Aligning a rancher’s business plan goals with the capability of the ranch’s rangeland resources improves the viability and sustainability of family ranches. Strategically monitoring the condition of soil, water, vegetation, wildlife, livestock production, and economics helps inform business plan goals. Business planning and resource monitoring help keep ranchers on the land, support the well-being of rangeland-dependent communities, and conserve the rural way of life. To work toward this goal, the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable (SRR), Wyoming Business Council (WBC), Wyoming State Grazing Board (WSGB), University of Wyoming Extension, Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and several ranchers formed the SRR Ranch Sustainability Assessment Group. The working group focuses on implementing a monitoring framework for ecological, economic, and social sustainability within the context of ranchers’ business plans...

The discipline of range science is in part based on the observation that vegetation on rangelands changes in response to livestock grazing. For much of the history of range science, livestock grazing was considered to affect range plants and ecological condition negatively. Thus range plants were classified as increasers, decreasers, or invaders as a function of their response to grazing. The concept that grazing can be used to restore degraded rangelands is relatively new. It requires a paradigm shift for most people from grazing animals reaping the benefits of the land to the land reaping the benefits of the grazing animals. Using livestock to accomplish vegetation management goals is referred to as targeted grazing. Targeted grazing is defined as the application of a particular kind of grazing animal at a specified season, duration, and intensity to accomplish specific vegetation management goals. It is the last half of this definition that differentiates targeted grazing from traditional grazing. The focus is on the vegetation and the subsequent outcomes and changes in composition or structure, rather than the performance of the grazing animal. Where the potential for targeted grazing to create positive change on the landscape has been clearly demonstrated through research and the experiences of practitioners, it still struggles to gain recognition as a viable vegetation management option. The recently published handbook Targeted Grazing: A Natural Approach to Vegetation Management and Landscape Enhancement was organized and written largely by range scientists to provide the scientific basis for targeted grazing. However, it did not provide much information on the practical and daily management decisions required by contract graziers and land managers. While the scientific basis for targeted grazing provides the foundation for understanding and improving this technology, as with all grazing management it is the daily operations and decisions that determine its success. The diversity of situations to which this tool can be applied necessitates the exchange of real-life experiences to promote learning among practitioners and to inform land managers of the successful programs and potential pitfalls to avoid....

Medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae [L.] Nevski) (Fig. 1) is an aggressive exotic annual grass native to the Mediterranean region of Eurasia that is changing the ecology and productivity of western rangelands. Since the collection of the first known North American herbarium specimen of medusahead in 1887 near Roseburg, Oregon, the exotic annual grass has invaded millions of acres in the Pacific Northwest, California, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. On public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, 3.3 million acres of rangeland are classified as monotypic stands of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) and/or medusahead, nearly 14 million acres are infested with one or both grasses, and over 62 million acres are at risk of invasion by the exotic annual grasses.

Last November the human population of the world reached seven billion. When I was born (1929) the world had about two billion people. By the time I earned my PhD (1959) there were three billion. There were 3.7 billion in 1970 when I was appointed dean, and about 5.2 billion when I retired (1990). In the next generation the population will reach eight billion. During my lifetime the world population almost quadrupled. The habitable area decreased. Increasing human density, unequal population distribution, and natural resource values will dictate that land care professionals are destined to work in a conflict zone between haves and have-nots.