On the Kiowa National Grasslands of New Mexico, collaboration between the Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resource Conservation Service), and a handful of local ranchers has greatly improved the quality of the area's rangeland.
In 1991, Alton Bryant, Forest Service District Ranger, and Mike Delano of the Soil Conservation Service broke convention and decided to cooperate in assisting ranchers who worked both public and private land and were interested in improving environmental quality. As Delano noted, "there was a logical overlap there, because both agencies are involved in rangeland improvement. Under this jointly-administered program, rather than having different management schemes for public and private lands, and a mix of advice from Soil Conservation Service and Forest Service staff, a rancher sits down with the two agencies together to develop a long-range plan for the entire area being utilized. According to Delano, by managing all of one rancher's land as a "single operating unit," needs of wildlife, cattle, and environmental restoration can be addressed as a whole.
A typical plan has multiple stages, but almost always begins with the development of a comprehensive water program. Instead of the usual few larger watering holes for cattle, water is piped in to create multiple small watering areas. By having many smaller watering areas spread out over the area being grazed, the rancher can then employ time-controlled grazing, a system that rotates the herd through a series of small parcels for short periods of time. Unlike many traditional ranching systems that apply lower, but constant pressure on a large parcel, it is believed that this system of short, but intense grazing followed by long periods of rest better facilitates natural re-vegetation; it was designed to better mimic the natural grazing pattern of pre-domesticated large browsers.
Wildlife habitat improvement is also a goal of the program. Because cattle are now being watered in several smaller areas, stress is taken off riparian areas, allowing them to recover naturally and host additional wildlife. Some participants in the program have created additional wildlife ponds away from cattle watering areas and adjacent to cover and potential nesting areas. Some species that have already benefited from water, feed and cover improvements include deer, scaled quail and prairie chickens.
One of the first ranchers to try out this idea on her parcel was a local rancher and civic leader, Ellen Grove. In her words, she is "sold on it." On her approximately 1,500 acres of private and permitted land from the Kiowa Grasslands, Grove fenced in 16 individual paddocks and installed a new water storing and transport system to service each of these paddocks, all at a substantial cost to herself. She rotates her cattle through the series of paddocks as the vegetation begins to show stress, and does not return them to that paddock until the vegetation has completely recovered. Other improvements include live snow fence plantings, wildlife habitat and wetlands creation. Although initially hesitant to break with the well-established and traditional ranching techniques that her family had always used, Grove was pleasantly surprised by the improvements in the land and the cattle that she observed.
Improvements in environmental quality were staggering. After only three years, Grove had more diverse vegetation than ever before. Some native grasses that were thought to have been locally extinct have reappeared on previously degraded parcels, and cottonwoods and willow seedlings are sprouting in the riparian area. Wildlife habitat has been improved so much that over 50 species of birds were recently recorded where previously there were only a handful. According to Districting Ranger Bryant, the "crowning jewel" of Grove's efforts has been the dramatic improvement in the riparian area. An old creek bed that had been dry since the 1950s was once again running with water, a powerful symbol of environmental restoration and a habitat for wildlife.
With these environmental improvements came health improvements for the cattle. Both conception and birth rates have improved in almost all cases, with weaning weights being higher as well. In addition to improved quality of health, ranchers have actually increased their parcels. For example, when Ellen Grove began the program she was running 47 cattle. At the end of the third year she was running 115 cattle, and hoped to develop a stable situation where she could consistently support 80 head with continued environmental improvement. As a result of success stories like these, a number of ranchers who do not even have parcels on the Kiowa Grasslands have sought management advice from the Forest Service.
The most compelling proof of this project's success is the greatly improved quality of the grasslands. Grove states that her parcel "improved more than people thought possible," with increased and more diversified flora and fauna, as well as an increased carrying capacity for cattle. After two years, grasses were found on the Grove ranch that had not been seen in the area for years, bird species were recorded at significantly increased numbers, and a creek that had been dry since the 1950s ran with water.
Even more remarkable are the spillover effects from public to private land. Because permittees often hold both public and private parcels, improvement techniques begun on public lands are also employed on the private parcels, adding much more improved land to the overall tally than what is recorded within the federal grasslands. Alton Bryant estimates that about 68,000 acres of public grasslands are currently under integrated resource management, and more than 87,000 acres of private land, with more and more being added. This acreage represents 68 permittees on the grasslands. Encouraging to Bryant and his staff is that ranchers who do not even have parcels on the Kiowa Grasslands have heard about this program's success and are seeing advice from the Forest Service.
Both a cause and a measure of success is the smooth interagency coordination and cooperation. The local districts of both the Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service, by agreeing to cooperate ahead of time, have significantly simplified the bureaucracy that the average rancher encounters in soliciting information, assistance and funding. Before their agreement to jointly develop and administer integrated resource management plans, each agency had its own guidelines for their specific programs and operating policies for their lands. Not only does this cooperation benefit the individual ranchers, but also the agencies that are able to minimize overlap and, moreover, share resources and information.
This site was developed by the Ecosystem Management Initiative through a partnership with the US Forest Service and the US Department of Interior. Read more.
