Managing for Resilience

Farmers need to know how to manage for resilience—the ability to recover in response to a disturbance such as drought. This session will provide guidelines on how to move beyond resilience as a concept, and make it a reality on farms and ranches. For example, water infiltration and storage can be enhanced by diversifying crops, and by making better use of winter precipitation and by using more efficient crop species. However, using drip irrigation can have unintended consequences on soil health, undermining important mechanisms for long-term water-use efficiency. In grazing systems, moderate grazing promotes native wildflowers, which are critical in providing recovery to droughts and fires. Restoring native grasses increases rooting depth, soil water-holding capacity, deep carbon storage, and a buffer from drought.