Sagebrush steppe is a highly endangered ecosystem in the western United States, and the majority occurs on public lands. Public land management agencies manage sagebrush communities for multiple uses including livestock grazing. We conducted a survey of the type and quality of existing data regarding rangeland conditions and livestock use in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offices in the western US. This was part of a project aimed at compiling, mapping and analyzing data for a range-wide assessment of rangeland status and livestock use related to this status.  We determined types of historic grazing and land health data available and how data were collected. After identifying obstacles to data collection, we collected and synthesized opinions of university, federal research and federal management rangeland experts on how best to monitor rangeland condition and livestock effects within the time and budgetary constraints faced by the BLM.

Results/Conclusions

Preliminary results indicate that systematic qualitative evaluations of land health standards (including the relationship of those standards to livestock grazing) had been completed within the last ten years in an average of 76% of the areas we sampled.  In contrast, quantitative vegetation monitoring related to current condition and trends of condition (over the last ten years) has been conducted in an average of 23% of the areas covered by our data survey.  We also found that a system to monitor livestock numbers and grazing seasons is in place, but that accurate and complete records of actual use existed for an average of 22% of our survey areas.  Our interviews with rangeland experts illuminated a need for continued and expanded emphasis on monitoring of vegetation cover, particularly by functional group. Expert interviews have also identified traditional and novel cost- and time-effective approaches for monitoring.