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- Title
Range Management in the Face of Climate Change.
- Authors
Catlin, James C.; Carter, John G.; Jones, Allison L.
- Abstract
Climate change forecasts predict more frequent and more intense droughts in the West. These droughts will significantly impact wildlife habitat. Today most of our western rangelands are impaired. If restored, the predicted impacts of drought, and thereby, climate change, could be significantly reduced on our rangelands. This study evaluates how the Department of the Interior is measuring ecological health on rangelands and whether agency management effectively restores habitat's resilience, or ecological potential. This in-depth case study of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allotment in Utah reviews agency methods and uses five years of the authors?? field data to understand if and how current BLM range management is addressing impacts to habitat from climate change. BLM does not inventory the ecological health and resilience of rangelands, and its qualitative ecological assessment methods are inadequate to identify or measure key ecological conditions. While we, as a society, have the capability to manage livestock grazing to restore habitat, the results of our case study shows this is not happening fast enough on the scale needed and degraded habitat is often under reported. Where agency management identifies problems, agency responses often rely on internal faulty habitat information. We found that fewer livestock actually grazed the allotment than were reported, BLM underestimated utilization, and also failed to adequately monitor trend and upland and riparian health. Our capacity analysis, based on forage production, cattle weights and sustainable utilization, determined that the number of livestock permitted is six times more than the carrying capacity of the study allotment. Habitat restoration must be part of the response to climate change. To achieve this, significant changes in range management on western rangelands will be needed.
- Subjects
UTAH; RANGE management; CLIMATE change; AGRICULTURAL climatology; EFFECT of drought on plants; ECOSYSTEM health; UTAH. Bureau of Land Management
- Publication
Natural Resources & Environmental Issues, 2011, Vol 17, Issue 1-4, p219
- ISSN
1069-5370
- Publication type
Case Study