Concepts

DIMENSIONS:

ecosystem
wildlife
economic
policy
recreation/aesthetic
social

Ranching and Wildlife Management in Yellowstone:

The ranchers:

Ranching is dominated by small family business. 83% of farms and ranches have remained in the same family for the last 25, and 10% have remained in the same family for the last 100 years (NCBA). Only 1.9% of beef farms and ranches are corporate owned. Most ranching families make less than $28,000 per year.

The management of grazing:

The goal of managed grazing is maintenance of grassland health.
Ideally, a rancher would like to balance land management considerations for the environment with efforts to improve economic conditions.
“Intensity and duration [of grazing] are the most important factors when considering whether livestock- wildlife interactions will have a neutral, positive or negative effect on the range” (CAST 1996).
The use of rangelands for ranching can be controversial. To combat this controversy, wildlife conservationists and ranchers have the opportunity to participate in Seeking Common Ground, an organization established by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, USFS and BLM. This is a challenge grant program, which funds cooperative efforts between diverse and conflicting stakeholders, to work together for long term improvement of rangeland ecosystems.

Ranching on private land:

Private land owners and lessees are not under requirement to provide use of land production to animals other than livestock. On private land a lease warrants exclusive land use to the lessee and fences/ water sources are also provided. A private land lease costs more money than use of public lands.
However, fee-hunting is becoming a major economic component to private ranchers. Wildlife health and abundance on ranch land is important to sustaining these fee-hunting opportunities. State incentive programs aiming to help ranchers manage wildlife, provide forage benefit to wildlife species, and provide hunting opportunities, are active in all Western States.
In 1996, 51% of hunters only used private lands for hunting (U.S. Department of Interior, 1997).

Ranching on public land:

Public land permittees are under requirement to work with state and federal range managers to ensure a balance between wildlife and livestock benefit from range production. Rangeland improvements are the responsibility of the public land rancher, including: fence construction and maintenance, and water source development. A subsidized public land permit costs less than a private land lease.
Half of the beef cattle raised in theWestern United States graze on BLM or USFS lands.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), stands firmly behind efforts to eradicate Brucellosis from wildlife, including both bison and elk.
To view the eradication policy supported by NCBA, visit cattle health and well being policy.

*Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). 1996. Grazing on Public Lands. Ames, IA. 70pp.

*U.S. Department of Interior, 1997. 1996 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Watchable Wildlife. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

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