What Are Rangelands?

The NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) describe rangelands as lands on which the indigenous vegetation is predominately grasses, grass-like plants, forbs, and possibly shrubs or dispersed trees.

Rangeland ecosystems include grasslands, shurblands, woodlands, wetlands and deserts. They do not include forests and farmland.

Rangelands comprise about 30% of the entire land cover of the United States, totaling about 770 million acres. About 2/3 of all U.S. rangelands are privately owned.