Description
Plan, manage, and protect rangelands to sustain forage, soil, water, and wildlife without degrading ecosystems. Develop and implement grazing management plans, stocking rates, and range improvements such as fencing, water developments, and reseeding. Advise ranchers and land managers on grazing systems, drought strategies, and invasive species control, and monitor rangeland health to prevent erosion and restore riparian and upland habitats.
- • Implement rangeland conservation practices—grazing systems, rest-rotation, cross-fencing, and riparian buffers—per conservation plans.
- • Advise ranchers and grazing permittees on stocking rates, pasture rotations, drought plans, and alternative range solutions.
- • Monitor range improvement projects during or after construction to ensure conformance to designs and specifications.
- • Inspect sites with erosion, overuse, or riparian degradation to diagnose causes and prescribe treatments.
- • Build working relationships with local, state, tribal, and federal land management staff and boards.
- • Apply range ecology, soil science, and hydrology to meet rangeland health objectives.
- • Use GIS and remote sensing to analyze vegetation, water distribution, and habitat and to develop grazing plans.
- • Compute design specs for fences, pipelines, tanks, and other range practices using surveys and technical guides.
- • Collaborate on teams to plan, develop, or implement programs that improve rangeland, riparian areas, and wildlife habitat.
- • Facilitate meetings or mediation among agencies, landowners, and permittees to resolve grazing or access disputes.
- • Revisit allotments or ranches to evaluate implemented grazing plans and adaptive management outcomes.
- • Respond to inquiries on grazing standards, rangeland health assessments, or riparian protection requirements.
- • Prepare cost estimates and budgets for range practices and maintenance based on need and expected life.
- • Train or advise government staff on rangeland monitoring, grazing planning, and resource protection coordination.
- • Analyze monitoring data to determine actions needed to maintain or restore rangeland health and soil stability.
- • Coordinate technical, financial, or administrative assistance programs supporting range improvements and stewardship.
- • Recommend integrated weed and pest management strategies for rangelands, including biological and cultural controls.
- • Review proposed conservation or grazing easements and provide technical recommendations.
- • Conduct vegetation, utilization, and trend surveys to inform corrective actions and adaptive management.
- • Manage field office activities or coordinate cooperative projects across districts or partner agencies.
- • Plan range practices such as pasture subdivision, water development, brush management, reseeding, and erosion control.
- • Schedule and conduct annual compliance checks of grazing permits, allotment plans, or conservation agreements.
- • Develop drought and stock-water plans using precipitation records, ET data, and forage production estimates.
- • Review or approve updates to grazing management plans, allotment management plans, or resource plans.
- • Conduct field studies, such as plant material trials, post-fire recovery assessments, or habitat impact studies.
- • Enter rangeland monitoring data into decision-support tools to guide management recommendations.
- • Compile and interpret ecological site descriptions and vegetation data to classify range condition and potential.
- • Review partner or district reports on rangeland programs to verify compliance with reporting requirements.
- • Evaluate grant applications and recommend funding for range improvements or habitat restoration projects.
- • Develop or update range and vegetation maps, integrating soils, ecological sites, and water infrastructure.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
