The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is experiencing range-wide population declines and was previously classified as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. While policies regulating anthropogenic development are important in the conservation of greater sage-grouse, additional programs to conserve and enhance greater sage-grouse habitats are necessary to sustain populations. When impacts to habitat cannot be adequately avoided or minimized, conservation banking is a viable species conservation strategy. A key component to the development and monitoring of a conservation bank is the quantification of conservation value. We estimated seasonal resource selection functions to identify the relative probability of female greater sage-grouse habitat selection as a function of environmental and infrastructure covariates to identify habitat suitability categories and subsequent habitat conservation value across a landscape in central Wyoming to be used in a conservation bank. The methods we employed to develop habitat conservation value, together with the management and monitoring plan, provide a robust framework for accurately quantifying, monitoring, and managing the habitat value and therefore the number of habitat conservation credits for a greater sage-grouse bank.

Ownership and management of North American rangelands has become increasingly diverse, prompting a need to better understand how changing demographics and values relate to individual land management decisions and land cover. Absentee landowners, who reside away from their rural property, are a growing segment of this changing social landscape. The implications of absentee ownership are not clearly understood, perhaps because the absentee concept is ambiguously defined and inconsistently specified. We introduce the construct of involvement with one's land to clarify and reframe the absentee landowner concept. We analyzed data from a mail survey of rangeland owners in central Texas to explore the relationship between absentee land ownership and the use of brush management to restore woody-plant invaded grasslands. We employed an information-theoretic approach to compare candidate models using indicators of absenteeism (permanent residence on land and distance of permanent residence from land) and involvement. We measured involvement with one's land as hours per week operating or working one's land. We conducted path analysis to examine the relationship between absenteeism and brush management as a function of involvement. Involvement in land management was the best predictor of brush management behavior. Absenteeism, as measured through presence-absence or as distance from land, had no relationship with brush management unless mediated by the involvement construct. Segmenting landowners based solely on the location of their full-time residence provides little information on brush management behavior because it neglects the relationship that landowners may have with their land, regardless of residency. The absentee landowner concept is central to understanding the dynamics of rangeland management and important to get right. Our analysis suggests that getting it right means knowing more than the location of the residence of the landowner.

Effective ecosystem management is supported by the communication of emerging science to a wide range of ecosystem stakeholders. Management-oriented audiences including policymakers, agency personnel, and agricultural producers vary in their values, beliefs, and experiences and consequently may receive scientific information in unique ways. We examine the impact of priming language presented before technical presentation of ecosystem science using emotionally loaded (“negative” and “positive”) introductory paragraphs (primers). Wyoming ecosystem stakeholders (n = 114) were presented with technical text describing ecosystem uncertainty immediately after they read either positive or negative primers. Respondents with a background in agricultural production were more likely to respond in agreement with the scientific information presented in the text when it was introduced with the negative emotional (risk-based) primer. Respondents without production experience shifted their assessment of scientific information in response to both negative and positive (benefit-based) primers. All participants' responses were varied and unpredictable when technical text was not primed. Emotionally loaded primers did not lead respondents to contradict the scientific knowledge presented in the text, and in several cases primers caused stronger agreement with the text than did the control. We suggest that traditional “neutral” presentation of scientific contexts hinders rather than supports the transmission of scientific concepts and tools to management-oriented audiences. We more readily achieve successful transmission of science when emotional contexts familiar to audiences are evoked. Non-neutral primers followed by technical presentations of scientific concepts can engage audiences to increase potential field applications of emerging science.

Amenity migration describes the movement of peoples to rural landscapes and the transition toward tourism and recreation and away from production-oriented land uses (ranching, timber harvesting). The resulting mosaic of land uses and community structures has important consequences for wildlife and their management. This research note examines amenity-driven changes to social-ecological systems in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, specifically in lower elevations that serve as winter habitat for elk. We present a research agenda informed by a preliminary and exploratory mixed-methods investigation: the creation of a “social-impact” index of land use change on elk winter range and a focus group with wildlife management experts. Our findings suggest that elk are encountering an increasingly diverse landscape with respect to land use, while new ownership patterns increase the complexity of social and community dynamics. These factors, in turn, contribute to increasing difficulty meeting wildlife management objectives. To deal with rising complexity across social and ecological landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, future research will focus on property life cycle dynamics, as well as systems approaches.

