Western ranching at the crossroads

Abstract

As we enter the 21st century, rangeland livestock grazing in the western United States confronts a highly uncertain and precarious future. Current challenges to western ranching include rapid urbanization, declining profitability, escalating concern over endangered species, uncertain knowledge of land use trends and land condition, noxious plant invasion, and growing environmental opposition to public land grazing. It is my hope that this article will result in better quantification of problems confronting western ranchers and stimulate more thinking on how they might be resolved.