Why Conservation Grazing?

For many years, grazing has been seen as incompatible with rare species conservation. While overgrazing can be quite detrimental to native species, habitat, and soils, prescribed grazing operations can be used as a restoration and management tool to support rare species and habitats.

We have been working with farmers and ranchers here in western Washington to better understand how grazing prescriptions can be used to manage invasive species, establish native plants, and create habitat for rare or endangered plants and animals. Click on each of the projects below to learn more about conservation grazing in Pacific Northwest prairies.

Based within the Chehalis watershed, this highly collaborative project is enhancing biodiversity of privately owned grasslands and improving economic resilience of local communities by:

1) enhancing native plant, pollinator and grassland bird diversity;

2) supporting and guiding small rancher businesses with opportunities for conservation grazing; and

3) generating conservation grazing prescriptions for ecological objectives based on ecological monitoring data

A Disappearing Landscape

In recent decades, populations of pollinators across the U.S. have been rapidly declining. These losses are impacting both the resilience of native plant communities and the productivity of neighboring agricultural lands. Similarly, North American grassland birds have shown the most severe decline, with 53% (700 million birds) disappearing in the last 50 years. These alarming declines have been attributed to a variety of causes, with habitat loss being the most notable.

We are seeing these same patterns of decline in the grasslands and oak woodlands of western Washington. These rare habitats have been constricted to only 1-3% of their historic range due to invasive plant colonization, altered disturbance regimes, and land development. Development pressure on these lands continues today, with population forecasts and land prices skyrocketing. These issues present barriers for many small farmers and ranchers in the Chehalis Watershed, especially veteran-, women- and minority-owned small businesses.

Co-Stewarding Working Lands

Identifying and enrolling available private lands in a conservation grazing program supports both diverse prairie habitat and small ranching businesses. We put Conservation Grazing into action through the use of multiple strategies –rotational grazing, spring or summer deferment, noxious and invasive weed removal, and native seeding and planting. We are tracking the impacts of these integrated practices on plant, pollinator, and avian communities to better understand how sustainably managed working lands contribute to regional conservation.

This highly collaborative project involves the expertise and resources from several important partners: Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Thurston Conservation District, Lewis Conservation District, Grays Harbor Conservation District, Center for Natural Lands Management, Quamash Ecoresearch, and the WA Department of Veterans Affairs.

A side-by-side comparison of ungrazed (left) and grazed (right) reed canary grass in Oregon spotted frog habitat (Melissa Habenicht 2024)

The federally-threatened and state-endangered Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) relies on open, shallow ephemeral wetlands for oviposition (egg-laying) that are hydrologically connected to deep, cool year-round pools for adult life stages. Historically, Oregon spotted frog relies on open wetland habitat with short-statured vegetation in the Pacific Northwest. However, many of these areas have been either drained and converted to farmland, or invaded by reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), an aggressive invasive grass that can completely convert the ecology and hydrology of a site, making it inaccessible for spotted frogs. Reed canary grass is notoriously hard to control, much less eradicate, without intensive herbicide treatments.

Grazing as a management tool for Rana pretiosa: What we've learned

At one conservation site where herbicide is not an option, we've been evaluating how different grazing regimes (continuous vs. rotational) might work to manage reed canary grass for both Oregon spotted frog oviposition and water quality throughout the year. Through this study, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and completed in partnership with Center for Natural Lands Management and Tracking Y Ranch, we found that:

  • Both continuous and rotational grazing in the fall (Aug-Oct) were effective at creating and maintaining favorable oviposition conditions with no significant impacts on water quality.
  • Both of these grazing prescriptions kept reed canary grass from expanding, representing an important management tool for wetland sites occupied by Oregon spotted frog.

This collaborative research project with Washington State University is funded by the USDA WSARE Program.

It evaluated effects of conservation grazing on native prairie plant establishment, butterfly behavior, and Mazama pocket gopher occupancy. More on that project and other grazing work can be found here.