fecal coliform

    nitrates

    instream suspended sediment

    grazing practices

    Summary(1996-1999)

    Discussion(1996-1999)

Experience gained through application of a limited set of the prescribed grazing practices recommended by the MWCC Grazing Practices Work Group indicates several steps need to be followed to achieve improvements in water quality on grazing lands without compromising the ability of the livestock producer to stay in business.

• Conduct an inventory of water quality condition and potential factors affecting the water on the property of concern and within the watershed where the property is located before any grazing practices are prescribed.

This is amply demonstrated by the experience on the Bandy Research Ranch. During the grazing BMP demonstration there were extenuating circumstances that may have reduced the apparent effectiveness of several of the practices to improve water quality. Chief among these was the high level of wildlife use in the winter of ‘97-’98 and again in the spring of ’99. Furthermore, the mobilization and redeposition of streambed material following collapse of debris dams over rode the potential effects of the stocking rate reduction and livestock exclusion. Irrigation diversion structures and irrigation practices also appeared to limit the outcome of the prescribed grazing practices. Finally, streams that are in relatively good ecological health (partially impaired) may exhibit less dramatic responses to the application of prescribed grazing practices than those that have been seriously degraded. These interactions strengthen the recommendation to conduct a stream/watershed inventory prior to the development of your grazing plan.

• Grazing BMPs probably work better in combination than as single practice. Keep in mind, there is rarely a "silver bullet" grazing practice that will treat all water quality problems.

Some of the practices we put in place seemed to be very good at reducing nitrates and improving aquatic or benthic biotic communities (relocation of the wintering lot) while others appeared to preserve channel shape (riparian pasture). While none of the practices we used corrected multiple concerns simultaneously, the combination of prescribed practices used on the Bandy Ranch enabled us to almost double cattle numbers without noting a decline in water quality. This suggests that by using practices contained in the Prescribed Grazing Standard landowners should have the opportunity to correct identified water quality problems without limiting their long-term productivity.

• In addition to the individual land owner, wildlife management agencies, non government organizations and homeowners in the same watershed should be invited to participate in the planning and development of the prescribed grazing practices for improving water quality.

The effort and monetary input into improving water quality on the Bandy Research Ranch could have been much more effective if we had included the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, neighboring ranchers, forest products companies and neighboring homeowners in the selection and implementation of the prescribed grazing practices. This watershed or sub watershed approach will be critical if an individual landowner is to avoid spending large amounts of money to achieve minimal improvements in water quality on their property.

• Individual landowners as well as state and Federal land managers should maintain records of prescribed grazing practice implementation and use.

Experience gained through the Bandy Ranch Demonstration Project indicated that an objective water quality-monitoring program would require the simultaneous measurement of multiple indices. Monitoring based on a single indicator could easily give a skewed or inaccurate picture of water quality. Even though information from the stream macroinvertebrate survey indicated all of the study reaches were in relatively good ecological health, water chemistry and stream channel cross-section measurements enabled us to detect changes that foreshadowed a potential decline in water quality. In a similar fashion, misconception and errors can arise if water chemistry measures aren’t taken from the same stream several times a year. At the Bandy Ranch a single measure taken in mid winter or early spring would have exaggerated the impact elk were having on water quality in Cottonwood Creek. Taken in combination these factors suggest the need for a very expensive monitoring program to objectively describe the source of water quality impairment. However, accomplishment of such a program would require time and resources that would be difficult for state agencies to fulfill much less private landowners. A realistic alternative would be to maintain annual records on the prescribed grazing practices.

Because prescribed grazing practices are applied to correct conditions leading to water quality problems, a record of items such as height of riparian vegetation following grazing, feet of eroding streambank, number of new riparian shrubs or trees, etc. could then serve as a surrogate for water quality measures. It is important to remember that the tremendous natural variation in riparian zones requires more than 1 monitoring location per pasture. This is especially true when monitoring changes in riparian vegetation. With records from an adequate number of monitoring locations in each pasture and periodic water testing by Federal or conservation district personnel landowners/managers should be able to verify water quality improvement on their property.

• Ultimately the interest and commitment of the land manager/owner (Ehrhart and Hansen, 1997) to improve water quality is more important than a particular grazing practice.

This is reflected in the Bandy Ranch Demonstration outcome. The more intensive the management actions we undertook, for example, relocation of the wintering lot and the use of a riparian pasture, the more improvement in water quality we achieved. In contrast, the lower management input grazing practices, stocking rate reduction and continuous grazing, produced few improvements. Therefore, incentives for landowner participation in water quality action plans, such as being in compliance with state water standards if prescribed grazing practices are in place, should encourage more landowners and managers to seek help in developing grazing plans for their individual operations. Furthermore, the inclusion of wildlife management personnel, non government organizations and private citizens in the development of grazing plans should lead to broad watershed cooperation and, ultimately, more effective water quality protection.