Managing forage and ecosystems in the West beyond the West: recounting a century of reference areas and rangeland ecology in British Columbia, Canada

The science of rangeland ecology has a long history in British Columbia (BC), first being introduced as a science in the 1930s to address severe overgrazing and loss of forage productivity in grasslands of the province’s southern interior. A network of range reference areas (fenced exclosures on rangelands, designed to allow comparison of ungrazed and adjacent grazed vegetation) has been foundational in the development of rangeland ecology and range management. The reference area program represents ecosystems across the interior and north of BC, with a focus on sites having economically important forage resources. The foundation for rangeland ecology is “ecosystem potential”, a benchmark for ecosystem characteristics and functioning. In BC, the greatest ecosystem potential is described per ecosystem as a “reference”, theoretically coinciding with ecological “climax” or “potential natural community” (PNC)—two closely related concepts representing a stable single equilibrium of the most mature vegetation that could potentially occur on a site with the long-term exclusion of grazing, burning, and other disturbances. Here, we narrate the historical co-development of the reference area program, rangeland sciences, rangeland assessment procedures, and legislated management objectives on Crown Land. We introduce conceptual problems with applying the PNC and climax as management benchmarks and discuss considerations for developing an updated conceptual foundation.