Rangeland Health New Methods to Classify, Inventory, and Monitor Rangelands (1994) / Chapter Skim
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5 INVENTORYING AND MONITORING RANGELAND HEALTH
5 INVENTORYING AND MONITORING RANGELAND HEALTH
Pages 134-157
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From page 134... ...
Increased awareness of environmental issues has also influenced the type of information demanded for range management. These different incentives have resulted in a variety of inventory methods at a variety of spatial scales.
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From page 135... ...
In the late 1800s, the dramatic expansion of the livestock industry combined with equally dramatic droughts, and severe winters led to widespread degradation of rangelands. In 1895, letters from individuals about the declining range conditions in Texas were sent to USDA, and plans were made for an experiment station in Abilene, Texas.
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From page 136... ...
STRICT SURVEYS e U.S. Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act,3 thereby to the status of unreserved federal lands as unregulated The Taylor Grazing Act was intended to "stop injury to ring lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deteriora for their orderly use, improvement, and development, to estock industry dependent upon the public range, and for ,."4 Virtually all remaining land in the public domain~n hectares (170 million acres)
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From page 137... ...
rangelands and specified the purposes for which those data were to be used: to end soil erosion and to preserve natural resources.6 Toward this end, SCS field technicians developed a system of range condition classification that field staff and ranchers could understand and use in the dexrelopment of ranch conservation plans to minimize soil erosion (Helms, 1990~. Although these determinations of range condition were a regular responsibility of SCS field technicians, no data from these individual conservation plans were summarized in a report on the conditions of nonfederal rangelands.
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From page 138... ...
More Recent Surveys From 1936 to 1966, range conditions were not surveyed at the national level (Box, 1990~. In the early 1960s, the Public Land Law Review Commission was established to study the management of and whether the public lands should be kept in public ownership.
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From page 139... ...
Such methodological differences make it difficult to compare the results of rangeland assessments across the United States. CLEAN WATER ACT The Clean Water Act of 1972,~° as amended in 1987, requires states to develop and employ the best management practices to control nonpoint sources of water pollution, which include range livestock grazing, silvicultural activities (silviculture is a branch of forestry that deals with the development and care of forests)
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From page 140... ...
The Resources Planning Act, the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act, and the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act mandated efforts by USFS, BLM, and SCS to inventory and monitor rangelands. RESOURCES PLANNING ACT In 1974 Congress passed the Resources Planning Act of 1974,~6 in which it directed the USFS to conduct and update every 10th year a detailed renewable resource assessment.
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From page 141... ...
3. the changes that have occurred in the status and condition of those resources resulting from various past uses, including the impact of farming technologies, techniques, and practices.26 Regarding the sources of information to be used in the appraisal, the Act states that the SCS shall use not only data collected under the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act but also "pertinent data and information collected by the Department of Agriculture and other Federal, State, and local agencies and organizations."27
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From page 142... ...
A description of the current National Resources Inventory is given later in this chapter. There have been two appraisals since passage of the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act in 1977.
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From page 143... ...
FEDERAL LAND POLICY AND MANAGEMENT ACT The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 197629 is called BLM's "Organic Act," but sections 1751 through 1753 deal with range management by both BLM and USFS. In essence, these sections declare that "a substantial amount of the Federal range lands is deteriorating in quality,"30 call for improvement in current conditions,3i provide funds for "range improvements,"32 authorize adjustments to grazing privileges depending on the condition of the rangeland,33 and sanction other management actions.
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From page 144... ...
NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENTACT Like the BLM, the USES is also required to manage livestock within the context of multiple uses and sustained yields on the lands within its jurisdiction.38 The National Forest Management Act of 197639 directs USFS to "develop and maintain on a continuing basis a comprehensive and appropriately detailed inventory of all National Forest System lands and renewable resources."40 This inventory, like the BLM inventory, is to be kept current "so as to reflect changes in conditions and identify new and emerging resources and values."4i As is the case with BLM, the inventory information is to be used in the development of land use plans. Within the national forest system, inventories exist for range; timber; Four bull elk with fully grown antlers but still in the velvet.
