Optimal Livestock Management on Sagebrush Rangeland with Ecological Thresholds, Wildfire, and Invasive Plants

Mimako Kobayashi, Kimberly Rollins and Michael H. Taylor

Land Economics, 2014, vol. 90, issue 4, 623-648

Abstract: This article considers optimal livestock management on sagebrush rangeland in the presence of invasive plants, wildfire, and reversible and irreversible ecological thresholds. We find that ranchers operating on healthy rangeland have sufficient private incentive to maintain rangeland health, while ranchers operating on degraded rangeland will pursue rehabilitation only if treatment success rates are improved or treatment costs reduced relative to current levels. We also find that if ranchers do not understand the relationships among grazing pressure, vegetation treatments, and rangeland ecological dynamics, their management will result in higher short-run profits, but lower long-run profits, and greater ecological degradation.

JEL-codes: Q24 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/90/4/623
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:landec:v:90:y:2014:i:4:p:623-648

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Land Economics from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().