Does the Range Concern You?

Yes, each one of us has a real interest in our rangeland. It is the main source of our meat supply. It is important in the production of wool and leather products. It is a valuable source of water, clean air and wildlife. It offers many types of recreation. It is just as important for the non-user of rangeland to promote its conservation and protection for the future as it is for the person raising livestock and living on the range.

Know Your Range!

You can keep the range healthy and productive by knowing the plants and animals that live there and how to manage them properly. Plants and animals live together as a “community.” When livestock or game animals graze an area, changes take place in the plant community. To be a good range manager, you must recognize the changes that result from grazing. You must be able to tell why the changes took place and whether the changes are good or bad. To know about the rangelands and how to manage and care for them, you must have some knowledge of soils, water, climate and plants.

Plants will tell you what kind of range you have and how good a manager you are. Each plant will tell you a story of what is happening. The presence or absence of certain plants tells the condition of the range, how the range is being used and what needs to be done to improve and protect the range. This tool provides a selection of the most common of hundreds of range plants that grow on the Navajo Reservation.

This tool is intended to be of assistance to Navajos in knowing both Navajo and English names for the plants they encounter and also as an aid to those working with Navajos. In discussing range or livestock it is often necessary to refer to a specific plant by name and this should provide a means of knowing some of these names in Navajo so the Navajos involved will know exactly which plant is being referred to. This is strictly a preliminary list. Many of the plants will be known by other names, either Navajo or English, in other areas.