Environmental Benefits of Public Lands Ranching

Public lands ranching is a proud living legacy of our nation. Over the many decades of livestock grazing on public lands many lessons have been learned and improved management techniques incorporated in to the legislation, regulations and adaptive management techniques utilized by ranchers and public land managers.

Open Spaces

Public lands and privately owned ranches are the major reasons that our nation still has large expanses of open spaces and wildlife habitat around many cities and across the Western landscapes.

The value of open spaces and wildlife habitat becomes more important by the day as agricultural and grazing lands are built upon and/or encroached upon by development.

Winter Wildlife Habitat and Ranches

An environmental benefit to wildlife, all too often overlooked, is the winter habit created by agricultural activities. Winter habitat is the most important factor affecting wildlife populations.

Prior to the settlement of the west by farmers and ranchers and their accompanying water development projects, wildlife herds would migrate through an area continually looking for food to survive the winters.

Hay fields and crop lands soon helped to mitigate that nutritional void. Improved survival numbers have become closely tied to the available forage provided by ranch lands during winter months.

While this ‘sharing of the forage’ is not always easy for ranchers, it has become an accepted part of doing business in the American west and significantly adds to everyone’s quality of life.

Additionally, the increase in winter survival of wildlife population numbers has contributed to the economic viability of the guiding and outfitting sectors of our nation. These sectors continue to benefit from expanded opportunities for their clients to more easily observe and enjoy wildlife.