The Art of Range Podcast

The North Complex Fire of 2020 was estimated to produce more carbon dioxide and pollutants in one week than all of the cars in California in one year. That fire was in the list of 5 biggest fires in state history until it got surpassed by the August Complex Fire the same year. But it remains one of the deadliest, with 15 human deaths. This fire also burned to death hundreds of cows and calves, and that toll should not be forgotten. We can have theoretical and scientific discussions about how much wild fire to allow, how much prescribed fire to initiate, and how much forest to thin, but these discussion must consider the high psychological and human costs of large, catastrophic wildfires. Dave Daley knows this in a way most of us will never experience, and he hopes no one else does. This story covers ranch history, fire history, massive plant community shifts, horrific cattle deaths, and the impact of large wildfire on Dave's family.

Transcript and links at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-125-human-costs-catastrophic-wildfire-dave-daley

Jim Gerrish is in the top 10 names known to ranchers in grazing management. His career, both as a researcher and as a rancher, spans animal nutrition, plant and community physiology, East and West, irrigated and dryland, rhizomatous and caespitose. Our conversation covers all of that as well as livestock industry history, the decline in sheep production in the early 20th century, and rules of thumb for grazing and grazing economics. Listen in on a wide-ranging conversation about grazing principles across the U.S.

TRANSCRIPT AND RESOURCES MENTIONED AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-124-jim-gerrish-50-years-grazing-science.

Listen to Jay Smith, a rancher in Idaho, and Joel Yelich, a University of Idaho researcher, describe their experience managing cattle on a 100,000 acre U.S. Forest Service grazing permit that had burned the year before. Jay was able to keep grazing the permit because virtual fence allowed him to keep cattle off the burn footprint without putting up barbed wire or hotwire. Most rangeland grazing problems are related to animal distribution, and wireless fence may prove to be a game-changing distribution technology, almost a back-to-the-future approach to managing livestock distribution on large landscapes, places where physical fence is not feasible or advisable anymore. Virtual fence can enable effective herding on land with challenging topography and vegetation.

This episode is sponsored by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission and Life on the Range: https://idrange.org/life-on-the-range/.

Transcript and links at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-123-virtual-fence-action-wild-open-spaces-idaho-jay-smith-joel-yelich.

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Are you optimistic about 2024? This brief non-interview provides an overview of upcoming content on The Art of Range and an invitation to become a more active listener. Thanks so much for listening. And I'm optimistic, by the way.

Should we keep the farm? Can we afford to keep farming and ranching? How do conservation easements work? How much could an easement help? What do I have to give up? Food production is important (No Farms, No Food, No Future), but it has to pay enough to support a family in order to persist. Addie Candib is American Farmland Trust's Northwest director and is an advocate for local and regional land trusts. She walks through the legal and financial mechanisms involved in putting all or part of a ranch into a conservation easement and how that can benefit family businesses that are asset-rich and cash-poor. If that describes your operation, this episode is for you.

RESOURCES AND TRANSCRIPT AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-121-addie-candib-what-are-agricultural-land-trusts.

What if grazed wild, open spaces were actually open? Is barbed wire still useful? Can we afford it? Are there other ways to control livestock distribution today? Would other options be "better"? Fenceless control of livestock has been discussed for decades, and these technologies may mimic herding, which was practiced nearly everywhere, at least on large landscapes, up until the invention and adoption of barbed wire in the late 1800s. This interview discusses pros and cons of permanent wire fence, hoped-for benefits of virtual fence, varieties of virtual fence systems, and the many applications for the deliberate, targeted grazing made possible through virtual fence, and much more.

SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-120-could-virtual-fence-transform-rangeland-grazing-launchbaugh-deavila-pearson

Rangelands and people inevitably change. Managing that change involves people influencing people. The Society for Range Management's international annual meeting is the flagship ecological event of the year, bringing together ranchers, researchers, agency land managers, students, and other professionals from all over the world to share information and encourage one another. Dave Voth and Meghan Brown have worked hard to make this interaction productive and enjoyable. Listen in on this discussion about the content and goals for this meeting in the heart of American rangeland, Sparks, Nevada, including live interview plenary sessions to be broadcast live on The Art of Range. Don't miss this conversation and this important meeting!

TRANSCRIPT AND LINKS AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-119-change-range-2024-nevada-meghan-brown-dave-voth.

Can grazing be used to help ecosystem function or is 'do no harm' the best we can do? What is meant by the new buzzword "regenerative"? Graeme Hand has been teaching and practicing grazing decision-making for a long time and has championed the idea of experimentation at spatial scales at which failing is not fatal to the environment or a livelihood. Kevin Muno is a rancher in southern California trying these ideas out at the ranch scale. We discuss measuring success using Landscape Function Analysis, a system developed in Australia by CSIRO and similar to the NRCS rangeland health matrix.

TRANSCRIPT AND LINKS AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-118-safe-fail-experimentation-regenerative-grazing-graeme-hand-kevin-muno.

"Beef is what's for dinner; open space is what's for dessert." Rick Knight is a wildlife professor who has spent decades bridging ranchers and environmentalists (whatever that means now). His research has shown that private ranchlands are critical for wildlife and that grazing may be quite important for conservation of habitat values.

Transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-117-ranching-radical-middle-rick-knight-reloaded.

Anna Clare is a rangeland ecosystem scientist, systems thinker, synthesizer, and collaborative facilitator. This interview continues with one of the major themes of the SRM Ecosystem Services report introduced in episode 111 with Lauren Porensky and Jeff Goodwin -- human dimensions of ecosystems, including sociocultural valuations. The conversation spans ways of identifying and valuing intangible ecosystem services, the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment terminology for these concepts, using Q statistical methodology to identify commonalities in sociological data rather than differences, and the perspectives of ranchers on "Nature's Contributions to People." A rancher herself, she brings her unique skillset to natural resource and grazing management in both her for-profit company, Graze LLC, and non-profit organization, Rangeland Living Laboratory.

Transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode are at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-116-understanding-natures-contributions-people-anna-clare-monlezun.