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From page 145... ...
PUBLIC RANGElANDS IMPROVEMENT ACT The Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978,42 which is also applicable to both BLM and USES, directly addresses the issue of range condition measurement.43 The act's policies include a federal commitment to "inventory and identify current public rangeland conditions and trends as part of the inventory process required by ithe Federal Land Policy and Management Act] ," and to "manage, maintain, and improve the condition of the public rangelands so that they become as productive as feasible for all rangeland values in accordance with management objectives and the land use planning process."44 Congress thereafter defined its terms as follows45: The term "range condition" means the quality of the land reflected in its ability in specific vegetative areas to support various levels of productivity in accordance with range management objectives and the land use planning process, and relates to soil quality, forage values (whether seasonal or year round)
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From page 146... ...
. shall be kept current on a regular basis so as to reflect changes in range conditions; and shall be available to the public.47 The Act directs that when grazing is allowed on BLM-administered public lands, the management goal "shall be to improve the range conditions of the public lands so that they become as productive as feasible for all rangeland values."48 Statutory Requirements for Inventories and Monitoring The SCS, USES, and BLM are required to inventory rangelands for all resources, albeit for a variety of purposes.
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From page 147... ...
of nonfederal lands, excluding Alaska, were classified as rangelands. The information gathered through the National Resources Inventory process is used in the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act appraisal published by SCS every 10 years.
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From page 148... ...
data as part of the National Resources Inventory allows SCS to make estimates of the area of nonfederal rangelands in excellent, good, fair, or poor range condition (SCS) as determined by their resemblance to the defined climax plant community (SCS)
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From page 149... ...
BLM's ecological status (USFS and BLM) and trend data have, however, been combined in the past and have been used in national reports, including the assessment required by the Resource Planning Act of 1974.
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From page 150... ...
In this example, USFS reports ecological status on rangelands, whereas SCS and BLM report range condition. Conservation groups such as the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council have examined data reported by BLM for the portion of U.S.
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From page 151... ...
Although rangeland inventories have been implemented, few would qualify as rangeland monitoring. A national-level assessment of rangeland health requires the follow ~ng: · adoption of a standardized and consistent definition of rangeland health and of measurable indicators of change in rangeland health; · consistent and well-correlated classification of federal and nonfederal rangelands; · collection of data by the same or similar methods that will enable the data to be combined on a national level; · collection of data on the basis of a statistically valid sampling
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From page 152... ...
should serve as a useful starting point for determirung when a rangeland is healthy, at risk, or unhealthy, but these classification decisions must be refined and tested. The multiagency task force should coordinate federal efforts, including EPA's EMAP, leading to · a set of indicators that should be included in a mirumum data set for inventorying and monitoring rangeland health, · standard methods of measuring indicators of rangeland health, · a series of field tests to validate the indicators and methods selected, and · quantification of the correlation between measures of rangeland health and range condition (SCS)
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From page 153... ...
Monitoring should be periodic enough such that a rangeland would not slip from a healthy to an unhealthy state between sampling periods. Transition to Rangeland Health Indicators of soil surface condition should be added to all current and ongoing range condition (SCSJ and ecological status (USES and BLMJ assessments, and any other ongoing efforts to assess rangelands, as a first step toward a more comprehensive evaluation of rangeland health.
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From page 154... ...
All current and ongoing rangeland assessments done as part of Resources Conservation Act (RCAJ appraisals, Resources Planning Act (RPA) assessments, nationalforest planning, USES and BLM land use and allotment planning, and environmental assessments should be based on the analysis of multiple ecological attributes.
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From page 155... ...
Independent review of these basic data has increased the confidence of estimates of erosion reductions expected from changes in farming practices. It is important that basic data on multiple ecological attributes of federal and nonfederal rangelands be made available to both the public and the scientific community to accelerate the transition to comprehensive methods for assessing rangelands.
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From page 156... ...
and ecological status (USES and BLM) move ahead and be augmented by the collection of additional data for evaluating rangeland health.
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