The Art of Range Podcast

Riparian management, water quality, and livestock grazing used in the same sentence can warm up a room with heated discussion. John Buckhouse has spent a lifetime contending for the Radical Middle, where people recognize that land conditions that are good for fish are also good for cattle. He has effectively advocated for and led collaborative resource management, published reams of research on the most critical and controversial topics in natural resources policy and management, and has loved people well. In this two-part interview, John reflects on these developments and work that remains to be done.

"We have to think of beavers as our friend instead of our foe; for these watersheds to be healthy, you need beaver.” Rancher Jay Wilde experienced a paradigm shift some years ago that convinced him beavers were necessary to hold more water higher in the watershed for longer and that this hydrologic change would benefit a cattle operation in numerous ways. He acted on this conviction with some expert help and it is a classic win-win scenario: cows have water, the larger riparian area grows more forage, fish populations increased dramatically, and beavers create the habitat that feeds them. Listen to Jay's story and check out the excellent video on this project at the link on the episode webpage, https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-144-jay-wilde-idaho-rancher-builds-beaver-habitat-restore-stockwater.

Riparian management, water quality, and livestock grazing used in the same sentence can warm up a room with heated discussion. John Buckhouse has spent a lifetime contending for the Radical Middle, where people recognize that land conditions that are good for fish are also good for cattle. He has effectively advocated for and led collaborative resource management, published reams of research on the most critical and controversial topics in natural resources policy and management, and has loved people well. In this two-part interview, John reflects on these developments and work that remains to be done.

TRANSCRIPT AND LINKS AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-143-dr-john-buckhouse-half-century-progress-part-1

How do undergrazing and overgrazing affect soil carbon change? What does "optimal grazing" look like? This sequel episode with Paige Stanley goes deeper into the ways grazing factors affect the ecophysiology elements that are responsible for generating or release the various kinds of soil carbon. These changes remain difficult to quantify, but we can describe them. Listen in on this second interview from Dr. Stanley's review paper "Ruminating on soil carbon: Applying current understanding to inform grazing management."

Transcript and links are available at the episode page: https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-142-understanding-grazing-effects-soil-carbon-sequel-dr-paige-stanley.

"The fields of rangeland and wildlife management are brothers in the same fight for the conservation, protection, and management of wildlife and one cannot be completely understood without knowledge of the other." --Paul Krausman. This quote from the foreword of a new edited volume on wildlife ecology highlights the integrated nature of rangeland science. Listen to Drs. Lance McNew and Jeff Beck describe what's in this Springer-published comprehensive guide to what we know about rangeland wildlife, from mice to mule deer, sparrows to sage grouse. Wildlife species require habitat, and habitat management requires broad understanding and thinking. Take a look at this book.

Transcript and links mentioned in this episode are at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-141-new-rangeland-wildlife-ecology-conservation-reference-manual-lance-mcnew-jeff-beck.

Meet Mark and Wendy Pratt, ordinary people doing unglamorous work with extraordinary care. C.S. Lewis said "we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is frustrating . . . to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch." We are quick to praise teachers and medical professionals like nurses because their work involves mundane faithfulness to work that is good for society and they are largely unthanked. Ranchers doing the daily work of caring for the living skin of the earth, work that involves wildlife habitat conservation, food production, open space protection, and much more, are sometimes treated worse than the tin can in the ditch -- at least the can is unnoticed -- ranchers are often vilified. We could begin by judging this group of people by their best representatives instead of their worst. I hope you will share my enjoyment of Mark & Wendy by listening to them describe their care for all creatures great and small and the land that supports us all.

TRANSCRIPT AND LINKS AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-140-unsung-caretakers-unseen-land-mark-wendy-pratt-idaho-ranchers

Forage on semi-arid rangelands is finite but variable across space and over time. And grazing decisions start with balancing animal forage demand with forage supply, a significant challenge in vast and varied landscapes. In this episode, Matt Reeves, Sonia Hall, and Tip discuss StockSmart, the new free, online decision support tool just launched that accesses remotely sensed forage production data and allows the user to easily define what forage is accessible to their livestock based on fences, watering locations, the type of terrain their livestock will traverse and other parameters. Check out the future of grazing decision-making today at https://www.stock-smart.com/.

Transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-139-stocksmart-sustainable-grazing-starts-good-forage-production-data.

The Bruneau Owyhee Sage Grouse Habitat (BOSH) project is a collaborative partnership of state and federal agencies, wildlife advocacy groups, and private landowners to restore native upland landscapes in Southwest Idaho to a more natural condition benefitting sage grouse, songbirds, antelope, spotted frogs and other wildlife. Conifer encroachment is now recognized as the second most significant threat to sage grouse populations in the Western U.S., second only to invasive grasses like cheatgrass. The partnership has mobilized money and people to control juniper on more acres than have ever been treated in contiguous pieces. In this first episode based on the Idaho Life on the Range series, project partners discuss the genesis of the project, science behind sage grouse habitat enhancement, and possible future activities.

Guests in the this episode are:

Steve Stuebner, writer and producer of Life on the Range, a public education project sponsored by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission.

Connor White, project manager for Pheasants Forever, based in Boise.

Jeremy Maestas, National Sagebrush Ecosystem Specialist, USDA-NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife, out of Bend, Oregon.

Visit the BOSH Project episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-138-bosh-project-restores-sagebrush-sea-grand-scale-maestas-white-stuebner to access the transcript of this interview, watch the documentary video, and read other reports of this effort.

Thank you for your patience as we shift funding sources and work into a slightly different approach to content. This brief piece describes these changes and previews upcoming episodes.

Dr. Nathan Sayre has written a delightful book on the origins and history of rangelands science, public ownership, agency management, and grazing philosophy in the United States. Join Tip and Nathan as they discuss his background building fence on ranches on the Southwest, his pathway to the sociology of rangelands, and then surprising findings in Sayre’s book research. Finally, they visit about recommendations for modern range management.

Transcript and links at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-136-politics-scale-history-rangeland-science-nathan-sayre-re-release