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On the Ground • Adaptive management should explicitly involve stakeholders, emphasize multiple iterations of identifying and prioritizing outcomes, and tightly link science-informed monitoring to decision-making benchmarks for effective feedback loops. • Short-term monitoring procedures should be simple, quick, and based on consistent methods that are focused on locations where meaningful change is expected or uncertainty is high. • Long-term monitoring procedures should emphasize consistent methodology across years that provides broader ecosystem context for multiple ecosystem services (e.g., watershed protection and grassland bird habitat). • Incorporating timely feedback from monitoring improves the capacity for rapid decision-making when benchmarks are attained and management should be modified.

Ranchers and other land managers of central and northern Great Plains rangelands face recurrent droughts that negatively influence economic returns and environmental resources for ranching enterprises. Accurately estimating annual forage production and initiating drought decision-making actions proactively early in the growing season are both critical to minimize financial losses and degradation to rangeland soil and plant resources. Long-term forage production data sets from Alberta, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming demonstrated that precipitation in April, May, and June (or some combination of these months) robustly predict annual forage production. Growth curves from clipping experiments and ecological site descriptions (ESDs) indicate that maximum monthly forage growth rates occur 1 mo after the best spring month (April to June) precipitation prediction variable. Key for rangeland managers is that the probability of receiving sufficient precipitation after 1 July to compensate for earlier spring precipitation deficits is extremely low. The complexity of human dimensions of drought decision-making necessitates that forage prediction tools account for uncertainty in matching animal demand to forage availability, and that continued advancements in remote sensing applications address both spatial and temporal relationships in forage production to inform critical decision dates for drought management in these rangeland ecosystems.

On the Ground • Prescribed Fire Councils (PFCs) are different than Prescribed Burn Associations. • A regional void of PFCs exists in the northern Rockies and northern Great Plains. • We interviewed 14 founding members of the Wyoming PFC to understand their motivations. • Three themes were identified: 1) collaboration, 2) constraints, and 3) public perceptions. • There is a need for cross-boundary engagement and strategies for dealing with narrow burn windows.

Habitat loss and changing climate have direct impacts on native species but can also interact with disease pathogens to influence wildlife communities. In the North American Great Plains, black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are a keystone species that create important grassland habitat for numerous species and serve as prey for predators, but lethal control driven by agricultural conflict has severely reduced their abundance. Novel disease dynamics caused by epizootic plague (Yersinia pestis) within prairie dog colonies have further reduced prairie dog abundances, in turn destabilizing associated wildlife communities. We capitalized on a natural experiment, collecting data on prairie dog distributions, vegetation structure, avian abundance, and mesocarnivore and ungulate occupancy before (2015-2017) and after (2018-2019) a plague event in northeastern Wyoming, USA. Plague decimated black-tailed prairie dog populations in what was then the largest extant colony complex, reducing colony cover in the focal area from more than 10,000 ha to less than 50 ha. We documented dramatic declines in mesocarnivore occupancy and raptor abundance post-plague, with probability of occupancy or abundance approaching zero in species that rely on prairie dogs for a high proportion of their diet (e.g., ferruginous hawk [Buteo regalis], American badger [Taxidea taxus], and swift fox [Vulpes velox]). Following the plague outbreak, abnormally high precipitation in 2018 hastened vegetation recovery from prairie dog disturbance on colonies in which constant herbivory had formerly maintained shortgrass structure necessary for certain colony-associates. As a result, we observed large shifts in avian communities on former prairie dog colonies, including near-disappearance of mountain plovers (Charadrius montanus) and increases in mid-grass associated songbirds (e.g., lark bunting [Calamospiza melanocorys]). Our research highlights how precipitation can interact with disease-induced loss of a keystone species to induce drastic and rapid shifts in wildlife communities. Although grassland taxa have co-evolved with high spatiotemporal variation, fragmentation of the remaining North American rangelands paired with higher-than-historical variability in climate and disease dynamics are likely to destabilize these systems in the future.

On the Ground • We assessed diet quality and livestock weight gains for shortgrass steppe pastures dominated by Loamy Plains or Sandy Plains ecological sites. • When growing season precipitation is “normal,” livestock gains are higher on Sandy Plains ecological sites, and diet quality is not limiting livestock production. • Conversely, when growing season precipitation declines by ≥ 20%, digestible organic matter, but not crude protein, influences livestock gains. These negative effects on livestock gains are more pronounced for the Loamy Plains ecological site. • Pastures with multiple ecological sites may provide range managers greater forage diversity for livestock and higher livestock gains during dry growing seasons.

