A look at the cattle connection: How ranching benefits the ecosystem

Image credit: luirig.altervista.org

“The public doesn’t always realize what ranchers are doing and how that benefits everyone,” says Bill Tietje, a natural resources specialist based in San Louis Obispo County. “No one really thinks about it…” he continues, “until it’s gone.”

Unknown to many, ranchers like Charles Crispin contribute more to the world than their clichéd livestock-churning fill. According to scientists, rangelands maintained by ranchers provide the following benefits to the ecosystem:

• Rangelands play a crucial role in water cycling. In California, 80 percent of the water flows through the rangeland.

Image credit: globalrangelands.org

• Studies show that rangelands managed by ranchers result to greater biodiversity. The diversity of plants and animals is found to be greater on grazed grasslands compared to unmanaged grasslands.

• Wild raptors hibernate on rangelands managed for beef cattle.

• Rangelands provide habitat to insects which are important in the process of cross-pollination. This results to a more robust and a more diverse "gene pool," enabling a particular species to be more adaptable to various environmental changes.

Image credit: newscenter.berkeley.edu

• Having cattle graze rangelands can greatly reduce the amount of dry grass that could serve as fuel to a wildfire.

• Managed rangelands are more efficacious in sequestering carbon molecules which may be wedged in soil particles.

Ranching is more than a business, and even more than a way of life—it is also one of the many ways by which man can help the ecosystem remain sustainable for the years to come.

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