CATEGORY 1 - LIVESTOCK GRAZING
Livestock grazing is a particularly important management tool on rangeland. Rangeland is often land from which solar energy can be directly harvested and converted to useable products only by livestock and wild ungulates (note the equivalent role of logging). Livestock production is often a predominant (but seldom exclusive) use of upland and riparian areas so that cattle, horses, or sheep are typically available as a potential tool. If grazing is properly administered it can provide its desired impacts on large expanses of land at relatively low cost.
In recent years, range scientists and managers have learned much about the positive effects of grazing, especially on lands where vegetation and herbivores co-evolved. Many desirable plant communities not only tolerate grazing, but require it for optimum health. Much more is also known about the negative impacts of grazing and particularly about the nature of overgrazing of individual plants. Improved grazing schemes are available which limit overgrazing while allowing desirable features of grazing to be applied as a tool.
Refer to Chapter 6, RANGE MANAGEMENT FOR REMEDIATION, for additional information about grazing management.
