There is a common assumption that cows have a negative impact on rangeland.
Cows eat the grass, and the only way for the plants to recover is to take away the animals.
Some environmentally concerned people even want to remove all livestock from public lands. But the reality, as Allan Savory discovered, is that hoofed animals play a critical role in the health of arid rangeland ecology. There is a magical relationship between the soil and the hooves of grazing animals. In seasonal rainfall environments the land rapidly turns to deserts without animal impact. Historically western rangelands were grazed and maintained by massive herds of buffalo.