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Grazing
and the Landscape -
Early Ranching and Range Science
Early Ranching
and European settlement brought with it sedentary grazing of the
plains and foothills rangelands by domestic stock, first during
the brief period of open range grazing in the late 1800s, and later
through the early ranching system with pasture units defined by
barbed wire fences. No range management guidelines existed for the
first western ranchers. Range science and the current philosophy
of range management emerged first as an art, as generations of ranchers
observed natural processes and the impacts of their grazing animals,
and learned from trial and error. The effect of long and intense
grazing periods, and grazing impact on range productivity, was noted
and quantified by early range studies as ranchers learned to imitate
the natural system and implement more ecologically based grazing
strategies.
A prevailing
criticism of modern range science is that it has focused almost
exclusively on management systems, condition, and productivity of
upland terrestrial rangelands. Critics believe this is reflected
in the U.S.A. during the last several decades of the 20th century,
where the measure of range condition increased in uplands while
the condition of riparian areas appeared to decline.
Without knowledge
and tools to manage riparian systems, initial efforts for riparian
recovery involved fencing programs to permanently exclude livestock
from riparian areas. Exclusion fencing can provide rapid recovery
and help to demonstrate a site’s biological potential, often
quickly, but it has proven to be costly and a source of conflict
and resentment in the ranching industry. Exclusion fencing also
conveys the notion that riparian areas and cattle are incompatible,
and it falls short of a higher goal, that of total landscape management.
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