Benefits of Livestock Grazing for Mitigation and Conservation of Endangered Species

Grazing management uses ungulates to achieve desired ecological, social, and economic outcomes. It is the least costly and, in some ways, the most flexible tool for managing conservation and mitigation grasslands. Grazing can be used to manipulate plant community structure, decrease fuel loads, control invasive species, and enhance species diversity. Grazing management relies on information from ecological sites as well as traditional knowledge and personal experience.
Although the relationship between livestock grazing and mitigation and ecosystem service banking is difficult to quantify, the prevailing attitude is that livestock grazing, if managed properly, can play an important role in mitigation conservation. Grazing controls the mass and height of non-native herbaceous vegetation, which is essential for the habitat maintenance on California mitigation banks; banks that are hosts to threatened and endangered species. Many of California’s Mediterranean-type grasslands are recognized among the world’s “hot spots” of native biodiversity, despite being generally dominated by non-natives. Because livestock grazing (primarily by cattle) can effectively reduce the biomass, height, and thatch accumulation produced by non-native plants, it has become an essential tool in managing California’s mitigation grasslands. Grazing also reduces catastrophic wildfire risks by altering wildfire behavior. Proper grazing management can improve soil health, carbon sequestration and water retention; enhancing ecosystem services.
When left unmanaged, mitigation grasslands are encroached by non-native species which degrade habitat conditions for a multitude of native plants and animals. As appreciation of this paradox and how it came to be, can help conservation biologists, mitigation managers and ranchers communicate more clearly on the how-to best manage grasslands for conservation. Grazing plan development that includes both the mitigation managers along with livestock grazers can result in enhanced ecosystem services and habitat health for endangered species.