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Livestock Monitoring
Brenda Land, Project Leader
Background Understanding the use and movement of permitted livestock across public lands administered by the USDA Forest Service is a core objective of numerous allotment management plans. The purpose of the animal movement is to achieve the resource objectives desired, and/or prevent conflicts with other uses. Yet monitoring and documenting such use have always been expensive and difficult, typically requiring specific field reviews by qualified resource specialists. Consequently, such monitoring typically falls short. Monitoring is particularly difficult with sheep allotments, given the wide migration routes and tight herding (i.e. it is difficult to know where they are, let alone where they may have been, and for how long).
Obligations and accountability to monitor have also substantially increased. In direct contrast, however, available personnel, time, and finances to meet these requirements have declined. Attempts to seek assistance from the livestock permittees have seen limited success. Although the herders are generally very familiar with the land, they are typically unfamiliar with the use of maps and written documentation. In this context, then, the Sawtooth NRA investigated the use of GPS tracking technology to address the monitoring questions of, "where did they go, and when, and how long did they stay?" Through correlation of such information with observed landscape conditions on the ground, the Sawtooth NRA hopes to gain greater understanding of the success or failure of the grazing strategy to achieve resource objectives. |
 
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With the recent protection
under the Endangered Speces Act (ESA) of four fish species found within
the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, additional grazing use and movement
objectives were added to allotment plans.