The Western United States Rangelands: A Major Resource

This chapter describes the major regions of the western continental United States (U.S.), the focal point of U.S. rangelands. It explains important management technologies and conservation practices that are available to landowners and stewards. The goods and services that could be sustainably provisioned from Plains ecosystems, primarily beef cattle and small grains with some irrigated cotton in the southern portion, were clearly defined by the drought of the 1930s. The physiography of the Great Plains consists of an enormous piedmont that flanks the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains for a distance of several hundreds of miles. The desert rangelands in the southwestern U.S. are the driest, hottest, and least-productive rangelands in North America. The woodlands and forest region includes both the pinon–juniper woodlands and the widely dispersed forested lands of the western U.S. The California Annual Grassland occupies about 13.6 million acres, primarily in the foothills of the Central Valley and in coastal valleys.