Feral horse (Equus ferus caballus) grazing can alter arid shrubland habitat in the western United States to the detriment of sympatric wildlife species, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). To date, studies of horse-influenced habitat alteration have only occurred in a few locations and have infrequently represented gradients of horse use. We investigated whether greater sage-grouse habitat quality metrics were negatively associated with feral horse use in southcentral Wyoming, USA. We also tested whether utilization distributions generated from feral horses tracked with global position system transmitters were correlated with dung pile density, our index of horse use. Dung pile density did not vary among utilization distribution levels, indicating utilization distributions were a poor predictor of cumulative horse use. Bare ground increased with dung pile density (β = 0.06, 85% CI = 0.04–0.18), and grass height exhibited a threshold response and began to decline after 638 piles/ha. Other habitat metrics including percent shrub cover, native perennial grass cover, and visual obstruction were better explained by topographic and temporal variation. Our results suggest that herd size reduction may limit soil erosion potential and improve desired herbaceous structure, though additional management actions regarding feral horse use are needed to sustain high-quality greater sage-grouse habitat.

Fire regulates vegetation composition of fire-dependent grasslands in North American tallgrass prairies. We measured the vegetation response to prescribed fire seasonality by burning in two-month increments every two years, from 2004 to 2015, west of Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. Fire exclusion or burning in any season led to an in increase in woody plant cover ranging from 18 % to 63 %, except for September through October, which showed no increase. Tallgrass cover increased with September through December burn treatments. Forb cover decreased with burning from January through April, but was highest in the September through October treatment. These vegetation responses suggest that land managers, policy makers, and researchers should consider the benefits of burning outside of the traditional late-winter to early-spring window, providing that they have the ability to increase the number of burn days and reduce temporal concentrations of smoke.

Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) affecting ungulates are potentially epidemic diseases that are contagious or transmissible, and a concern for humans worldwide. While globalization has led to increased containment efforts at a global scale, additional local attention is needed as well for vulnerable pastoralist communities that are in close proximity to livestock. We reviewed and then summarized outbreaks, cases, and deaths for 3 TADs (African Swine Fever (ASF), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), and Rift Valley Fever (RVF)) affecting domestic and wild ungulates for all African countries from 1996 to 2018 by compiling data from two World Organization for Animal Health databases. For ASF, 22 countries had no data. Countries with the most ASF case were Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, and Nigeria. Greatest reported ASF cases in a year was Benin in 1997 (387,808), Madagascar in 1998 (153,229), and Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 (112,775). For FMD, 10 countries had no data. Countries with the most FMD cases were Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Benin. Greatest reported FMD cases in a year was Zambia in 2004 (150,000). For RVF, 34 countries had no data. Countries with the most RVF were Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, Mauritania, and Kenya. Greatest reported RVF cases in a single year was Tanzania in 2007 (32,128) and South Africa in 2010 (12,569). Our spatio-temporal summary of these TADs can inform global containment strategies and prioritize local education efforts. Combined, this review enhances global awareness of TAD trends while facilitating education at the local level to prevent the risk of animal-to-human zoonosis through animal handling and management decisions.

Wild horse (Equus ferus caballus) management in western North America is an escalating concern for ecological integrity on these landscapes. Identifying potential diet overlap among horses, livestock, and wildlife will inform management decisions to optimize multiple interests. To understand dietary relationships, we conducted a quantitative synthesis of microhistological fecal studies for wild horse, beef cattle ( Bos spp.), domestic sheep (Ovis aries), elk (Cervus elaphus), pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) diet composition on western rangelands of North America. Our search yielded 60 studies from 14 states, 1 Canadian province, and 2 Mexican states with 392 unique species-season samples. We summarized plant species into graminoid, forb, and browse functional groups. For wild horses, seasonal diet composition means for graminoids (77−89%), forbs (4−15%), and browse (3−10%) did not vary seasonally for any plant group ( P ≤ 0.05). Univariate analyses and the calculation of effect sizes corroborated our finding that graminoid composition explained the potential overlap of wild horses with cattle regardless of season, with sheep and elk in the spring, with sheep in the summer, and with elk in the fall and winter. Although data indicate wild horse diets are primarily composed of graminoids, several studies reported unusual, regionally specific shifts in response to winter snow that limited graminoid accessibility, leading to higher browse composition. Season, plant composition, and ungulate assemblage may all influence dietary competition between wild horses and other large ungulate sharing western North American rangelands; however, the low and nonsignificant heterogeneity values at alpha 0.01 for cattle:horse effect size comparisons suggest that cattle and horses respond to regional and seasonal variation similarly—a result not observed for other ungulate:horse comparisons. Our meta-analysis provides a robust data set for evaluations of diet composition for wild horses, livestock, and wildlife, whereas no empirical studies have assessed all species together.

