Private Ranchland Research Articles

Private land conservation towards large landscape goals: Role of relational values, property rights orientations and perceived efficacy in ranchers' actions

Abstract Many of the world's iconic, endangered and endemic species rely on large, contiguous landscapes for their survival. In the US West, working ranches are integral to large landscape conservation goals and there are numerous influences on ranchers' conservation actions, including their relational values, perceived self‐efficacy and property rights concerns. Using survey data from 681 ranchers in eastern Idaho and western Montana, we sought to answer the question: How do relational values, property rights orientations, perceived efficacy and public lands dependence affect reported conservation actions on private ranch lands? Conservation adoption varied widely by action, with invasive plant removal having the highest (92%) and conifer removal the lowest (21%) rates of adoption. Conservation adoption was higher among ranchers who believe they are responsible for conserving nature, believe their land should be used to provide environmental benefits to the region, have higher perceived self‐efficacy, lower property rights concerns and higher incomes. Programmes encouraging the adoption of conservation on private lands could benefit from message framing that resonates with the worldviews of landowners and land managers. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Spatial capture-recapture and LiDAR-derived vegetation metrics reveal high densities of ocelots on Texas ranchlands

Reliable estimates of population density and size are crucial to wildlife conservation, particularly in the context of the Endangered Species Act. In the United States, ocelots (Leopardus pardalis pardalis) were listed as endangered in 1982, and to date, only one population density estimate has been reported in Texas. In this study, we integrated vegetation metrics derived from LiDAR and spatial capture-recapture models to discern factors of ocelot encounter rates and estimated localized population estimates on private ranchlands in coastal southern Texas. From September 2020 to May 2021, we conducted a camera trap study across 42 camera stations on the East Foundation’s El Sauz Ranch, which was positioned within a larger region of highly suitable woody and herbaceous cover for ocelots. We observed a high density of ocelots (17.6 ocelots/100 km2) and a population size of 36.3 ocelots (95% CI: 26.1–58.6) with the 206.25 km2 state space area of habitat. The encounter probability of ocelots increased with greater canopy cover at 1-2 m height and decreasing proximity to woody cover. These results suggest that the incorporation of LiDAR-derived vegetative canopy metrics allowed us to understand where ocelots are likely to be detected, which may aid in current and future population monitoring efforts. These population estimates reflect the first spatially explicit and most recent estimates in a portion of the northernmost population of ocelots in southern Texas. This study further demonstrates the importance of private working lands for the recovery of ocelots in Texas.

Elk migration influences the risk of disease spillover in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Wildlife migrations provide important ecosystem services, but they are declining. Within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), some elk Cervus canadensis herds are losing migratory tendencies, which may increase spatiotemporal overlap between elk and livestock (domestic bison Bison bison and cattle Bos taurus), potentially exacerbating pathogen transmission risk.We combined disease, movement, demographic and environmental data from eight elk herds in the GYE to examine the differential risk of brucellosis transmission (through aborted foetuses) from migrant and resident elk to livestock.For both migrants and residents, we found that transmission risk from elk to livestock occurred almost exclusively on private ranchlands as opposed to state or federal grazing allotments. Weather variability affected the estimated distribution of spillover risk from migrant elk to livestock, with a 7%–12% increase in migrant abortions on private ranchlands during years with heavier snowfall. In contrast, weather variability did not affect spillover risk from resident elk.Migrant elk were responsible for the majority (68%) of disease spillover risk to livestock because they occurred in greater numbers than resident elk. On a per‐capita basis, however, our analyses suggested that resident elk disproportionately contributed to spillover risk. In five of seven herds, we estimated that the per‐capita spillover risk was greater from residents than from migrants. Averaged across herds, an individual resident elk was 23% more likely than an individual migrant elk to abort on private ranchlands.Our results demonstrate links between migration behaviour, spillover risk and environmental variability, and highlight the utility of integrating models of pathogen transmission and host movement to generate new insights about the role of migration in disease spillover risk. Furthermore, they add to the accumulating body of evidence across taxa that suggests that migrants and residents should be considered separately during investigations of wildlife disease ecology. Finally, our findings have applied implications for elk and brucellosis in the GYE. They suggest that managers should prioritize actions that maintain spatial separation of elk and livestock on private ranchlands during years when snowpack persists into the risk period.

