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<br />..... <br />0) <br />0:> <br />CJ! <br /> <br />Within this framework a viable, well-managed grazing program on private, <br />state and federal lands is consistent with the goals of the Clean Water Act. <br /> <br />II. SCOPE <br /> <br />This strategy is applicable to management of rangelands in EPA Region <br />VIII and applies to improved non-irrigated perennial grassland as well as <br />native rangeland. Irrigated grazing lands are included as crop land in the <br />Agricultural Nonpoint Source Control Strategy developed earlier. (Copies of <br />that document are available from EPA Region VIII.) <br /> <br />Rangeland can be descY'ibed as land producing native forage for animal <br />consumption including land that has been revegetated naturally or artificially <br />to produce a plant cover that is managed like native vegetation. Plant cover <br />on these lands consists principally of grasses, grasslike plants, forbs and <br />shrubs. It includes natural grasslands, savannahs, and certain shrub and forb <br />lands and may be interspersed with scattered timber or woodlands. Except for <br />brush control, rangeland is managed primarily by regulating grazing and <br />protecting plant cover. Generally it is not cultivated, drained, irrigated or <br />mechanically harvested. <br /> <br />III. BACKGROUND <br /> <br />1. Historic perspecti ve <br /> <br />Domestic livestock were introduced to the southwestern United States by <br />the Spanish in the 16oo's and throughout the West with the coming of <br />settlement in the mid-1800's. The early settlers found the western rangelands <br />to be ideal, ready-made pasturage for their herds and flocks. Rangeland <br />vegetati on had evo lved under the foraging of wild herbi vores nati ve to the <br />region and was capable of withstanding a moderate amount of grazing. <br />Therefore, foraging by domestic livestock was not a new component in the <br />ecosystem, but heavy competitive grazing use over several decades, generally a <br />concentration of use for too long and often at the wrong season of each year, <br />did result in widespread deterioration of western rangeland in the late 1800's <br />and early 1900's (U.S. Senate Document No. 199, 1936; Council for Agricultural <br />Science and Technology, 1974). Basically, the prOblem was a general lack of <br />understanding of the physiological requirements of forage plants under arid <br />and semi-arid western conditions and the intensity of grazing that could be <br />tolerated before serious damage to the vegetation occurred. Rangeland forage <br />is a remarkable resource that grows back each year if range plants are not <br />subjected to continuing physiological stress. <br /> <br />- 2 - <br />