According to former Kiowa Grasslands District Ranger Bryant, a positive attitude and a proactive approach to addressing problems are the most important ingredients in making a program like this work: "You always hear about how harmful grazing is on the land and hwo agencies can't seem to coordinate their activities, but we know it doesn't have to be that way." In expressing this positive attitude and determination to work together, Bryant has encouraged some local ranchers to take a risk and experiment with alternative ranching techniques that have proven very beneficial to themselves and the local environment. By backing up this encouragement with quality technical expertise and interagency cooperation, the Forest Service also lowers the risk to the to the ranchers of trying these experiments.
Another lesson learned at the Kiowa Grasslands is that a small, but significant success can encourage others to become active. Rather than implementing a broad, large-scale program aimed at all permittees, a handful of ranchers were identified as possible candidates for a more intense plan. By ensuring that training and technical advice were available, monitoring was steady and problems were handled cooperatively and promptly, this more focused program yielded significant results. Such an image was very powerful for other ranchers in the area and record numbers, both grassland permittees and those that ranch on privately-owned land, are currently seeking aid and advice from the Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service.
Similarly, the Kiowa Grasslands case illustrates how important it is to realize that resource users on both public and private land care about the resource and want to treat it in a sustainable manner. Agency officials should not feel like they are shouldering this burden alone, but need to enlist the energies and dedication of this already human resource. An essential role for resource managers is to help these individuals contribute, whether it be through technical assistance as provided here, or in promoting volunteer work groups or citizen advisory councils as seen in other vignettes. If given the opportunity to contribute, that is precisely what these dedicated individuals will do. Brown noted, "The ranchers want many of the same things as the environmental people want, but people get stuck on their positions."
Another, more general observation from the Kiowa Grasslands case is that in situations where results are less than certain, small poignant examples work very well. They allow an agency to showcase a particularly success for other users, while at the same time not fall out of favor with a user population or the general public if the experiment is a failure. They are also relatively less expensive, easier to administer, monitor, and alter as natural or human components dictate.
The Kiowa Grasslands integrated management plans are both economic and environmental success stories; it seems as though everyone came out a winner. The hope of Bryant and Delano is that this integrated ranching system will spread, with more ranchers improving their grazing conditions. According to Bryant, "We cannot make an ecosystem improve, but we can give it the opportunity by applying the proper management. It is apparent, by observing the response of this management unit, that we usually underestimate what nature can do if given a fair opportunity." The same could be said for human collaboration as well.