A small protected area facilitates persistence of a large carnivore in a ranching landscape

Assessments of the role that small (<500 km2) protected areas play in conservation of large carnivores in landscapes where the species are persecuted are scarce. Using camera-trap sampling we estimated puma (Puma concolor) population abundance, site use intensity, and relative abundance of prey in Lihué Calel National Park (320 km2) and two neighboring livestock ranches in central Argentina. We concurrently assessed rancher attitudes towards puma in relation to livestock predation by this carnivore and retaliation by ranchers in the ranching landscape surrounding the protected area. At least 3–8 adult pumas were recorded within the park while no individuals were detected on private ranchland. Site abundance within the park was positively related to the distance from the park boundary. The overall prey base inside and outside the park was similar. Sixteen out of 17 ranchers reported livestock losses due to puma predation and 76% of ranchers employed lethal control of carnivores to avoid livestock losses, resulting in 16 pumas killed during 2007–2009 in the surveyed ranches. The avoidance by pumas of the park´s border, the absence of puma detections on ranches, the similar prey availability inside and outside the park, and the positive association between rancher’s negative perceptions and persecution of pumas suggests that puma occurrence is depressed in ranchlands as a result of human-induced mortality. Our results demonstrate how small protected areas can play a role in maintaining large carnivores within productive landscapes despite harsh persecution. We emphasize the positive role of ranches that do not persecute pumas and the need to facilitate the coexistence between puma and people for the long term conservation of this felid in ranching landscapes.

Chronic wasting disease undermines efforts to control the spread of brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Wildlife diseases pose a substantial threat to the provisioning of ecosystem services. We use a novel modeling approach to study the potential loss of these services through the imminent introduction of chronic wasting disease (CWD) to elk populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). A specific concern is that concentrating elk at feedgrounds may exacerbate the spread of CWD, whereas eliminating feedgrounds may increase the number of elk on private ranchlands and the transmission of a second disease, brucellosis, from elk to cattle. To evaluate the consequences of management strategies given the threat of two concurrent wildlife diseases, we develop a spatiotemporal bioeconomic model. GPS data from elk and landscape attributes are used to predict migratory behavior and population densities with and without supplementary feeding. We use a 4,800km2 area around Pinedale, Wyoming containing four existing feedgrounds as a case study. For this area, we simulate welfare estimates under a variety of management strategies. Our results indicate that continuing to feed elk could result in substantial welfare losses for the case-study region. Therefore, to maximize the present value of economic net benefits generated by the local elk population upon CWD's arrival in the region, wildlife managers may wish to consider discontinuing elk feedgrounds while simultaneously developing new methods to mitigate the financial impact to ranchers of possible brucellosis transmission to livestock. More generally, our methods can be used to weigh the costs and benefits of human-wildlife interactions in the presence of multiple disease risks.

Space use and movement of jaguar (Panthera onca) in western Paraguay

Abstract Home range and core area size were estimated for jaguar (Panthera onca) in western Paraguay in the Dry Chaco, Humid Chaco and Pantanal using an autocorrelated kernel density estimator. Mean home range size was 818 km2 (95% confidence interval: 425–1981) in the Dry Chaco and 237 km2 (95% confidence interval: 90–427) in the Humid Chaco/Pantanal. Core areas, defined as the home range area where use was equal to expected use, was consistent across sexes and systems represented on average by the 59% home range isopleth (range: 56–64%). Males had a higher probability of larger home ranges and more directional and greater daily movements than females collectively and within systems. The large home ranges in the Dry Chaco are attributable to the relatively low productivity of that semi-arid ecosystem and high heterogeneity in resource distribution while larger than expected home ranges in the Humid Chaco/Pantanal compared to home range estimates from the Brazilian Pantanal may be due to differences in geomorphology and hydrological cycle. The large home ranges of jaguars in western Paraguay and a low proportional area of protected areas in the region demonstrate the importance of private ranchland for the long-term conservation of the species.

