WASHINGTON (August 21, 2024) – A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has once again confirmed the value of livestock grazing as a tool to protect western rangelands from devastating wildfire. The Public Lands Council (PLC), which represents ranchers who hold federal grazing permits, hailed this research as more proof of the important role livestock grazing plays in protecting our natural resources.
“In a year where wildfire has run rampant across the West, this study is a great reminder that livestock grazing must be an integral part of land management and wildfire mitigation. We continue to see the scientific community confirm what generations of ranchers have demonstrated: managed livestock grazing is the best, most nimble tool to support biodiversity, protect wildlife habitat, and stabilize ecosystems plagued by fire and invasive species,” said PLC President and Colorado grazing permittee Mark Roeber. “This study should be heeded by media outlets and environmental activists who have wrongly called for the end of livestock grazing because if you don’t have grazing in the West, you don’t have conservation.”
According to USDA-ARS, the study demonstrated that grazing supports reduction of fine fuels that pose huge risks in sagebrush ecosystems that are prone to fire. By applying targeted grazing in these landscapes, managers are able to create effective fuel breaks to slow fire activity and improve suppression efforts. Conversely, when grazing is excluded invasive annual grasses run rampant, resulting in a higher fire risk, lower biodiversity, and lower utilization from wildlife.
“USDA’s research clearly demonstrates that stakeholders like the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service should be confident in their partnership with public lands ranchers,” said PLC Executive Director Kaitlynn Glover. “Public lands ranchers invest in careful management of hundreds of millions of acres to make landscapes more resilient to risks like fire and invasive species. As we look in the future, it is clear that grazed landscapes will increasingly be held as prime examples of healthy, well-managed public lands, and we’ll all have federal lands ranchers to thank.”
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