We compared the influence of patch-burn grazing to traditional range management practices on abundance of the most economically injurious fly parasites of cattle. Horn flies (Haematobia irritans), face flies (Musca autumnalis), stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans), and horse flies (Tabanus spp.) were assessed at study locations in Oklahoma and Iowa, USA, in 2012 and 2013. Experiments at both locations were spatially replicated three times on rangeland grazed by mature Angus cows. Grazing was year-long in Oklahoma and seasonal in Iowa from May to September. One-third of patch-burn pastures were burned annually, and traditionally managed pastures were burned completely in 2012 but not at all in 2013. Because of significant location effects, we analyzed locations separately with a mixed effects model. Horn flies and face flies were below economic thresholds with patch-burn grazing but at or above economic thresholds in unburned pastures in Iowa. Pastures in Iowa that were burned in their entirety had fewer horn flies but did not have fewer face flies when compared with no burning. There was no difference among treatments in horn fly or face fly abundance in Oklahoma pastures. Stable flies on both treatments at both locations never exceeded the economic threshold regardless of treatment. Minimizing hay feeding coupled with regular fire could maintain low stable fly infestations. Horse flies at both locations and face flies in Oklahoma were in such low abundance that treatment differences were difficult to detect or explain. The lack of a treatment effect in Oklahoma and variable year effects are the result of a drought year followed by a wet year, reducing the strength of feedbacks driving grazing behavior on pastures burned with patchy fires. Patch-burning or periodically burning entire pastures in mesic grasslands is a viable cultural method for managing some parasitic flies when drought is not a constraint.

Abstract Data from animals equipped with global positioning system collars have advanced our understanding of vertebrates, but this technology has rarely been employed to study feral equids. Hesitation to equip feral equids with telemetry collars in the USA can often be attributed to safety concerns stemming from one study from the 1980s, where injuries were sustained by feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) equipped with radio-collars. Improvements in collar design over the ensuing quarter-century may have decreased risk of collar-related complications; however, telemetry-based studies on feral equids continue to be limited. In the present review, studies from wild and feral equids worldwide were systematically reviewed to better understand the mortality and injury risk in application of telemetry collars to equids. Our goals were to: (1) report the number of individual equids fitted with telemetry collars (1979–2017); and (2) document the number of individual equids that reportedly died or suffered injuries from collars or other sources. A comparative review of elk (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) was also conducted to evaluate the relative risk of collar-related complications among equids and routinely collared North American ungulates. In total, 1089 wild and feral telemetered equids were identified across 48 studies. Of these, 87 (8.0%) were reported to have died, with only one (0.09%) mortality attributable to a collar. Comparatively, 23.0% (1095) of 4761 elk, mule deer and pronghorn fitted with telemetry collars were found to have died in the same number of studies, though no mortalities were reported to be related to the collar. Although wild and feral equids did not experience increased natural mortality compared with the other ungulates, studies have not provided sufficient information to assess relative risk of collar-related complications. Explicit reporting and discussion of telemetry collar impacts in future publications of all animal species are recommended, especially equids, to improve understanding of how telemetry collars can affect study individuals.

Cattle fecal pats readily ignite, are a common source of spot fires, and release extreme amounts of energy when burning. Moreover, dung-dependent livestock parasites can be reduced by combusting fecal pats in prescribed burns. We conducted a study to identify factors that influence combustion of cattle fecal pats. Fifty fecal pats were located in each burn unit before 10 prescribed fires and then rated for combustion after each fire. Combustion of cattle fecal pats was highly variable across fires, with average proportion of combustion of individual pats from the 10 fires ranging from 2 ± 2 to 98 ± 1% (mean ± SE). Of 10 fecal pat, fuel, and weather variables assessed, only fecal pat condition, 10-h time-lag dead fuel moisture (DFM), and fuel load entered as variables in a stepwise selection method of constructing a multiple regression model of combustion of fecal pats ( R 2 = 0.94, P s 0.01). Condition of fecal pats (a function of elapsed time since deposition, fuel moisture, and decomposition) explained the greatest variation of pat combustion (partial R 2 = 0.75), followed by 10-h DFM (partial R 2 = 0.12) and fuel load (partial R 2 = 0.07). Combustion was s 10% when 10-h DFM exceeded 13% regardless of pat condition. For every 1 Mg · ha -1 increase in fuel load, combustion of older and drier fecal pats increased by about 7%, but combustion of fresh fecal pats always averaged s 20% and was unrelated to fuel load. Our results demonstrate that combustion of pats can be managed to meet a variety of ecological and production goals.

Fire is the most effective tool for managing Juniperus virginiana encroachment and associated fire risk, but its application has been limited. In a laboratory experiment we assessed a critical knowledge gap: how fire temperature and live fuel moisture (LFM) influences ignitability, sustainability, combustibility and consumability of J. virginiana. Percentage occurrence of ignition rose as fire temperature increased. The time to ignition increased while the occurrence of ignition decreased with increasing LFM. LFM and fire temperature each had a significant effect on all measured dependent variables (P≤0.05) as was their interaction, except in the case of sustainability. As expected, time to flaming was shortest and flame lengths were the highest under the hottest fire and lowest LFM scenarios. Flame heights increased quadratically as LFM decreased with a critical threshold at 60% LFM. Land managers can select burning prescriptions based on the interaction between fire temperature and LFM to either increase J. virginiana ignition or reduce hazards. In this study, the low and moderate fire temperatures were similar to those of prescribed fires at low and high fuel loads and the high temperature level mimics conditions found in extreme wildfires. Thus, higher fuel loads and hotter fires are required to maximise efficacy of fires targeting J. virginiana control.