On the Ground • Poisonous plants on western North American rangelands have historically been troublesome to livestock producers. • Research on toxic plants was initiated by the United States Department of Agriculture in the late 1890s to solve problems for the livestock industry. • TheUnited States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Resource Service Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah continues to provide research-based solutions to poisonous plant problems besetting livestock producers, hobby farmers and small holders, veterinarians, and extension personnel. • Principal plants of current research interest include larkspur, lupine, locoweed, selenium accumulating plants, pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing plants, and ponderosa pine.

On the Ground • Bison are considered the keystone species of the Great Plains but widespread slaughter led to their near extinction. • Utah has two wild, free-ranging herds on public lands managed as wildlife though hunting. Both herds are descended from animals reintroduced to the Henry Mountains in the 1940s and more recently the Book Cliffs in 2008. • Key elements for the successful ecological restoration of bison include: ∘ Legal designation of bison as wildlife in the state ∘ Genetically-pure, disease-free source ∘ Large expanses of habitat-they take a lot of room ∘ Potential conflicts must be identified and addressed in a transparent manner ∘ Mutual purpose and trust with all affected stakeholders is essential; i.e., ask, How can we have both sustainable livestock grazing and a viable bison herd on the unit? ∘ Active management to address changing situations and maintain herd size at a sustainable level

On the Ground • The need for large-scale disturbed land rehabilitation in the west is well known but is recently receiving new attention. • Seeding appropriate species, varieties, and ecotypes is often needed to succeed in rehabilitation of these degraded landscapes. • Key people, organizations, and early and continuing research in Utah have been very influential in providing valuable information for degraded land rehabilitation. • Seed from the key species and ecotypes provided by wildland seed harvests are a very important part of successful land restoration. The wildland seed industry developed in Utah and dominates the supply of wildland seed in western land restoration.

On the Ground • We assessed the long-term effects of continuous and rotational grazing on grass and treedynamics on adjacent ranches in the semiarid Kalahari of western Botswana. • Rotationally grazed ranches had higher grass cover with more perennial grass species, higher grazing value (and capacity), and higher long-term stocking rates than their continuously grazed neighbors. Tree cover tended to be higher on continuously grazed ranches, suggesting that long-term continuous grazing reduced grass production and favored establishment of woody vegetation. • Improvement in semiarid rangeland health and production is unlikely to be achieved simply by reducing stocking rates; uniform grazing and growing season recovery periods are essential. • These and other case studies suggest that benefits of grazing strategies likely depend on scale and adaptive management. Future research should be at larger spatial and temporal scales.

On the Ground • Method comparison studies are necessary to reconcile monitoring methods that have arisen among disparate programs; however, we find that Thacker et al.s study comparing Daubenmire frame (DF) and line-point intercept (LPI) methods for estimating vegetation cover is not adequate to support their conclusions. • Because the DF and LPI methods estimate different aspects of vegetation cover (total canopy vs. foliar cover), there should be no a priori expectation that the two techniques would produce the same results. • Thacker et al. omit critical information about their methods (sampling design, training and calibration, indicator calculations) that could have a large impact on their results and how they can be interpreted. • Differences in results between different vegetation cover measurement techniques can also be attributable to factors like observer training and calibration, plot heterogeneity and complexity, spatial distribution of vegetation, plant morphology, and plot size; thus it is difficult to draw strong conclusions froma single study. • Rather than implementing both DF and LPI techniques in sage-grouse studies as Thacker et al. recommend, effort should instead be invested in ensuring that sampling for one selected method is adequate. • Critical evaluations of vegetation measurement methods to advance the science of rangeland monitoring should be conducted and reported in a rigorous manner, provide a thorough review of previous studies, and discuss how new results contribute to existing knowledge.