Helzer discusses building resilient land with cattle and fire

The conservancy uses fire and rotational grazing to create a "shifting mosaic" on the land.
The conservancy uses fire and rotational grazing to create a "shifting mosaic" on the land.

— Ronica Stromberg, NRT Program Coordinator

On almost any given day, a person can drive by grazing land owned by The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska and see an artist in residence.

The conservancy’s science director, Chris Helzer, told National Science Foundation Research Traineeship students recently that the environmental group uses cows as “habitat artists” to build resilience in grasslands.

He said the conservancy is experimenting with various methods of creating a “shifting mosaic” of habitat patches. That mosaic includes patches intensely grazed for a full season or more and patches in stages of recovery from grazing. In some sites, the conservancy combines prescribed fire with grazing in a system called “patch-burn grazing.”

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More details at: https://nrt.unl.edu/helzer-discusses-building-resilient-land-cattle