Conservation grazing

Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi-feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats. Conservation grazing is generally less intensive than practices such as prescribed burning, but still needs to be managed to ensure that overgrazing does not occur. The practice has proven to be beneficial in moderation in restoring and maintaining grassland and heathland ecosystems. The optimal level of grazing will depend on the goal of conservation, and different levels of grazing, alongside other conservation practices, can be used to induce the desired results. For historic grasslands, grazing animals, herbivores, were a crucial part of the ecosystem. When grazers are removed, historically grazed lands may show a decline in both the density and the diversity of the vegetation. The history of the land may help ecologists and conservationists determine the best approach to a conservation project. Historic threats to grasslands began with land conversion to crop fields. This shifted to improper land management techniques and more recently to the spread of woody plants due to a lack of management and to climate change. Intensive grazing maintains an area as a habitat dominated by grasses and small shrubs, largely preventing ecological succession to forest. Extensive grazing also treats habitats dominated by grasses and small shrubs but does not prevent succession to forest, it only slows it down. Conservation grazing is usually done with extensive grazing because of the ecological disadvantages of intensive grazing. Conservation grazing needs to be monitored closely. Overgrazing may cause erosion, habitat destruction, soil compaction, or reduced biodiversity (species richness). Rambo and Faeth found that the use of vertebrates for grazing of an area increased the species richness of plants by decreasing the abundance of dominant species and increasing the richness of rarer species.