Integrating Conservation and Financial Objectives on Private Rangelands in Northern Colorado: Rancher and Practitioner Perceptions

Gutwein, Megan; Goldstein, Joshua

doi:10.2111/rem-d-11-00206.1

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…Participants' attitudes toward cross-boundary management and their temporal vision were generally positive, which confirmed that ranchers realize they are not isolated spatially or temporally, and that their management practices affect neighboring lands as well as the future health of the land. This agrees with previous research that suggested ranchers consider themselves stewards of the land (Gutwein andGoldstein 2013, Kennedy et al 2016).…”

Section: General Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

Sliwinski¹,

Burbach²,

Powell³

et al. 2018

E&S

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Most private grasslands in the Great Plains are managed with the goal to optimize beef production, which tends to homogenize rangeland habitats. The subsequent loss of vegetation heterogeneity on private lands is detrimental to ecosystem function. However, conservation planners should understand the factors that lead to variation in management of rangelands. We used a mail survey targeted to ranchers in counties with intact rangeland in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska in 2016 to examine factors predicted to be related to attitudes about strategies leading to heterogeneity such as innovativeness and low risk aversion, and intended behaviors associated with creation of heterogeneity. We used survey questions and a set of relevant scales to examine predictors of behavioral intentions for rangeland management and conservation. Attitudes about fire and prairie dogs, two strategies that create heterogeneity, were largely negative, and ranchers with positive attitudes about fire and prairie dogs and higher perceived behavioral control of their ranch and surrounding landscapes had greater intention to engage in heterogeneity-promoting behaviors. Social norms were also important in predicting intended behaviors and attitudes. Our research suggests that heterogeneity of grasslands may remain low unless land managers understand the importance of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and recognize prescribed fire and prairie dogs, and other burrowing colonial mammals, as principal drivers of ecological processes on rangelands. Conservation organizations may find success by modeling management tools, reducing the perceived effort producers must make to adopt behaviors that support heterogeneity, and by developing programs that work to change social norms around fire and prairie dogs.

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Section: General Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

Sliwinski¹,

Burbach²,

Powell³

et al. 2018

E&S

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“…We found that diversification was the most widespread livelihood strategy employed by ranchers in the face of challenges, highlighting the opportunity for extension and outreach programs that support off-and on-operation diversification. Its pervasiveness in both our data and the broader literature (Barbieri et al 2008, Barbieri and Mahoney 2009, Gutwein and Goldstein 2013 indicates producer eagerness to explore diversification. Barbieri and Mahoney (2009) demonstrate how diversification is an effective farm or ranch restructuring strategy in response to change.…”

Section: Extension and Outreach Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 68%

An integrated livelihoods and well-being framework to understand northeastern Colorado ranchers' adaptive strategies

Bruno¹,

Fernández‐Giménez²,

Balgopal³

2021

E&S

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“…• Loss of rangeland to suburban sprawl, "ranchettes" and second homes is especially acute around metropolitan areas or touristic sites but is a threat to almost all ranching areas in the American West. The resulting parcelization complicates environmental management and is associated with habitat degradation and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services (Havstad et al, 2009;Gutwein and Goldstein, 2013).…”

Section: Conservation Easements and Grass Banksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing Into the Anthropocene or Back to the Future?

Behnke

2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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This essay examines three central components of extensive livestock production—herd composition, grazing/pasture management, and rangeland tenure. In all of these areas, fenced, and open-range forms of migratory pastoralism face a number of shared problems. Set aside the presumption that either one of these systems is technically or institutionally more advanced than the other, and it turns out that each has lessons for the other. 1. For a variety of reasons, including climate change, we can look forward to a future world with less grass, which presents a challenge for livestock producers reliant on grass feeding livestock. With little delay and minimal scientific support, East African pastoralists are already adjusting to a new woody world by diversifying the species composition of their herds to include more browsers—camels and goats. There is a potential lesson here for commercial ranchers who have traded the stability of mixed herds for the profitability of keeping sheep or cattle alone. 2. Migratory rangeland systems distribute livestock very differently than fenced, rotational systems of livestock, and pasture management. Whereas, migratory herds exploit environmental heterogeneity, fenced ranching attempts to suppress it. Emerging archaeological evidence is demonstrating that pastoralists have amplified rangeland heterogeneity for millennia; ecological research shows that this heterogeneity sustains both plant and wildlife biodiversity at the landscape scale; and new approaches to ranch management are appropriating aspects of migratory herding for use on fenced ranches. A rapprochement between the environmental sciences, ranching, and open-range migratory pastoralism has occurred and merits wider policy recognition. 3. In contemporary Africa, indigenous tenure regimes that sustain open rangelands are eroding under pressure from market penetration and state encapsulation. At the same time in the American West, there are emerging novel land tenure instruments that replicate some of the most important functional characteristics of tenure arrangements in pastoral Africa. After many false starts, it appears that some aspects of American ranching do provide an appropriate model for the preservation of the open-range migratory systems that they were once supposed to supplant. “Development” policy needs to reflect upon this inversion of roles and its implications for accommodating diversity.

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Integrating Conservation and Financial Objectives on Private Rangelands in Northern Colorado: Rancher and Practitioner Perceptions

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

An integrated livelihoods and well-being framework to understand northeastern Colorado ranchers' adaptive strategies

Grazing Into the Anthropocene or Back to the Future?

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Integrating Conservation and Financial Objectives on Private Rangelands in Northern Colorado: Rancher and Practitioner Perceptions

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Factors influencing ranchers&#8217; intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

Factors influencing ranchers&#8217; intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

An integrated livelihoods and well-being framework to understand northeastern Colorado ranchers' adaptive strategies

Grazing Into the Anthropocene or Back to the Future?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains

Factors influencing ranchers’ intentions to manage for vegetation heterogeneity and promote cross-boundary management in the northern Great Plains