Targeted/Prescribed (Rotational/Deferral) Livestock Grazing for Meeting Conservation Goals
Goal
To increase participant awareness and familiarity with a variety of grazing practices (particular strategies and methods) can be used to meet specific conservation objectives.
Description
Grazing is becoming increasingly recognized as an effective and efficient way to meet a wide variety of conservation goals at various scales. This workshop will bring ranchers, other land managers, and biologists together to discuss how to use grazing to aid in the conservation of natural resources from water quality to species of conservation concern. Workshop participants will explore a broad range of grazing practices that are or could be used to help meet conservation targets in central coast rangelands. Discussions will include how these strategies work to meet conservation goals, how to implement strategies in a variety of different rangeland scenarios, and how these strategies fit into livestock operations on a broader scale. The discussions generated will facilitate improved working relationships between the many stakeholder groups operating on rangelands, benefit rangeland productivity, and improve conservation outcomes..
Objectives
- Identify specific practices under the broader topic of targeted/prescribed and rotational/ deferral grazing that could be used to meet specific conservation objectives. Examples of conservation objectives covered will include management oriented toward watershed function and special status species.
- Consider how different grazing practices or strategies may be used to achieve conservation objectives, and the nuts and bolts of implementing these various practices.
- Identify tradeoffs in management outcomes associated with different grazing strategies discussed.
Meeting Format
This workshop will consist of indoor lectures and a panel discussion in the morning and an afternoon field excursion to sites featuring rangeland issues with riparian restoration and grazing for special status species. Participants will carpool between the morning indoor session and the afternoon field sites. There will also be small group discussions interspersed throughout the day to give participants an opportunity to share their expertise and learn from the diverse experiences of other meeting participants.
Instructor Information
| Ms. Erin Campbell-Craven CCRC Scholar California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Animal Science Department |
Dr. Brian Dietterick Director Cal Poly Swanton Pacific Ranch |
| Justin Fields Fifth-generation cattle rancher |
Dr. Marc Horney Associate Professor California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Animal Science Department |
| Mr. Aaron Lazanoff Beef Operations Manager California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Animal Science Department |
Dr. John Perrine Associate Professor California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Biological Sciences Department |
| Ms. Andrée Soares President Star Creek Land Stewards, Inc |
Stuart Weiss Chief Scientist Creekside Center for Earth Observation |
Contact
Grey Hayes
Sponsors
Documents & Publications
Workshop Materials
| Document | Author/Source |
| Agenda | Lewis Reed CCRC March 2017 |
| Targeted and Prescribed Grazing on California's Central Coast | Erin Cambell-Craven, CAFES Graduate Student California Polytechnic State University 2017 |
| 2017.04 Contact List |
Peer-Reviewed Publications
| Document | Author/Source |
| Cars, cows, and checkerspot butterflies nitrogen deposition and management of nutrient-poor grasslands for a threatened species | Weiss, S.B. Conservation Biology 13(6): 1476-1486 1999 |
| Grazing Systems Management: Achieving management goals by balancing livestock grazing with time and space. Understanding Working Rangelands | Sheila Barry, et al UC Cooperative Extension 2015 |
| Nitrogen critical loads and management alternatives for N-impacted ecosystems in California | M.E. Fenn, E.B. Allen, S.B. Weiss, S. Jovan, L.H. Geiser, G.S. Tonnesen, R.F. Johnson, L.E. Rao, B.S. Gimeno, F. Yuan, T. Meixner, and A. Bytnerowicz Journal of Environmental Management, v. 91, pp. 2404-2423 2010 |