PLC should seek agency commitment and Congressional directives and funding to accomplish joint allotment level monitoring.  The allotment level monitoring record provides a needed defense for ranchers and agency people who have successfully managed grazing.  The absence of such a record provides the opportunity for political and legal interference.

2.   National Assessment of Rangeland Condition:  A more comprehensive overview of the ecological condition of western rangelands would be useful to our industry in support of our political and legislative efforts.  Congress has directed that NRCS, BLM and USFS develop a common methodology and cost estimate for a national reporting system.  Such a system has been developed and used by NRCS on private lands for many years.  In the 1980’s, the BLM also adopted the ecological site concept as used by NRCS.  To date, the USFS has never accepted or used this system.

The ecological site method is built on widely accepted scientific theory.  It involves identifying natural units of soils and vegetation and describing the potential plant communities these sites can support.  Ecological sites correlated with series-level soil surveys provide a sound basis for extrapolating vegetation responses to grazing, fire or other impacts between similar ecological sites on different areas or allotments. Ecological site descriptions provide a basis for setting realistic vegetation objectives for allotment level monitoring.

The Task Force recommends that PLC seek agency leadership commitment as well as Congressional directive and funding for the NRCS to develop a western rangeland reporting system using a network of ecological assessment locations on BLM and USFS lands.

3.      Rangeland Research: There is a need to better understand how natural rangeland systems respond to the stress of various land uses and impacts such as livestock grazing, fire or lack of fire, exotic weed invasions, etc.  Little research has focused on threshold levels of impacts under which plant communities change or riparian systems unravel.  Forest Service and BLM often set arbitrary grazing standards for streambank trampling or greenline stubble height yet, there is no research basis that identified critical threshold values.  If multiple use public lands are to remain working landscapes, greater understanding of thresholds for management standards is needed.

The Task Force recommends that PLC seek to encourage greater effort by ARS, Forest and Range Experiment Stations and academic institutions toward impact threshold research.