Tracking data from nine free-roaming Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) collared in the Thabazimbi area, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

BackgroundIn partnership with the University of Pretoria, the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Carnivore Conservation Programme collared six male and three female free-roaming Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in the Thabazimbi area in Limpopo Province, South Africa. This study was undertaken to determine the spatial ecology of free-roaming Cheetahs that occur outside of formal protected areas on private ranchland, where they frequently come into conflict with, and are sometimes killed by, private landowners. The data were collected between September 2003 and November 2008, resulting in a total of 3165 location points (65 points from VHF collars and 3100 from GPS collars) for nine individual Cheetahs.New informationThis dataset provides distribution information about this Vulnerable species occurring outside of protected areas within South Africa. The dataset has been published to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.GBIF.org) and provides the largest dataset on Cheetahs thus far, and, although it is spatially limited to a relatively small region on the African continent, it is the first study of its kind within South Africa. Also of significance is that the fate of 6 of the 9 collared Cheetahs is known, all except one of which died of anthropogenic causes.

Laura Snell: Studying the wild horses of northeastern California

Research news Laura Snell: Studying the wild horses of northeastern California UCCE Modoc County advisor Laura Snell and USFS rangeland management specialist Jenny Jayo mount a wildlife monitoring camera at Bottle Springs, a water source in Modoc National Forest. Through 2006, the Devil’s Garden horse popula- tion had long been stabilized at a few hundred adults through regular roundups, called gathers, which re- moved horses from the range every year or two. Since then, a combination of legal challenges to federal wild horse management plans and difficulty securing funding stopped large gathers. That allowed the population to balloon, with horses stressing grazing allotments on USFS land and straying onto private and tribal lands. As the horse herds and their impacts on range- lands have grown, it has ratcheted up tensions among ranchers, wild horse advocates, hunters, recreational users and local officials — and the federal land man- agers charged with adjudicating the use of the Devil’s Garden rangelands. “This is the most controversial research I’ve ever been involved in,” said livestock and natu- ral resources advisor Laura Snell, who joined UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in 2015. “I had Modoc County ranchers coming up to me on my second day of work asking me how to solve the wild horse issue.” In partnership with USFS range management specialists, UCCE Lassen County director David Lile and UC Davis–based UCCE specialist Roger Baldwin, Snell is collecting new photographic data on a key area of dispute in the wild horses debate: the impact horses have on rangeland vegetation and soils, espe- cially around water sources, and on other wildlife. “We can’t just take vegetation data, we need the vi- suals to show people what’s going on,” she said. The study, begun in 2015 and scheduled to con- tinue at least through 2017, uses wildlife cameras placed for two-week periods at 24 remote water http://calag.ucanr.edu • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2016 175 Will Suckow T his September, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), in partnership with Modoc County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), conducted the first major roundup of wild horses on Devil’s Garden Plateau since 2006. The state’s largest population of wild horses is found here, on a high-desert expanse of Modoc National Forest surrounded by private ranchland and tribal lands. A survey in February estimated 2,246 horses here, far above the target of 206 to 402 adult wild horses established by the 2013 management plan for the 230,000 acres of designated wild horse territory on the plateau.

The Role of Community Identity in Cattlemen Response to Florida Panther Recovery Efforts

ABSTRACTThe concept of community identity has often been employed to explain ways in which communities respond to agents that impact community well-being. Using a case study of the Florida cattlemen community, we examine how cattlemen understand and perceive regulatory efforts to recover the Florida panther on private ranch lands. The data comes from participants in the Florida cattlemen community, and was collected through in-depth interviews (n = 13), group interviews (n = 32), and written comments associated with a survey about panther conservation (n = 78). Our findings indicate that some cattlemen in Florida have a strong sense of community identity. Perceptions of government actions and variation in economic risks are critical factors in understanding how this community responds to federal interventions. Our findings suggest that the concept of community identity can be used to explain the responses of agricultural landowners to governmental policies that are perceived as a threat to collective identity.

The difference conservation makes to extinction risk of the world's ungulates.

Previous studies show that conservation actions have prevented extinctions, recovered populations, and reduced declining trends in global biodiversity. However, all studies to date have substantially underestimated the difference conservation action makes because they failed to account fully for what would have happened in the absence thereof. We undertook a scenario-based thought experiment to better quantify the effect conservation actions have had on the extinction risk of the world's 235 recognized ungulate species. We did so by comparing species' observed conservation status in 2008 with their estimated status under counterfactual scenarios in which conservation efforts ceased in 1996. We estimated that without conservation at least 148 species would have deteriorated by one International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List category, including 6 species that now would be listed as extinct or extinct in the wild. The overall decline in the conservation status of ungulates would have been nearly 8 times worse than observed. This trend would have been greater still if not for conservation on private lands. While some species have benefited from highly targeted interventions, such as reintroduction, most benefited collaterally from conservation such as habitat protection. We found that the difference conservation action makes to the conservation status of the world's ungulate species is likely to be higher than previously estimated. Increased, and sustained, investment could help achieve further improvements.

