Welcome - Introduction

Welcome to the "Stream and Riparian Area Management" tutorial.

• This tutorial is designed to:
  • make you better acquainted with the streams and riparian areas on your ranch or grazing allotments,
  • give you some ideas on how to manage them effectively, and
  • provide a framework for developing a grazing management plan that incorporates these areas into your overall livestock operation.

Good stream and riparian management is important to producers and landowners for several reasons.

1. Riparian areas are among the most productive parts of any ranch. They are, in fact, prime examples of "renewable resources," because water and nutrients make them especially resilient.
2. On many ranches, the streams that flow through riparian areas are the major source of livestock water; the better the condition of the riparian area, the more and better the water that will flow through it.
3. Riparian areas, including woody draws, can provide essential shelter for livestock.
4. Riparian management is an essential part of good land stewardship because healthy riparian areas are critical to healthy landscapes.

As important as riparian areas are, however, they are not a separate, isolated part of any livestock operation. They should not be managed apart from, or to the neglect of, the rest of your ranch or allotment. Implicit in this whole tutorial is the principle that managing your riparian areas can only be effective if it's done within the context of your entire operation.

Effective stream and riparian management requires answers to several questions:

• What do we have and how well is it working?
• What do we want to have? What do we want our riparian areas and streams to look like?
• How will we get where we want to be?
• How will we know if we're heading in the right direction?

Because each ranch and each operation is different, you won't find precise answers to any of these questions in this courseor in any other course. What this course is designed to do is provide you with information that will help YOU answer these questions as they pertain to YOUR operation.