1. Maintaining healthy rangelands is important because they provide various goods and services needed for human survival.
   
   
2. Dividing larger size tracts of rangeland into smaller holdings poses the single greatest threat to the future of rangeland agriculture, wildlife habitat, and natural areas in Texas.
   
   
3. Texans in towns and cities are gobbling-up open space and degrading wildlife habitat, while at the same time, depleting and polluting scarce water resources.
   
   
4. Today -- after 162 years of mostly private ownership -- Texas rangelands show very little resemblance of what they looked like prior to statehood, 1845, and they are not nearly as healthy (agriculturally or ecologically) as they were prior to settlement.
   
   
5. Loss of open space, healthy food, clean water, clean air, and wildlife tends to increase in parallel with population growth.
   
   
6. The key to preserving wide-open space, natural habitat for wildlife, and the vocation of rangeland agriculture in Texas is protecting desert, prairie, and savanna rangelands from ecologically harmful practices.
   
   
7. Building models that teach responsible rangeland stewardship plays an important role in protecting Texas rangelands from ecological abuse.
   
   
8. Most rangelands in Texas have been overgrazed and fragmented to the point where using them solely for livestock grazing is no longer an economical option.
   
   
9. Any workable plan for offsetting the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment must include improving the ecological condition of Texas rangelands.
   
   
10. Restoring rangelands that have been degraded by years of overgrazing and fire suppression would be an excellent hedge against global warming and climate change.
    
    

Back