Overcoming barriers to understanding the biodiversity contribution of private ranchlands

Overcoming barriers to understanding the biodiversity contribution of private ranchlands

Long-term data at Research and Extension Centers to fuel new informatics program

Long-term data at Research and Extension Centers to fuel new informatics program

Conservation Outcomes and Social Relations: A Comparative Study of Private Ranchland Conservation Easements

Conservation easements have increased dramatically but their social and ecological outcomes are largely unknown. To examine the influence of social relations and institutional structure on easement design and conservation outcomes, we compared two regions where land trusts hold conservation easements protecting large areas of private rangeland: Lassen Foothills, California, and Malpai Borderlands, Arizona and New Mexico. We conducted interviews with landowners, land trust staff, and public agency employees, and analyzed easement documents and monitoring reports. Social relations and organization goals influenced easement terms and their direct effects on land use. Furthermore, easements had important indirect conservation-relevant outcomes resulting from increased land management resources, financial incentives, and altered relations among landowners, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Easements entail a combination of collaborative and regulatory approaches, and their embedded social relations are important for conservation outcome assessment. These findings have significant implications for how conservation programs are designed, monitored, enforced, and evaluated.

Changes in Elk Resource Selection and Distributions Associated With a Late‐Season Elk Hunt

ABSTRACT Changes in resource selection associated with human predation risk may alter elk distributions and availability for harvest. We used Global Positioning System data collected from telemetered female elk (Cervus elaphus) to evaluate effects of refuges (areas where hunting was prohibited), spatial variation in hunting risk, and landscape attributes on resource selection within an established Greater Yellowstone Area, USA, winter range. We also evaluated elk distributions during and outside of a late‐season hunting period. Refuge areas and landscape attributes such as habitat type and snow water equivalents (SWE) affected resource selection. Elk selection for flat grasslands increased as SWE increased, likely because these areas were windswept, leaving grasses exposed for foraging. Elk distributions differed during hunting and no‐hunting periods. During the hunting period, elk shifted to privately owned refuge areas and the estimated odds of elk occupying refuge areas more than doubled. Risk‐driven changes in resource selection resulted in reduced availability of elk for harvest. Elk selection for areas where hunting is prohibited presents a challenge for resource managers that use hunting as a tool for managing populations and influences grazing patterns on private ranchlands.

Private Ranchlands and Public Land Grazing in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Why the private land matters when we think about public lands grazing

Why the private land matters when we think about public lands grazing. DOI:10.2458/azu_rangelands_v29i3_talbert

Private Ranchlands and Public Land Grazing in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Why the private land matters when we think about public lands grazing

Private Ranchlands and Public Land Grazing in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Why the private land matters when we think about public lands grazing

Out of administrative control: Absentee owners, resident elk and the shifting nature of wildlife management in southwestern Montana

This paper describes the historical roots of an ongoing wildlife management dilemma involving decreasing opportunities for elk management via public hunting on private land in the context of an expanding elk presence on private land in southwest Montana. Our main focus is on the role of private ranchland in elk ecology, and the ability of land owners to set elk migration in new directions through cumulative decisions about hunting and tolerating elk. This takes elk management, traditionally the purview of the state, out of administrative control. We document connections between the region’s historical and emerging land tenure patterns, and analyze associated changes in hunter access. Elk numbers expanded rapidly in the Upper Yellowstone Valley at a moment of significant transition in ranchland tenure. New owners more interested in natural amenities than in livestock production encouraged the elk and discouraged hunting. This reinforced the spread of elk, and further weakened the ability of the state and other ranchers to manage elk (which interfere with livestock production in numerous ways). Though elk and cattle use the landscape in similar ways, elk became more effective agents of landscape change in a reflexive relationship with ideas of land that stress natural amenities over production.