Rangeland-based animal husbandry has been frequently exposed to the vagaries of weather. While the current rates of climate variability are unprecedented in arid and semiarid regions, climate change is expected to put further pressure on rangelands with medium- and poor-quality forages and increase the vulnerability of households who mainly depend on livestock production. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that livestock producers increase their resilience to climate variability or change. However, few field-based studies have focused on simultaneous investigation of both vulnerability and adaptation of livestock keepers to climate-related risks. To fill this gap, a field-based research study was conducted in southwest Iran. A survey of 274 herder families, selected using a cluster sampling technique, revealed low, medium and high levels of vulnerability, which were principally distinguished by various degrees of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Further, this study identified the main adaptation strategies employed by the herders of this region (i.e., purchasing fodder; rotational grazing; raising a mixed-herd, on-farm occupation; and postharvest grazing). Results indicated that most herder families applied traditional adaptation strategies in response to climate variability. Findings revealed that herders had to reduce their livestock due to low adaptability. Loan term, purchasing insurance, level of exposure, income, experience, response efficacy, and knowledge were the major determinants of the herders' adaptation decisions. To increase the resilience of livestock producers against climate change, restructuring traditional livestock production systems, producing participatory knowledge and information for sustainable management of rangelands, and designing or redesigning effective adaptation strategies are required.

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are increasingly being used to control non-native invasive plants in areas where restoration is a management goal. However, the efficacy of sheep grazing depends on both its potential for controlling undesirable plants and its ability to promote natives. To date, few studies have investigated impacts of sheep grazing on native forb recovery in North American grasslands. We assessed the impact of sheep on forbs by measuring the number of stems grazed before and after sheep foraged in western Montana, United States. Sheep grazed a higher percentage of non-native than native forbs (70% vs. 23%, respectively), and number of stems grazed was six times higher for non-natives than natives (48 vs. 5, respectively). Sheep preferentially selected the non-native forbs sulphur cinquefoil and yellow salsify over leafy spurge (fi = 2.075; fi = 0.969; fi = 0.969, respectively), as well as the native forbs white prairie aster (fi = 1.090) and blanketflower (fi = 1.000). Selection of native forbs was positively correlated with their pregrazing abundance and increased over the grazing period. Our findings indicate that when using sheep to control invasive forbs, appropriate timing and monitoring of grazing are critical for reducing nontarget impacts to native vegetation.

Animal-by-environment interaction creates space use patterns, which characterize an animal's utilization distribution (UD) area. We fitted 51 ewes of the two Norwegian breeds Norwegian White Sheep (NWS) and Spælsau (SP) with Global Positioning System collars in two contrasting environments (Spekedalen; poor pasture and Bratthøa; rich pasture) during the 2013 and 2014 summer grazing seasons. We explored effects of spatiotemporal scales on UD sizes of the sheep in these environments. We defined the temporal scales as 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 30-, and 60-d intervals and spatial scales as 95% and 50% UD using the dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Model. Our results showed that, in general, sheep had larger UDs in the poor area compared with the rich area and the SP had larger UDs compared with the NWS. We found 95% UD differences between the two environments at all temporal scales, except 60 d, whereas differences were found between breeds at all but the finest temporal scale. The 50% UD differed between breeds and environments on all temporal scales except between-study areas at the 5-d scale. The lack of environment by breed interactions suggest that the two breeds respond equally to range quality at all spatiotemporal scales. We conclude that scale has to be considered when comparing UD differences across spatial and temporal scales in contrasting environments and between sheep genotypes. Our findings are thus important for management of grazing resources in multipurpose land use planning.

