Beef Production and Imperiled Species: Understanding a social-ecological system for sustained conservation

On California's Mediterranean rangelands, cattle ranching supports the conservation of threatened and endangered species; however, ranchers are generally not compensated for providing this ecological service or beneficial natural process. Instead, the provision of ecological services, including species conservation, relies on livestock production-- primarily beef cattle production-- to sustain beneficial grazing and rancher stewardship. Poor economic returns, production losses from weather, fire, or other causes, loss of access to forage, and conflict from the demands of a growing population put livestock ranching at risk in California. To understand how beef production can be sustained to provide ecological services, it must be understood as a social-ecological system (SES), where people and their activities work within and use nature. In three research studies, I used mixed methods and qualitative research methods to examine key aspects of the social-ecological system framework that describe ranching in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. First, using document review, I studied ranching activities or the SES interactions that impact species conservation. Second, through interviews, survey, direct observation, and big data analysis of all recorded cattle movements in the state over two years, I considered the SES actors by examining the function of the production system that support ranching or rancher-livelihood requirements. In a final study, I conducted spatial analysis to document the role of grazing land in species conservation. I also examined case studies of exacted easements to assess impacts of a governance strategy for land protection increasingly impacting SESs on grazing lands. Overall, the research revealed that land sharing, a conservation strategy for conservation in concert with agricultural production, is demonstrated on California's grazing lands. However, relationships between conservation, livestock production, and the people involved in