Somewhere on a sprawling ranch in Utah, a herd of cattle is grazing methodically and moving through the land. This scene may look like a commonplace agricultural activity, however, it is actually a practice carefully managed to conserve and preserve our public lands. When done responsibly, grazing – the practice of allowing livestock to roam and eat the vegetation around them – both supports local ecosystems and sustains our communities. In the ongoing dialogue about environmental conservation and sustainable land management, grazing is one of the most effective ways ranchers actively manage land for current and future use.
In 2006, Utah launched its Grazing Improvement Program (GIP) to strike the balance between helping the environment and strengthening rural economies through grazing. In Rich County alone, economists at Utah State University (USU) estimated in a 2012 study that livestock production on 143,000 acres of public and private land contributes about $2 million to local economies and the county. Additional studies in other rural counties in Utah show that each cow (or its equivalent) that is grazed in a county for a month derives $50 in direct economic benefit. Economists suggest we can put a multiplier of two on this amount, translating to $100 in economic activity per cow per month.
The GIP helps to restore riparian areas for cleaner drinking water, remove and control invasive species for healthier land, and disperse cattle to prevent improper grazing and increase wildlife populations. Since its inception, the GIP has implemented over 1,300 projects to benefit 12 million acres statewide. GIP projects are focused on fulfilling three core grazing management principles that form the foundation for responsible grazing practices: time, timing, and intensity.
Time, or duration, refers to how long animals stay in a pasture or grazing area, whether its an entire season, a few days, or not at all that year. This ensures that pastures and plants have appropriate rest and grazing periods. It also affects how much work a rancher must do to move the animals. Timing refers to when, or at what stage of plant growth, livestock graze in a certain area. Managing the timing means plants have more time to re-grow, improving overall plant health. Intensity refers to how heavily an area is grazed, or how much available forage is eaten. On a spectrum, zero intensity means a resting pasture, and high intensity means almost everything is being eaten.
The best results for Utah’s land occur when these three principles are managed together to make livestock grazing more ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable. This typically means ranchers are creating longer rest periods for pastures by having fewer herds, more pastures per herd, and shorter grazing periods per pasture. Managing public lands under these principles has been shown to be effective in the Three Creeks Ranch project in Rich County that established a collaborative and innovative management system to ensure careful stewardship of the public lands within the grazing allotment.
Proper grazing on public lands is extremely important to ranchers and our state. Implementing projects throughout the state helps maintain healthy rangelands, improving carbon sequestration, enhancing plant growth, and creating resilient ecosystems for future generations. Ranchers are a consistent baseline to generate economic activity in rural Utah, keeping grocery stores open and gas pumps pumping. Therefore, Utah leadership and ranchers are very concerned that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule will put a stop to these programs that are so important to the overall health of our lands and our economy. This rule would be catastrophic to our livestock industry and rural Utah communities.
By losing access to grazing on public lands, we would lose the ability to improve land resiliency, promote plant regrowth, remove wildfire fuels, remove invasive species, and actively manage our lands. Additionally, many of our ranches are not viable operations if the public land component is taken away.
The GIP has focused on providing additional water on the landscape through the development of wells, springs, ponds, pipelines, and troughs. Utah is the second driest state in the nation, and water is most often the factor that limits proper grazing and where wild and domestic animals can use the landscape. By developing water, we are able to open the suite of grazing management choices and provide access to water in places where it has been lacking.
Utah’s ranchers are incredible stewards of the land, with some of the healthiest grazing allotments in the West. With our public and private partnerships committed to proper grazing practices, both the livestock industry and the environment benefit. This is why we need to ensure Utahns have the ability to continue actively managing public and private lands through programs like the GIP.
Learn more at ag.utah.gov/utah-grazing-improvement-program.