Cheatgrass in the Basin and Range: Threat and Opportunity

Stanley R. Johnson, Michael Helmar, Thomas R. Harris and Michael Taylor*

Please contact: drstanleyrjohnson@gmail.com

Introduction

Ranchers, rural communities, and those interested in agricultural production and the incidence of wildfires and other threats in the Basin and Range Region have little analysis to support issues with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or other federal and state agencies that fashion regulations and policies.  These citizens and groups simply lack significant input into such regulations and policies. The result is that the many constituents that have a stake in the policies and regulations of federal and state lands are left-out of important decisions about grazing, wildfires, wildlife habit and other major decisions about management of resources that affect their livelihoods.

Ranchers, rural communities, and those interested in agricultural production and the incidence of wildfires and other threats in the Basin and Range Region have little analysis to support issues with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or other federal and state agencies that fashion regulations and policies.  These citizens and groups simply lack significant input for full participation in decisions about regulations and policies. The result is that the many constituents that have a stake in the policies and regulations of federal and state lands are not a factor in important decisions about grazing, wildfires, wildlife habit and other major decisions about their livelihoods (Johnson 2016; Abatzoglou and Kolden 2011; Balch 2013;Clemets and Harmon 2018; Young et al. 1987).

This paper is will provide those constituents without systematic information about the rangeland issues mentioned above with information that can give them a substantive role as stakeholders.  Examples of the issues that could benefit from the valuable input of citizens and communities that are left out of policy and regulatory decisions include, differences between grazing of perennials and invasive species, wildfire management and control, grazing after wildfires, active ranching versus allocations to wilderness, and other timely regulatory and policy matters.

One of the cardinal features of public policy and regulatory decisions is full inclusion of stakeholders.  Where the federal and state governments control large areas of public lands there is reason to provide stakeholders with information that can support an informed voice in major decisions. This paper provides results that can support a stronger basis for input of citizens groups and private and public agencies in the decisions on range management.   We wish to stress that the analysis is preliminary, and much of it is dependent on previously available but uncollated scientific reports. For example, the costs, returns and net revenue budgets from the land grant universities, cattle numbers that can be used along with the budgets to provide estimates for counties and community economic models. As well, the scoring analysis is used for purposes of providing a county level assessment of restoration to traditional grazing.

The focus of this analysis is two-fold:

• cattle number decreases in the Basin and Range Region during recent years and
• the current concern about cheatgrass grazing and potential for fall term grazing by cattle?  

Of course, other regulatory issues that deserve input by the broad set of stakeholders like spaying and other management approaches for managing cheatgrass are not the subject of this paper.  The analysis we will concentrate on only the above two questions, although the background prepared for this analysis can be applied for a number of related rang land concerns.

This report will provide those constituents without systematic information about these rangeland issues mentioned above with information that can give them a substantive role as stakeholders.  Examples of the issues that could benefit from the valuable input of citizens and communities that are left out of policy and regulatory decisions include, differences between grazing of perennials and invasive species, wildfire management and control, grazing after wildfires, active ranching versus allocations to wilderness, and other timely regulatory and policy matters.

One of the cardinal features of public policy and regulatory decisions is full inclusion of stakeholders.  Where the federal and state governments control large areas of public lands there is reason to provide stakeholders analysis so they can have an informed voice in decisions.

Download the complete report here.

*Stanley R. Johnson, Assistant to the Dean, Mike Helmar, Research Associate, Tomas Harris, Michel Taylor all from the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources, or Economics, and the Economics Department, University of Nevada/0222, Reno, Nevada  89557-0222