Researchers from UC Davis used the 2018 River Fire as a rare chance to study wildfire effects on soil, plants, and grazing lands. Their data are now helping others assess livestock impacts and track post-fire drought recovery.
Leslie Roche, a UC Davis rangeland specialist, was elected to a two-year term on the board of the Society for Range Management. Her research focuses on sustainable grazing practices to help California ranchers cope with wildfire and drought impacts.
It has been proposed that ecosystem service markets – an economic model that encourages ecological conservation and regeneration by establishing a supply-and-demand market for things like water and biodiversity – are the solution for sustainable food systems on rangelands. Despite this conceptual argument, these market types have failed to emerge.