Extirpating the Agriculture versus Conservation Dichotomy

Private ranch and farm lands are disappearing at an alarming rate (Heimlich & Anderson 2001) in developed countries. In the United States, more than 12 million ha were converted to exurban developments in the 1990s (Theobald 2001). Private lands cover 72% of the U.S. land surface, contain biodiversity at levels often comparable to or above protected areas (Maestas et al. 2003), contain 60% of threatened and endangered species exclusively, and possess habitat for nearly 95% of all threatened and endangered species (Wilcove et al. 1996). With only 6% of the contiguous United States held in nature reserves (Scott et al. 2001), what ecosystem services and biodiversity will remain, given the sprawling and consumptive nature of humans? This crisis exemplifies the dire need to reroute our direction and perspective toward conservation. Privatelands conservation has been recognized as one of the most important challenges for conservation (Knight 1999; Freyfogle 2003). Despite innovative progress toward holistic integration of agriculture and conservation (Banks 2004), scientists and practitioners have largely failed to embrace the future of partnership-based and private lands conservation. Four main factors may affect partnership-based conservation: public opposition and fear, negative prior experiences, lack of support from agency/institution superiors, and government policies (Yaffee 1998). One major problem driving the first three factors is the social dichotomy between agriculture and conservation. Both groups generally are assumed to hold opposing viewpoints involving land uses and biodiversity conservation, despite a common ecological heritage, polarizing agriculturalists and conservationists (Banks 2004). Our current conservation era is transitioning from limiting losses due to agricultural practices toward limiting losses due to urban sprawl. This transition is the new fron-

The Cost Efficiency of Wild Dog Conservation in South Africa

Abstract: Aside from Kruger National Park, no other suitable reserves of sufficient size exist in South Africa that will hold a viable population of wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). Consequently, conservation efforts have been focused on creating a metapopulation through a series of wild dog reintroductions into isolated fenced reserves. Additional potential exists for conserving wild dogs on private ranch land. Establishing the metapopulation was an expensive process, accounting for approximately 75% of the US$380,000 spent on wild dog conservation in South Africa during 1997‐2001. The principal goal of the metapopulation project was to reduce the risk of catastrophic population decline. Now that this has been achieved, we developed a uniform cost‐efficiency index to estimate the cost efficiency of current and potential future conservation strategies in South Africa. Conserving wild dogs in large protected areas was predicted to be the most cost‐efficient conservation strategy (449 packs/$100,000 expenditure). Establishing the metapopulation has been less cost efficient (23 packs/$100,000), and expansion of the metapopulation was predicted to be even less cost efficient if predation by wild dogs results in additional costs, as is to be expected if private reserves are used for reintroductions (3‐13 packs/$100,000). Because of low logistical costs, conserving wild dogs in situ on private ranch land was potentially more cost efficient than reintroducing wild dogs (14‐27 packs/$100,000). We recommend that donor funding be used to reintroduce wild dogs into transfrontier parks, when they are established, to maintain the existing metapopulation and to establish conservation programs involving wild dogs on private ranch land. Investing in the expansion of the metapopulation should be limited to state‐owned nature reserves willing to carry predation costs without compensation.

Effects of grazing practices and fossorial rodents on a winter avian community in Chihuahua, Mexico

Chihuahuan Desert grasslands are important wintering grounds for grassland and shrub-adapted birds. Many species belonging to these assemblages are currently exhibiting population declines. One area recognized for its importance to biological diversity, including grassland birds, is the Janos-Nuevo Casas Grandes black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus) complex in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico, an area containing 58 colonies with 30,000 ha of prairie dogs. This is one of the largest remaining prairie dog complexes and the only intact complex in the Chihuahuan Desert. In its current condition, a large percentage of this complex is of reduced value to wildlife. Overgrazing on communal (ejido) lands has resulted in areas being comprised of annual grasses and forbs. The density of active prairie dog burrows and banner-tailed kangaroo rat ( Dipodomys spectabilis) mounds as well as avian diversity and abundance were lower on ejido lands than an adjacent private ranchland with and without prairie dogs. Few avian species used overgrazed portions of the prairie dog colony. Community similarity among plot types was low due to different management practices and differences on and off colony. To retain, and in many instances restore the biological diversity of this important region it is essential to work with local ejidos on grazing management.