Written and Compiled by Courtney White

Glossary (a start anyway):

In order for ranchers, environmentalists, public land managers, scientists, and members of the public to communicate well with each other, especially if we intend to work together, we need to begin speaking a common language - a common language to describe the common ground below our feet.

In fact, a `lingua franca' already exists - the language of rangeland health. Here's a short primer (compiled from a variety of sources):

~ Soil: Consists of mineral particles of different sizes (sand, silt, and clay), organic matter, and numerous species of living organisms. Soil has biological, chemical, and physical properties, some of which change in response to how the soil is managed. Soil is a dynamic resource that supports plants.

~ Soil quality: The capacity of a specific kind of soil to function within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance the quality of water and air, and support human health and habitation. Changes in soil quality affect the amount of water from rainfall and snowmelt that is available for plant growth, runoff, water infiltration, and the potential for erosion, the availability of nutrients for plant growth, the conditions needed for germination, seedling establishment, vegetative reproduction, and root growth, and the ability of the soil to act as a filter and protect water and air quality.

~ Soil Stability: The ability of soil structures (groups of soil particles) to resist degradation. When organic matter (roots, litter) breaks down over time it creates a `glue' that holds soil structures together, which is critical for biological activity, root growth, and water percolation. Conversely, when soil structures become unstable due to disturbances such as raindrops, flowing water, trampling, earth moving, and other activities, structures can break apart, exposing organic material to decomposition and loss.

~ Landscape Function: How well a landscape captures, stores, and uses scarce resources, including water, minerals, and organic materials. Dysfunctional landscapes lose these resources to runoff and wind erosion.

~ Infiltration: The process by which water soaks into soil. Soils in good condition have well developed structure and continuous pores to the surface. As a result, water from rainfall or snowmelt enters these soils, which store water for plant growth, and the water is replenished by infiltration.

~ Infiltration Rate: How fast water enters the soil. When restricted (soil crusts, compaction), water does not readily enter the soil and it moves downslope as runoff where it eventually evaporates. As a result, less water is stored for plant growth, resulting in less organic matter in the soil, which weakens soil structure and can further decrease the rate of infiltration.

~ Runoff: Can cause soil erosion and gully formation. It carries nutrients, organic matter and sediment offsite and generally reduces water quality. Excessive runoff can cause flooding, erode stream banks, and damage roads.

~ Vegetative Cover: A high percentage of plant cover and large amounts of root biomass generally increase infiltration. They also contribute to soil stability by contributing organic material to the soil which helps increase soil structure. Plant reproduction (seeds and flowers) is crucial for maintaining good vegetative cover.

~ Rills and Gullies: Rills are small erosional rivulets that do not necessarily follow micro-topography as normal water flow patterns do. Gullies are channels that have been cut into the soil by moving water. Both are generally caused by accelerated water flow and result in the down-cutting of soil.

~ Pedestals and Terracettes: Pedestals are rocks or plants that are elevated as a result of soil loss by wind or water erosion. Terracettes are benches of soil deposition behind obstacles caused by water movement (not wind).

~ Bare Ground: Exposed soil that is susceptible to raindrop splash erosion - the initial form of most water-related erosion. It is the opposite of ground (vegetative) cover. It is vulnerable to capping (soil crusting).

~ Litter: Any dead plant material that is in contact with the soil surface. It provides a major source of the organic material for onsite nutrient cycling. Also, the degree and amount of litter movement is an indicator of the degree of wind and water erosion (less redistribution generally indicates less erosion, for example).

~ Soil Surface Loss: In most sites, the soil at and near the surface has the highest organic matter and nutrient content. This generally controls the rate of infiltration and is essential for successful seedling establishment. Loss of this layer results in further degradation of soil structure.

~ Plant Mortality: The proportion of dead plants to live ones, especially to juvenile plants, expected on that site, under normal disturbance regimes, is an indicator of population dynamics. If recruitment of new plants is not occurring and existing plants are dead or dying, the integrity of the site is expected to decline, generally leading to increased erosion.

~ Integrity: The capacity of a site to support characteristic functional and structural communities (soil and vegetation) in the context of normal variability and to resist the loss of this function caused by disturbance.

~ Rangeland: Land on which the native vegetation is predominantly grasses, grasslike plants, forbs, or shrubs. This includes natural grasslands, savannas, shrub lands, most deserts, tundras, areas of alpine communities, coastal marshes, and wet meadows.

Once we have the vocabulary in place, then we can begin to create sentences and communicate ideas. For example:

A Definition of Rangeland Health: The degree to which the integrity of the soil, vegetation, the water, and the air as well as the ecological processes of the rangeland ecosystem are balanced and sustained.

A Description of Healthy Rangeland: Where erosion is not accelerating, where most precipitation infiltrates into the soil and is used onsite for plant growth or flows eventually to underground storage; where the plant community effectively takes advantage of the mineral nutrients and energy that occur on the site; where plant composition is dynamic, and where ecological functions can recover from natural or human-caused stress.

The Role of Values: A healthy rangeland has the sustained capacity to satisfy values and produce commodities.

How They Are Linked: The capacity of rangelands to produce commodities and satisfy values depends on the integrity of internal cycles, energy flows, plant community dynamics, intact soil profile, and stores of nutrients and water.

Summary: For a rangeland to maintain a healthy state or naturally evolve toward a more healthy state, mechanisms that allow such an evolution on the site must be in place and they must be working. These include functioning recovery mechanisms that lead to the capture and cycling of nutrients, capture of energy, conservation of nutrients, energy, and water within the site and to development of resistance and resilience to extreme events such as drought, fire, or rainstorms are fundamental to rangeland ecosystems.

Implications: If the public, policymakers, ranchers, and range managers can be assured that rangeland health is conserved, the debate can profitably shift to whether rangelands are best used for the production of livestock, wildlife, or recreation or some combination of those.