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Submitted to: Rangelands
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2016 Publication Date: 9/3/2016 Citation: Derner, J.D., Augustine, D.J. 2016. Adaptive management for drought on rangelands. Rangelands. 38(4):211-215. Interpretive Summary: Adaptive management can be used to manage complexity, such as how to match forage production variability across years and within portions on a grazing season with animal demand through management flexibility. Adaptive management strategies should incorporate flexibility and feedback mechanisms informed by appropriate seasonal weather variables and monitoring metrics to both increase resiliency of rangeland ecosystems and reduce risk for the ranching enterprise associated with drought. For management flexibility, we provide four general strategies that ranchers can use to deal with drought: 1) predict it using weather and climate forecasting tools, 2) track it, 3) employ conservative stocking rates, and 4) utilize inherent spatial variability. Ranchers typically utilize a combination of all these strategies, as each involves inherent limitations or costs. Adaptive grazing management plans that seek to integrate drought prediction tools, conservative but flexible stocking, and existing and predicted spatial heterogeneity in forage quantity and quality can be incorporated into conservation practices such as the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Practice Standard 528 - Prescribed Grazing for implementation on private lands, and allotment management plans (AMPs) by the Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) where spatial heterogeneity in forage resources within and among allotments is often not explicitly monitored or considered when planning livestock movements. Technical Abstract: Adaptive management for drought on rangelands encompasses 1) enterprise flexibility – herd structure where the proportion of cow-calf pairs and yearlings provides plasticity to match forage availability with forage demand, with advantages to economic returns and increased resiliency of plant communities, and 2) management flexibility – relevant monitoring metrics providing feedback to influence subsequent decision-making processes to promote risk reduction. For management flexibility with temporal variation in forage availability, ranchers can: 1) use climate/weather tools to help predict it, 2) track it, 3) employ conservative stocking rates, and 4) utilize inherent spatial variability for risk reduction and increased resiliency. |
