To reduce the cost and environmental impacts of travel associated with taking short courses and to allow continuing education to fit individual schedules, the California Rangeland Research and Information Center at the University of California, Davis has begun offering an online grazing management course.

The "Ecology and Management of Grazing" course will be of interest to employees of government agencies and nongovernmental organizations who manage open space districts, county parks, water districts, and to people who conduct education programs on these lands.

Ranchers who wish to learn more about rangelands and grazing may also take the course. This course covers grazing as an agricultural production activity, grazing for managing vegetation, and grazing's potential impacts on plants, ecosystems and watersheds.

The science-based course is divided into four modules that each take 10 to 20 hours to complete. Each module is self-paced so the user can close it at any time and come back and resume at the same place in the course. Module 1 is currently available and Module 2 will be available soon. Modules 3 and 4 will be online by the end of April.

The fee for each module is $200, or $600 for all four modules. Group discounts can be arranged with UC Davis Cooperative Extension livestock and rangeland specialist Mel George, who can be reached at mrgeorge@ucdavis.edu. To learn more about this course and to register, visit http://ucanr.org/grazingcourse.

For more information about the California Rangeland Research and Information Center, visit http://californiarangeland.ucdavis.edu.