Search WizardTopics: Rangelands and How They Work
Rangeland is land on which the vegetation is predominantly grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, or shrubs. Includes lands revegetated naturally or artificially that are managed like native vegetation. Rangelands include grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, savannahs, tundra, most deserts, and riparian and wetland plant communities including marshes and wet meadows.
Rangelands affect us all. They comprise about 40% of the landmass of the United States and a significant portion of the grazing area of Western Canada and Mexico providing valuable grazing lands for livestock and wildlife. Rangelands, also found throughout the world, serve as a source of high quality water, clean air and open spaces and benefit people as a setting for recreation and economic means for agriculture, mining and communities.
Rangelands are a type of land on which the natural vegetation is dominated by grasses, forbs and shrubs and the land is managed as a natural ecosystem. In North America, rangelands include the grasslands of the Great Plains stretching from the midwestern United States to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in Canada as well as wetlands throughout North America. Other examples of rangelands would include the savannas in Texas and Florida, shrublands throughout the western United States, the Alaska and northern Canada tundra, Mexico's deserts, and alpine...
