Techniques for assessing the environmental outcomes of conservation practices applied to rangeland watersheds

During its first five years, Grazing Land CEAP established research and assessment efforts designed to estimate the effects and benefits of conservation practices through a combination of research, data collection, model development, and model application over a range of scales (i.e., pasture to watershed to river basin). Grazing Land CEAP has successfully developed hillslope scale soil erosion models for water and wind erosion, as well as approaches and methodologies to produce scientifically credible estimates of environmental benefits and impacts of conservation on grazing lands at the hillslope scale (RHEM) and watershed scale using the KINEROS, SWAT, and AGWA models. The next major steps for Grazing Land CEAP are as follows: Develop databases to accurately describe the distribution of plant communities across the west at a scale that we can measure the impact of conservation. Develop database to accurately describe the bio-physical attributes (i.e., plant canopy cover, ground cover, species, standing biomass) within each plant community (vegetation polygon). Develop database to document the type and placement of conservation practices across the landscape. Develop means of documenting additional conservation benefits, such as soil quality and the social and economic benefits of conservation.