Earth Stewardship: An Initiative by the Ecological Society of America to Foster Engagement to Sustain Planet Earth - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 176

Box 12.1 (continued)
Ranching, Local Ecological Knowledge, and the Stewardship of Public
Lands
After decades of controversy over grazing and fi re, ranching families, conser-
vation groups, agency offi cials, and engaged citizens are fi nding ways to link
sustainable grazing with conservation in prairie grasslands of the Southwestern
US. Sustainable grazing can preserve open space and wildlife habitat, allow
oversight of exploding recreation, and motivate restoration of degraded lands
and watersheds (Sayre 2005 ; Silbert et al. 2007 ). These outcomes, however,
depend critically on the knowledge of local ecosystems held by multi-gener-
ational ranching families, particularly during this era of rapid environmental
change. Two efforts in the Grand Canyon region have enhanced stewardship
of the social-ecological systems on ranches and our public lands. In the early
1990s, two ranching families joined with former critics in the environmental
community to form the Diablo Trust, a collaborative management group
sponsoring monitoring research that informs ranch practices, conservation
projects, and policy reform (Muñoz-Erickson et al. 2009 ; Sisk 2010 ). On the
North Rim of the Grand Canyon, another collaborative effort came together
when the Grand Canyon Trust, a leading conservation organization, purchased
the historic Kane and Two-mile Ranches to reform the livestock business
from within, linking ranching with overarching commitments to ecosystem
restoration and biodiversity conservation across 380,000 ha of public land
(Sisk et al. 2010 ). These collaborations moved controversy out of the court-
room and into the use of evidenced-based science to improve stewardship of
public lands and resources.
Salmon, Cyanobacteria, and Watershed Stewardship in Northwestern
California
In 2011, people living along the Eel River in northwestern California, con-
cerned about diminishing fl ows, recovery of salmonids, and a rash of toxic
algal blooms, formed the Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) (Fig. 12.2 ).
Like many rivers of the western US, the Eel historically supported iconic
Pacifi c salmon populations (Yoshiyama and Moyle 2010 ). Juvenile salmonids
thrive when their invertebrate prey are fueled by edible algae (particularly
diatoms). These diatoms and their macro-algal hosts, which act as substrates
that vastly increase diatom surface area, can colonize in rivers and dominate
when summer fl ows connect and fl ush channel habitats. However, when
drought and/or human water extraction decrease the fl ows of river waters,
these edible algal assemblages can become overgrown by cyanobacteria,
some of which are toxic. Summer water extraction has recently been greatly
exacerbated by burgeoning marijuana cultivation. ERRP volunteers, tribal
members from the Eel and Klamath basins, and researchers (ecologists and
(continued)