Managing for Flexibility on U.S. Forest Service Grazing Allotments

Many ranchers in the western U.S. operate in a rangeland environment characterized by seasonal and annual fluctuations in water and forage, recurring drought, spreading invasive plants, increased wildfire, warming temperatures, shifting grazing seasons, and predators. Climate change is predicted to exacerbate these characteristics. Flexible grazing management can facilitate adaptation to western rangelands while meeting desired resource conditions, including on federal lands, where thousands of western ranchers graze livestock for at least part of the year. To investigate current strategies and opportunities for promoting flexibility on federal grazing allotments managed by the U.S. Forest Service, we employed a survey of agency rangeland management specialists in the western U.S. (Forest Service Regions 1-6). We received responses from 129 individuals across 53 national forest and grassland units. We found that numerous practices supporting flexible grazing management were already in use on at least some units, and that laws and policies governing grazing on Forest Service lands were perceived as a minor constraint to flexibility. The primary policy change desired is the ability to increase use of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) categorical exclusions for rangeland improvement projects. Survey respondents perceived the main barriers to increasing flexibility in grazing management as being internal to the Forest Service. Prominent among them are budget and staffing limitations, the NEPA process, lack of capacity to conduct ecological monitoring, and fear of litigation. Managers offered multiple ideas for overcoming these barriers while emphasizing the need for increased budgets and staffing to implement flexible management approaches. We found that greater investment in and prioritization of the Rangeland Management Program within the Forest Service could help address lack of program capacity and alleviate some constraints to flexible grazing management on allotments.