No abstract

On the Ground • California's Mediterranean climate zone supports grasslands that are biologically diverse. • Livestock grazing is being increasingly used to promote native species diversity at both the pasture and landscape scales. • Several federally and state-listed vertebrates and insects respond positively to grazing to improve habitat by opening and lowering grassland vegetation. More work is needed on enhancement of native plants. • Research results need to be more extensively applied, tested, and monitored under variable conditions.

Agricultural management practices have impacts not only on crops and livestock, but also on soil, water, wildlife, and ecosystem services. Agricultural research provides evidence about these impacts, but it is unclear how this evidence should be used to make decisions. Two methods are widely used in decision making: evidence synthesis and decision analysis. However, a system of evidence-based decision making that integrates these two methods has not yet been established. Moreover, the standard methods of evidence synthesis have a narrow focus (e.g., the effects of one management practice), but the standard methods of decision analysis have a wide focus (e.g., the comparative effectiveness of multiple management practices). Thus, there is a mismatch between the outputs from evidence synthesis and the inputs that are needed for decision analysis. We show how evidence for a wide range of agricultural practices can be reviewed and summarized simultaneously ("subject-wide evidence synthesis"), and how this evidence can be assessed by experts and used for decision making ("multiple-criteria decision analysis"). We show how these methods could be used by Shackelford et al. Evidence Synthesis for Decision Analysis The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in California to select the best management practices for multiple ecosystem services in Mediterranean-type farmland and rangeland, based on a subject-wide evidence synthesis that was published by Conservation Evidence (www. conservationevidence.com). This method of "evidence-based decision analysis" could be used at different scales, from the local scale (farmers deciding which practices to adopt) to the national or international scale (policy makers deciding which practices to support through agricultural subsidies or other payments for ecosystem services). We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this method, and we suggest some general principles for improving evidence synthesis as the basis for multi-criteria decision analysis.

Working rangelands are public or privately owned open space lands that are managed with livestock grazing and rancher stewardship. Their management contributes to the production of a variety of ecosystem services, including: food, clean water, weed control, wildlife habitat, fire fuel reduction, carbon sequestration, pollination, aesthetic views, cultural heritage, recreational and educational opportunities, and open space conservation.Achieving MAnAgeMent goAls by bAlAncing livestock grAzing with tiMe And spAce T he earliest grazing systems date back to the domestication of livestock. Nomadic herdsmen moved livestock from one range site to another, probably following the patterns of forage quality and quantity and the availability of water. Grazing systems became more structured, employing fencing and developed water, over 500 years ago in Europe, when human population pressures demanded greater productivity from agricultural land.Early ranchers in North America herded or turned livestock loose across open range. Without fences and with natural sources of water found only in limited locations, livestock moved from one site to the next based on the availability of forage and water. The invention of barbed wire in the late 1800s led to better control of livestock and the development of grazing systems in North America. Specialized grazing systems, such as rotation of grazing between pastures, were first conceptualized before the turn of the twentieth century (Smith 1895) and became a focus of range researchers and managers Photo: Lawrence FordPhoto: rrunaway/Flickr

No abstract