Grazing plays a key role in many ecosystems worldwide and can affect the structure and composition of terrestrial plant communities. Nonetheless, how grazing management, especially grazing regime (yearlong continuous and seasonal grazing), affects the relationship between grazing and vegetation on alpine grasslands has not been extensively studied. Here, we performed a grazing experiment in Gangcha county of Qinghai province of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to test the effects of different stocking rates and grazing regimes on grassland biomass and plant structure and composition. Six stocking rates (ranging from 0 to 5.62 sheep ha^-1) were used for continuous grazing, and three grazing intensities (1.72, 2.87, and 5.62 sheep ha^-1) were used for seasonal grazing (grazed only in the growing season, from June to October) at the study sites. Plant biomass and grass functional community composition were characterized in two different yr (2011 and 2012). Additionally, species richness and plant diversity indexes were estimated to quantify the impacts of grazing on plant community composition. Our results indicated that grazing intensity best explained the plant biomass decrease in low-productivity environments, and different grazing regimes also influenced these results. The shifts in plant community structure and composition in response to increased grazing intensity differed considerably between continuous grazing and seasonal grazing. Seasonal grazing maintained greater amounts of palatable plant species, and fewer undesirable species in plant communities when compared with the composition after continuous grazing. Our results emphasize the importance of grazing regime in regulating the effects of grazing on plant communities and the importance of seasonal grazing for ecosystem maintenance, especially in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This suggests that periodic resting of grasslands could be a good management strategy to keep palatable species, thereby minimizing undesirable species in the overall species composition.

Rangelands are areas used primarily for grazing by domestic livestock; however, because they support native vegetation and fauna, their potential role in conservation should not be overlooked. Typically, “off-reserve” conservation in agricultural landscapes assumes a trade-off between maintaining the ecological processes that support biodiversity and successful food production and profitability. To evaluate this potential biodiversity trade-off in rangelands, we need to understand the effect of different livestock grazing strategies on biodiversity, in relation to their performance in terms of profitability and land condition. We monitored reptile community responses to four cattle-grazing strategies (heavy, moderate, and variable stocking rates and a rotational wet season spelling treatment) in a replicated, long-term grazing trial in north Queensland, Australia. Simultaneously, measures of profitability and land condition were collected for the different grazing strategies. Overall, reptile abundance was not negatively impacted by the more sustainably managed treatments (moderate, variable, and rotational) compared with heavy stocking, although the effect of grazing treatment alone was not significant. Profitability and land condition were also higher in these treatments compared with the heavy stocking rate treatment. As drought conditions worsened over the 3 yr, the negative impact of the heavy stocking treatment on both profitability and biodiversity became more pronounced. Heavy stocking negatively impacted reptiles and was also the least profitable grazing strategy over the long term, resulting in the worst land condition. This suggests that in this tropical savanna rangeland there was no trade-off between economic performance and reptile abundance and diversity. Grazing regimes with a moderate stocking rate or flexible management strategies were better able to buffer the effects of climate variability. The consequence was a more resilient reptile community and better economic outcomes in dry years.

Western juniper expansion is one of the largest threats to conserving sagebrush steppe ecosystems in the northwestern United States. Juniper expansion has degraded the sagebrush steppe by altering fire regimes and outcompeting shrubs and herbaceous vegetation for limited resources. We characterized the effect of juniper removal in a severely degraded sagebrush steppe habitat for 3 yr following juniper cutting. In addition, we measured the effect of low-intensity seasonal grazing on plant community recovery through cattle exclusion treatments. We monitored plant community composition (exotic annual grasses, preferred grasses, preferred forbs, and shrubs); fuel loads; and juniper recruitment in a factorial design of juniper removal and grazing exclusion. We found that although there were significant differences between cut and uncut juniper treatments, there were no consistent trends across all 3 yr. Our results suggest that other factors, such as timing of precipitation, may also have strong short-term effects on plant community composition. We detected no significant grazing effects during the study period, suggesting the current grazing regime is appropriate for the area. The cutting of juniper increased total fuel loads and herbaceous fuel loads. Compared with open interspace, a twofold increase in juniper seedlings and saplings was detected beneath juniper piles, which will act as sources for future juniper encroachment.

