Ranchers in the Owyhee Uplands effectively manage their land, adeptly handling the arid landscape that hosts their family business.  Operating a ranch requires financial capital, and the economic values depend on the composition of the range vegetation rooted in  soil - the underlying natural capital.  Driving from Jordan Valley, Oregon towards Juniper Mountain in Idaho, the visitor can view a mix of vegetation that survives on a meager 13 inches of annual precipitation.  Every good manager recognizes constraints on production.  The soil moisture limits productivity, and  is a production cap faced by the range manager.


Over the decades since settlement, the distribution of range and forest vegetation has changed and further constrained range production.  The encroachment over the past 60 years has enlarged the juniper footprint on the landscape by 5 times, and the density of trees per acre also increased by 5 times.  Analysts estimate the annual encroachment rate in Owyhee County to be as high as 2500 acres/year. Juniper encroachment into shrub-grassland communities modified historical patterns on the land, and the new  resident truncates the hydrologic cycle in the watershed   Juniper is a voracious water consumer, leaving less  for sagebrush, grasses and forbs.  


The changing vegetation and soil moisture further constrain range production for the rancher.  The decrease in plant diversity also lowers sage grouse habitat quality.  The birds nest in the cover of sagebrush, seeking protection from predators.     Ranchers want to resolve this additional constraint on an already limited natural resource. Wildlife managers share this interest in landscape restoration because the outcome will benefit sage grouse habitat and improve watershed functions.
 

Image source: Microsoft Virutal EarthResearchers that have studied the region conclude that historical fire regimes controlled the encroachment of juniper.  Fire intervals of 15-25 years retained separation between juniper and range vegetation.  Land managers learned in the 1900's that intense grazing reduced the fine fuels historically present.  The fuels contributed to the periodic return of fire on the landscape.  Combined with optimal juniper growing conditions during this period, the trees moved into shrub-grassland sites.  The juniper encroachment reallocated water due to the high transpiration rates of the trees.    Less than 35 trees per acre can consume the entire annual precipitation. The green branches deceive the eye, and the visitor overlooks the decreased diversity of vegetation and the parched soil.  The change in water cycles reduces infiltration that feeds springs, streams, and meadows within the broader watershed.


Collaborators in the region recognized in 1999 that the changing landscape conditions negatively impact private and public interests.  The partners decided to design a project that  removes juniper, and restores both the sage grouse habitat and watershed functions.   Collaborators in the effort include the Owyhee County Sage Grouse Local Working Group (LWG), The Nature Conservancy, Jordan Valley Cooperative Weed Management Area, and private landowners.  The partners represent the stakeholders - private landowners, wildlife conservation interests, and public resource management agencies.
 

 

Since fire established the historical pattern, why not reintroduce fire as the restoration treatment?   The cost of prescribed burns implemented on surrounding public land approaches or exceeds the land owner's value per acre.  Controlled burns can also damage sage brush, an outcome that would fail to meet the objectives.  The Owyhee LWG sought a cost-effective prescription to control juniper.  The USFWS awarded a grant to the local working group  to test and demonstrate  the mechanical treatment of juniper removal. 


The Collaboration awarded a contract to John Moffet, a contractor with 25 years experience.  The early years of his business provided a service  clearing power lines to utility companies .  Today, John notes that the use of mechanical methods to grind the trees has evolved into an industry, and his largest market serves public and private landowners with fuel reduction objectives.  His experience demonstrates that efficient removal is feasible, with costs in the demonstration area averaging $216/acre.

Monitoring of the demonstration will determine if the cost-effective prescription also meets resource objectives.  The study design anticipates that native grasses will respond within the first year, and forbs will increase compared to current conditions.  To keep monitoring costs low, sample plots on transects will record vegetation using two cameras - one that records visible light reflected from the ground, and an infrared camera that is sensitive to green vegetation.  The field camera image acquisition combined with image analysis software provide a monitoring scheme more efficient than other labor intensive field measurement methods.  The images will capture a vertical measurement of the ground response.

On each visit to the site, observers will also record adult and brood use by sage grouse.  The observations will help determine if the juniper removal not only reallocated resources on the site, but increased sage grouse use in the demonstration area.
 


The demonstration site of 480 acres is located in the Owyhee sage grouse planning area of 2.6 million acres.  The Idaho Sage Grouse Conservation Plan estimates that juniper encroachment affects 11% of the total planning area.  If the project monitoring confirms a positive outcome, the study will motivate changing scales from a demonstration site to  a landscape restoration effort   

The low cost for the mechanical treatment compared to prescribed fire will help transition to a broader scale.     Transferring the knowledge gained from the demonstration site will require  sources to finance the reallocation of natural capital across a watershed or basin.  For the private land ownership with juniper encroachment, the estimated 70,000 acres will incur substantial costs.   Public land costs will be higher due to the larger ownership base of the BLM.

Private landowners will have much to consider regarding land values, contract costs, and resource benefits.  Their ranch land is taxed in Idaho based on  use, and the tax records are a source of production value1.    Owyhee County tax rolls for 2008 reported average per acre values for the following land uses:
  • $581 for irrigated agriculture
  • $253 for irrigated pasture
  • $259 for meadows
  • $ 18 for dry grazing land. 

Ranch owners manage a mix of those land uses.  The impressive low cost of juniper mastication in the demonstration project remains a significant investment for the landowner when that cost is compared to the production value of the land.  For this reason, market alternatives for juniper chips are under review.  For example, developing biomass markets for the thermal content of the juniper would create sales revenue for the landowner.  The chip sales may  support part of the landscape scale restoration costs, and reduce direct expenses to the landowner.  A market based incentive can be a powerful force on a landscape to reallocate a landscape portfolio for public and private benefit.







1.  The Administrative Rules adopted by the Idaho State Tax Commission defines procedures for appraisers to estimate production value.  The value is defined as the economic rent per acre, the average annual net income to the owner treated as a series of payments (with a capitalization rate applied to the annual income).