Current policy research includes case studies of successful collaboration between ranchers and environmentalists as well as the identification of obstacles to communication or impasses where complementary uses of rangelands are a problem. For the past 20 years, a graduate course in Range Economics has been offered by the Department, and for the past 18 years, economic investment analysis and financial assessment practices have been an integral part of the undergraduate capstone course, Range Analysis and Management Planning. In addition, economic and policy considerations are offered as guest lectures in several other graduate and undergraduate courses. Functional aspects of ecosystems remain constant across cultures and human uses. The ecological principles which explain deterioration in ecological state as a result of repeated overgrazing are the same in a primitive or sophisticated society.
Human goals are multidimensional, hierarchical, and dynamic.
Survival and security are dominant, but once assured, energy is devoted to achieving a more desirable lifestyle. Resource managers try to improve current standards of living, assure improvement in future standards of living, and minimize risk of severe losses. Linear programming solutions of optimal livestock enterprises and resulting net return under three restrictions of livestock. Prescribed burning, either alone, where possible, or in combination with a mechanical or chemical treatment, is the most cost-effective method of brush management. In South Texas, the best strategy for using prescribed burns on any given management unit is to burn every year you have an opportunity.