Plant litter decomposition is one of the most important links connecting plants to the soil through the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles. Climate change scenarios predict changes in precipitation and N deposition, and previous studies have demonstrated that increases in the availability of water and N affect the litter decomposition rate and nutrient release. We studied the effects of increased N deposition and precipitation on changes in the remaining mass and the C and N contents of shoot litter after decomposition in a typical steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. The treatments included the addition of NH₄NO₃ at rates equivalent to 0, 25, 50, and 100 kg·N·ha^-2yr^-1 with and without added water. The addition of water proved to be a more effective practice than amendment with NH₄NO₃ for improving the litter decomposition rate; the addition of water significantly increased the rate of litter decomposition (P < 0.001), whereas the addition of N alone had no apparent effect on litter mass loss. However, a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the interaction of water and N significantly affected both mass loss and litter N content (P < 0.05), and a linear relationship was identified between litter mass loss and litter decomposition time (P < 0.001). No correlation was found between litter mass loss and organic C content, but a significant positive correlation was found between residual litter mass and N content (P < 0.01). Although the study was conducted over a relatively short period, our results indicate that increased precipitation could potentially promote litter decomposition, whereas increased N input has little effect. The effects of time on litter mass loss and residual C and N concentrations indicate the need for long-term trials that measure the complete process of litter decomposition and the peaks of C and N release.

This paper examines changes in broom snakeweed populations (Gutierrezia sarothrae [Pursh] Britt. & Rusby) from 1979 to 2014 at three prairie grassland sites in New Mexico. Data gathered each fall were used to study broom snakeweed population dynamics and to estimate the probability that the relatively short-lived subshrub will die off or invade blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis [H.B.K. Lag]) rangelands. Annual broom snakeweed standing crop data were used to categorize populations as None (<100 kg ha^-1), Light (<300), Moderate (<750), or Heavy (≥750). Ordered logit regression was then used to estimate the frequency of transition between these categories over time depending on environmental and site factors. Significant variables found to influence annual variation in broom snakeweed included the broom snakeweed standing crop and density observed the previous period ( effect for continued broom snakeweed); grass standing crop the previous period (-); rainfall received from April to June ( ); and average temperatures during April ( ) and June (-). The probability of broom snakeweed invading an area that is currently without the plant ranges from about 1% to > 40% depending on environmental conditions and the amount of grass standing crop present. Transition probability estimates were also used in a Monte Carlo simulation model to evaluate the economics of broom snakeweed control. The economics of chemical broom snakeweed control were most strongly related to the rate of snakeweed reinvasion on treated areas and to the probability of natural die-off if infested areas were not sprayed.

Woodland expansion is a global phenomenon that, despite receiving substantial attention in recent years, remains poorly understood. Landscape change of this magnitude has several impacts perceived as negative on landscape processes, such as influencing fire regimes, habitat for wildlife, and hydrological processes. In southern Great Plains, Juniperus virginiana has been identified as a major contributor to woodland expansion. Adding to the perplexity of this phenomenon is its evidence on numerous landscape types on several continents, documented under varying climates. Our study aimed to quantify a direct treatment to reduce or slow down woodland expansion in an experimental rangeland in central Oklahoma, United States under three treatments: 1) herbicide, 2) fire with herbicide, and 3) control (no fire, no herbicide) within areas classified as “open grassland” in 1979. Thereafter, we identified these same areas in 2010 with remotely sensed imagery (Light Detection And Ranging) to quantify 1) total encroachment and 2) total encroachment by three size classes: a) small 1–2.5 m, b) intermediate 2.5–4.5 m and c) tall >4.5 m. Overall, of the total area classified as grassland in 1979 (277.64 ha), 31% had been encroached by 2010. Encroachment was greatest in the control treatments, followed by herbicide-only treatment application and lowest in the fire and herbicide treatment with minor differences in mean plant height (4.11 m ± 0.28). Encroached areas were mostly dominated by tall individuals (45 ± 3.5%), followed by the intermediate-height class (31.53 ± 1.10%) and the least recorded in the smallest-height class (23.46 ± 2.29%), suggesting expansion occurred during the initial phases of treatment application. The costly practice of herbicide application did not provide a feasible solution to control further woodland expansion. However, when using herbicide with fire, woodland expansion was reduced, highlighting the effectiveness of early intervention by fire in reducing encroachment. This further supports landscape-scale studies highlighting the effect of fire to reduce woodland expansion.

