Neil R. Rimbey

Sharing the Rangelands, Competing for Sense of Place:

The rural-urban interface in southwestern Idaho has experienced rapid population growth since 1990. That burgeoning population sits on the frontier of more than 3.5 million acres of open space—public rangelands in Owyhee County—managed for multiple use by the Bureau of Land Management. The remote areas of Owyhee County have long-standing ranching operations as their social structure and basis for community, but recreational use continues to increase from the adjacent metropolitan population. The related changing social landscape and environmental impacts affect sense of place for many. This analysis uses qualitative and quantitative data to analyze relationships and impacts associated with the emergence of sense of place among different groups for the same region and concludes multiple groups claiming a sense of place to the same general locations can affect traditional community structures at the same time a competing sense of place may foster expanded and more diverse social interactions.

Comparison of forage value on private and public grazing leases

Federal land grazing fees have been set by a formula that uses a base rate developed from a 1966 study comparing total grazing costs on private and public lands. A similar market comparison was recently conducted in Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Total grazing costs were adhered through personal interviews from 258 ranchers using 245 public grazing permits and 149 private leases. Public land grazing permit values were also estimated in each state. This study demonstrated that many public land ranchers have been willing to pay more for grazing than the apparent value implied from the private forage market. With the 1992 grazing fee of

Grazing Distribution: The Quest for the Silver Bullet

1.92/animal unit month (AUM), 34% of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cattle producers, 62% of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) cattle producers, 60% of BLM sheep producers and 92% of USFS sheep producers paid more for grazing public lands than did those grazing privately leased lands. Estimated forage values averaged

Economic implications of off-stream water developments to improve riparian grazing

3.63/AUM for cattle grazing BLM land, and were negative for cattle using USFS lands and for sheep using both BLM and USFS allotments. Using a 3.35% interest rate to amortize permit value, the annual value of public land forage was estimated to be from

Economic Risks of Cheatgrass Invasion on a Simulated Eastern Oregon Ranch

3 to

Offstream water and trace mineral salt as management strategies for improved cattle distribution.

5/AUM. Doubts were cast about the standard assumptions that ranchers have profit maximization as their primary goal, that permit value measures only excess forage value, and that sufficient private leases are available for a valid comparison between private and public forage markets.

Income Earning Potential versus Consumptive Amenities in Determining Ranchland Values

ince the beginning of the range management pro-fession, distribution of livestock on rangelands has been one of many challenges. Much of the informa-tion on different livestock distribution practices has come from anecdotal evidence and case studies. Whereas the early focus was on distributing livestock evenly across a pasture, the more recent focus has been to keep livestock out of riparian areas. We have examined the effectiveness of several different distribution practices. It has become appar-ent that the effectiveness depends upon the ranching system to which it will be applied as to whether it is both eco-logically and economically practical. For this reason, we have developed a model of an eastern Oregon ranching system to test the effect of each practice. We will discuss the model ranch and demonstrate how it is used to evaluate livestock distribution practices and show how the model can be applied to a region in terms of economic impacts and job creation.The grazing distribution practices examined included off-stream water developments with trace mineralized salt, herding, early weaning, altering the season of use, fencing, and strategic supplementation. Northeast Oregon is charac-terized by mixed conifer forests in the mountains and valleys that are mostly cropped. The mountains have numerous riparian areas associated with a mixture of dry and wet meadows (Figs. 1 and 2). Seasonal grazing is tradi tionally practiced on a combination of deeded and federal land.

Valuing grazing use on public land

Livestock grazing in riparian areas is an important management issue on both private and public lands. A study was initiated in northeastern Oregon to evaluate the economic and ecological impacts of different cattle management practices on riparian areas. The effect of off-stream water and salt on livestock distribution and subsequent impact on riparian use, water quality, and livestock production was evaluated. A multi-period bioeconomic linear programming model is used to evaluate the long-term economic feasibility of this management practice with a riparian utilization restriction of 35% for a 300 cow-calf operation. The utilization restriction resulted in economically optimal herd sizes 10% smaller than the baseline herd size. With the management practice, cattle were distributed more evenly, consumed more upland forage before maximum riparian utilization was reached, and gained more weight. The economic impacts of these outcomes were increased with expected annual net returns to the ranch for the project ranging between

THE LACK OF A PROFIT MOTIVE FOR RANCHING: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

4,500 and

Why Grazing Permits Have Economic Value

11,000 depending on cattle prices and precipitation levels. Properly functioning riparian systems are vital to the health of watersheds and provide an important forage and habitat resource for livestock and wildlife. Recent concerns about water quality and wildlife and fisheries habitat have focused attention on livestock management practices occurring within these areas. The impacts of livestock on riparian systems have been identified (Kauffman and Krueger 1984) and specialized management strategies such as rest rotation, late season grazing and riparian corridor fencing have been developed. However, economic assessments of these management alternatives are often lacking (Skovlin 1984, Armour et al. 1991). When economic analyses are undertaken, projects are often found to not be economically justified (Nielsen 1984, Workman 1986). There is a critical need at this time for economically feasible riparian grazing management strategies that achieve environmental goals. Bioeconomic models are one method that can be used for evaluating management options. They can combine biological Financial support was provided by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension (SARE) program and the Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute, La Grande, Ore. Oregon State University Extension and Experiment Station Technical Paper Number 11958. Manuscript accepted 16 Nov. 02. Resumen El apacentamiento de ganado en areas riberenas es un importante problema de manejo en terrenos publicos y privados. Se inicio un estudio en el noreste de Oregon para evaluar los impactos economicos y economcos de diferentes practicas de manejo de ganado en areas riberenas. Se evaluo el efecto de la disponibilidad de agua y sal lejos de la corriente en la distribucion del ganado y los impactos subsecuentes en el use del area riberena, la calidad del agua y la produccion del ganado. Se use un modelo de programacion lineal de multiperiodos bioeconomicos para evaluar la factibilidad economica a largo plazo de esta practica de manejo con una restriccion de utilizacion del area riberena del 35 % para una operacion de 300 pares de vacabecerro. La restriccion de utilizacion resulto en tamanos de hato economicamente optimos 10% menores que el tamano base del hato. Con la practica de manejo el ganado se distribuyo mas uniformemente y consumio mas forraje de las areas tierras arriba antes de alcanzar la maxima utilizacion del area riberena y gang mas peso. Los impactos economicos de estos resultados fueron incrementos del retorno neto anual esperado del rancho en un rango de