Climate Smart Agriculture Practices For Rangeland Management
Prescribed Fire/Pyric Herbivory
Objectives
What are Climate Smart Practices
Agricultural methods that promote the management and stewardship of large tracts of land with significant environmental value and habitat preservation and restoration.
These methods aid in preventing rangeland ecosystems from being lost or degraded.
So, what is Prescribed Fire?
What is the benefits of using prescribed Fire?
Types of prescribed burns
Pile burning- this is the burning of a cut and piled material for the purpose of thinning the area.
Broadcast Prescribed fire - this is the process of burning an area mapped out for the purpose of land management
Types of prescribed burns
Jackpot burning- Igniting small, concentrated areas within a larger landscape to create strategic breaks in vegetation that can help control the spread of wildfires.
Swamper burning - Burning in the wetlands to reduce an overabundance of plant growth, Create better habitat conditions and cut down the build up of vegetative fuel
Types of Prescribed Burns
Underburning: a low-intensity fire that targets the lower vegetation layers of a forest or grassland ecosystem. The goal of this type of fire is to consume accumulated debris, shrubs, and smaller plants, while sparing larger trees.
How does a prescribed burn work
BEFORE THE BURN:
DURING THE BURN:
SAFETY CONCERNS
The Burn plan must prioritize the protection of people, property, environment, animals and habitats.
After the fire
What is Pyric Herbivory?
It is the interaction between fire and grazing in ecosystems, where fire promotes or drives grazing activity particularly in grasslands.
It can also be called patch burn grazing
What are the benefits of Pyric Herbivory?
Examples of the benefits of Pyric Herbivory
How does Pyric Herbivory Work?
Description of how Patch Burning Works
Using prescribed fire of a section of managed land to create purposeful grazing of that land and then burning another section to move the grazing pressure,
Patch burning allows livestock to freely select the most recently burned part of the land or pasture.
Within 6 to 12 months, managers will burn another portion of the land to move the livestock to graze within new burn patch.
After the heavy utilization (1.5 to 2.5 years post burn) a transition state of bare ground, forbs, and low amounts of standing biomass and litter occurs.
Within 2.5 to 3 years post burn the patch receives very little grazing pressure, which allows biomass and litter to accumulate. This patch is then ready to be burned and grazed again. This is all accomplished without fences or other management input besides the use of prescribed fire.
Examples of how this rotational system works
How does this apply to Land Management in Texas?
Patch burning Versus Prescribed burns
Similarities
Differences
Online tools that help Land Managers make decisions
Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP)
The Rangeland Analysis Platform is an innovative online tool that quickly visualizes and analyzes vegetation data for the United States. A land manager can examine trends at pasture, ranch, watershed, or broader scales.
Includes :
Continuous vegetation cover
Annual aboveground biomass
16 day aboveground biomass
Production Explorer
This application compares current year production to past years, quantifies the amount above or below a long-term average, and provides an interactive estimate of the stocking rate.
Fire Effects Information System (FEIS)
Online collection of reviews of the scientific literature about fire effects on plants and animals and about fire regimes of plant communities in the United States
Includes
Species Review
Fire Studies
Fire System Regimes
Why are Climate Smart Practices important for the Future?
Using climate-smart practices is crucial for a sustainable future because it mitigates the impacts of climate change, protecting human health, ecosystems, and the environment.