Our objective was to assess the status of the large native rangeland mammals in the eastern and southern African countries focusing on conservation strategies that will benefit the animals, their rangeland habitats, and the people who live in this region. Eastern and southern African rangelands are renowned for supporting a globally unique diversity and abundance of large mammals. This wildlife legacy is threatened by changing demographics, increased poaching, habitat fragmentation, and global warming, but there are reasons for optimism. After sharp declines from 1970 to 1990 across Africa, wildlife populations in some countries have subsequently increased due to incentives involving sport hunting and ecotourism. National parks and protected areas, which have been critically important in maintaining African wildlife populations, are being increased and better protected. Over the past 50 years, the number of parks has been doubled and the areas of several parks have been expanded. The major problem is that no more than 20% of the national parks and reserves set aside for wildlife are adequately protected from poaching. The southern African countries where wildlife has recently thrived have robust hunting and ecotourism programs, which economically benefit private landowners. Considerable research shows rural communities dependent on rangelands can be incentivized to participate in large mammal conservation programs if they can economically benefit from wildlife tourism, sport hunting, and the legal sale of animal byproducts. Community-based wildlife conservation programs can be economically and ecologically effective in sustaining and enhancing African wildlife biodiversity, including rhinos, elephants, and lions. Low-input ranching wild ungulates for meat and hunting may be an economically viable alternative to traditional range livestock production systems in some areas. However, in many situations, common-use grazing of livestock and wildlife will give the most efficient use of rangeland forages and landscapes while diversifying income and lowering risk.

Nutritional condition drives large herbivore population performance and is related to precipitation and forage quality in the arid Southwest. Because precipitation is difficult to measure at home-range scales, we tested whether satellite-derived vegetation indices of landscape greenness (i.e., indices of vegetation phenology or photosynthetic activity including normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI], soil-adjusted vegetation index [SAVI], and enhanced vegetation index [EVI]) were correlated to the condition of three species of large herbivores (elk, mule deer, pronghorn). We used canonical correlation analysis to relate seasonal landscape greenness with several measures of large herbivore condition. We also used linear mixed models to relate each measure of condition to seasonal landscape greenness separately for each herbivore population-year to see if any patterns were masked by multivariate analysis. Landscape greenness indices were only weakly related to condition of large herbivores, and the effect of landscape greenness on condition was always weaker than lactation status with the exception of pronghorn, an income breeder. Different indices also frequently gave highly variable and conflicting relationships between seasonal landscape greenness and condition of large herbivores. Overall, expected positive relationships between herbivore condition and landscape greenness indices were seen in only 8% of 2 988 possible outcomes. Because indices of landscape greenness are increasingly being used to relate wildlife population demographics to precipitation through a presumed effect on forage quality and resultant nutritional condition, we caution this use in arid environments unless a direct landscape greenness-forage quality or greenness-condition link is demonstrated.

Beavers (Castor canadensis) disappeared from drainages north of Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1900s because of trapping, a potential tularemia outbreak, and willow (Salix spp.) stand degradation by ungulates. Beavers were reintroduced in 1986 after a 40-yr absence with inventories of active-beaver structures completed each fall after reintroduction for 24 consecutive yr. We used this inventory to evaluate the expansion of beaver populations in a riparian environment recovering from past overuse by ungulates. Specifically, we investigated the density of active-beaver colonies and dams, the change in willow cover, and habitats associated with beaver expansion since reintroduction. Successful establishment and expansion of beavers indicate that sufficient resources were available to the population despite the suboptimal condition of riparian vegetation. Carrying capacity on third-order streams was reached approximately 14 yr after reintroduction (2000) with an average annual density of 1.33 (95th percentile = 1.23 —1.44 active colonies/stream km) between 2000 and 2010. The average annual density of beaver dams during this time was 2.37 (2.04 — 2.71 active dams/stream km). Despite the beaver population being at carrying capacity in meadows since 2000, willow cover increased by 16% between 1981 and 2011. We speculate that beaver activities, together with reduced ungulate browsing from predation and habitat loss, combined to increase willow cover. Willow cover and height were positively associated with colony longevity, but numerous other influencing variables included secondary channels, sinuosity, stream depth, and sandbar width. Our results provide evidence that beaver reintroduction can be successful in riparian areas where willow stand condition is less than optimal and that beavers might ultimately improve willow condition. We suggest that reducing ungulate use of overgrazed riparian environments will facilitate the reestablishment of beaver populations. We also provide managers with habitats that should be identified in an environment targeted for reintroduction.