Example Career: Range Managers

Career Description

Research or study range land management practices to provide sustained production of forage, livestock, and wildlife.

What Job Titles Range Managers Might Have

• Land Management Supervisor
• Natural Resource Manager
• Natural Resource Specialist
• Rangeland Management Specialist

What Range Managers Do

• Regulate grazing, and help ranchers plan and organize grazing systems in order to manage, improve and protect rangelands and maximize their use.
• Measure and assess vegetation resources for biological assessment companies, environmental impact statements, and rangeland monitoring programs.
• Maintain soil stability and vegetation for non-grazing uses, such as wildlife habitats and outdoor recreation.
• Mediate agreements among rangeland users and preservationists as to appropriate land use and management.
• Manage forage resources through fire, herbicide use, or revegetation to maintain a sustainable yield from the land.
• Study rangeland management practices and research range problems to provide sustained production of forage, livestock, and wildlife.
• Offer advice to rangeland users on water management, forage production methods, and control of brush.
• Plan and direct construction and maintenance of range improvements such as fencing, corrals, stock-watering reservoirs and soil-erosion control structures.
• Tailor conservation plans to landowners' goals, such as livestock support, wildlife, or recreation.
• Develop technical standards and specifications used to manage, protect and improve the natural resources of range lands and related grazing lands.
• Study grazing patterns to determine number and kind of livestock that can be most profitably grazed and to determine the best grazing seasons.
• Plan and implement revegetation of disturbed sites.
• Study forage plants and their growth requirements to determine varieties best suited to particular range.
• Develop methods for protecting range from fire and rodent damage and for controlling poisonous plants.
• Manage private livestock operations.

What Range Managers Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Range Managers Should Be Interested In

• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

What Range Managers Need to Learn

• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.