Rangelands
Rangelands support multiple ecosystem services including grazing, wildlife habitat, watershed health and recreational opportunities. Livestock grazing is the most common economic use of rangelands, and also the principal management tool. Maintaining forage production and soil health is key to meeting ecological and economic objectives under changing climate conditions, and will be essential for sustaining livestock grazing in the future. Conservative stocking rates, varied season of grazing, optimizing herd size and composition, identifying reserve forage, strategic distribution of water, proactive vegetation and soil management and changes in enterprise structure are examples of sustainable rangeland management practices that can help livestock producers adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. More information on these practices is contained in the resources below.
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Managing risk on the farm
Explore USDA programs that help producers manage risk to extreme weather and climate-driven events.
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Livestock Ranching, Rangelands, and Resilience: Ensuring Adaptive Capacity in an Increasingly Variable Climate
Beginning in 2018 and concluding in 2022, the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub helped conduct a research and outreach…
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Partnered, applied research for Great Basin restoration
An understanding of plant traits, plant evolutionary history, and local adaptative mechanisms can be used to optimize…
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Estimating rangeland grazing loss for the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program: tools, challenges, solutions
The Southwest and Northern Plains Climate Hubs convened an online forum in June 2021, with FSA personnel and partners…
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Northern Plains Grasslands Vulnerability Assessment
The Northern Plains Grasslands Vulnerability Assessment synthesizes the scientific literature about the vulnerability…
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New Drought Monitoring Dashboard Addresses Ranchers’ Key Questions
A new Ranch Drought Monitoring Dashboard aims to provide information to help ranchers in the Great Plains and Southwest…
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The hidden world of soil seed banks may help restore Western rangelands
New research is showing that arid and semi-arid rangeland soils contain surprisingly biodiverse and abundant seed banks…
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2020 Jornada Virtual Symposium
The USDA Southwest Climate Hub team prepared flash presentations to showcase our climate adaptation projects. The Hub…
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The Native American Rangeland Training Initiative
The Native American Rangeland Training Initiative project aims to address tribal training and education through courses…