It is typically those areas used by people to graze their livestock, converting plants into products of use to humans, like meat, milk, blood, leather and wool.
Rangelands were first used by hunter-gatherer societies that depended on the natural environment for most, if not all, of their needs and this lifestyle prevailed for much of human history.
The term ‘range’ has been used the 1400s in England to describe extensive areas of land that were either grassed or wooded.
Taken as a whole, rangelands produce a tremendous wealth of products such as forage, wildlife habitat, water, minerals, energy commodities, plant and animal gene pools, recreational opportunities, extraordinary scientific, historical and cultural value, stunning natural beauty and some wood products.
Rangeland watersheds are important regulators of the quantity and quality of water in streams, lakes, and aquifers (an aquifer is a water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand, or gravel beneath the earth’s surface).
Rangelands
