North American Pastureland and Rangeland - Code: Ne13D

The majority of the land in North America is used for agriculture and while not as obviously managed as NEARCTIC CROPLAND, North American Pastureland and Rangeland accounts for a huge percentage of the continent. Generally, grazing lands occur in areas with poor soil or other conditions that are unproductive for growing crops. Despite the poor forage, grazinglands include many arid parts of the continent where low-densities of livestock roam large areas. In North America grazing lands and hay production account for 35% of the United States, 5% of Canada, and nearly 50% of Mexico. Almost universally, the livestock being grazed are cattle.
North American Grazing lands mostly fall in the category of rangelands, or areas of native or semi-natural vegetation that are used for grazing. Rangelands are mostly grass and shrub dominated habitats and include TALLGRASS PRAIRIE, MIXED GRASS PRAIRIE, SHORTGRASS PRAIRIE, HAWAIIAN GRASSLANDS, SAGEBRUSH SHRUBLANDS, CHIHUAHUAN DESERT GRASSLANDS, PONDEROSA PINE FOREST, CALIFORNIA OAK SAVANNA, MADREAN ENCINAL, and more. While these areas are not intensively managed or planted, grazing has drastically changed the landscapes. Intensively grazed grasslands tend to be overgrown with shrubs like Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandularis), Tree Cholla (Cylindropuntia imbricata), and Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). Additionally, most of the major invasive grasses on the continent were introduced as forage for cattle. In many cases, these invasive grasslands have replaced significant portions of the native grassland habitats.  
Pasturelands are carefully managed grazing lands that are actively seeded with grasses that are productive for livestock. These are enclosed systems where cattle are moved by ranchers instead of being relatively free roaming. Pastures tend to be low-diversity with a few species of grass often mixed with legumes, principally alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Alfalfa and cultivated grass fields may mirror native grasslands but tend to look much more uniform and lack wildflowers. An unbroken sea of uniform green is almost certainly a pasture.
One of the most universal landscape features of grazing in North America are barbed wire fences. These low fences crisscross over 500,000 miles (800,000 km) of open country and impede the movements of large mammals. Collisions with barbed wire fences is a major concern for many low-flying species including the endangered Lesser Prairie-chicken and Gunnison Sage-grouse.