Conventional grazing, which tends to overuse favored pastureland, depletes forage growth and degrades overall rangeland health - which is detrimental to profitable ranching and wildlife diversity. Integrated management redeems rangeland, so that both cattle and wildlife, for example, can use it from late spring through fall. Effective weed management requires good timing and a mix of tools such as fire, timed grazing, and selective herbicides. Co-ordinated grazing maximizes rangeland utility by using local ecological strengths to increase and extend the period of forage quality. Multi-purpose, rangeland hill ponds provide stock and wildlife watering sites, catch storm runoff and capture sediment so that it stays on site.
Ponds encourage slow percolation of storm water, recharging the local water table and streambeds.
In short, by understanding what has going wrong, ranchers can look to their pastureland as both available resource and long-term asset. Yolo County Resource Conservation District.