Cattle ranching and conservation may seem an unusual pair in the American West, but new research reveals a clear link between the economic health of ranches and the ability to maintain habitat for an iconic wild bird that for years has been at the center of public land policy debate: the greater sage grouse.
Cattle ranching and conservation may seem an unusual pair in the American West, but new research reveals a clear link between the economic health of ranches and the ability to maintain habitat for an iconic wild bird that for years has been at the center of public land policy debate: the greater sage grouse.
A study led by UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) shows that policies to restrict grazing access on public lands may have the unintended consequence of exacerbating sage grouse habitat loss. Such restrictions are likely to harm ranch profitability, which in turn could spur ranchers to sell their private lands for other uses — namely, crop cultivation or housing developments — that would ultimately destroy critical grouse habitat.
The paper, “Unintended habitat loss on private land from grazing restrictions on public rangelands” is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology
“When it comes to a choice between ranching, farming or housing in the West, sustainable ranching is the most compatible with wildlife,” said lead author Claire Runge, who was a postdoctoral researcher at NCEAS when the research was conducted and is now a research scientist at the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway. “Implementing policy that makes it harder for ranchers to keep going could result in land conversions that are bad news for sage grouse and other sagebrush species.”
Read more at University of California - Santa Barbara
Image: A sage grouse (Photo Credit: RICK MCEWAN)
