History
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 primarily began with land conversion to crop fields. However, this threat shifted to improper land management techniques and more recently to the expansion of woody species of plants due to a lack of management, and to climate change. These threats hinder the ecological importance of grassland communities. Grasslands are a carbon sink, and benefit livestock. Ecologically, if managed properly, conservation grazing can help to restore these historic ecological assets. However, if the grazing levels reach too high, shrubs will persist over grassland.
In 1985, the US established the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which gave money to farmers to leave land fallow, instead of using it for crops or grazing. It was argued that exclusion or use of moderate grazing would be an important factor in future decisions as to what to do with the land that was a part of the CRP program. The land could have varied uses in the future. The minimization of the effects of climate change has a lot to do with the sequestering of carbon, and expansive grasslands may play an essential role in this process. But also it could be used for the rotation of crops to the benefit of wildlife populations.
Read more about this topic: Conservation Grazing
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)