· And God said, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11)
· Then God said, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:24)
· “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
· “Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” (Genesis 9:20)
· “And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:” (Genesis 41:18)
· “And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:” (Leviticus 26:19)
· “How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.” (Joel 1:18)
· Then the steward said within himself, “What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.” (Luke 16:3)
Land Stewardship: The practice of carefully and responsibly supervising or managing land usage to ensure natural systems are maintained or enhanced for future generations. Land stewardship is based on: 1) Caring for the system as a whole, 2) Resource conservation, 3) Maintaining, building, and enhancing stability in nature and, 4) Cultural values and ethics – managing for the health of the land for future generations and long-term economic stability.
It is this last principle, cultural values and ethics, where the very essence of land stewardship exists. As Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand County Almanac: "A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity..."
In order to confirm that management practices have acceptable effects on the ecosystems involved and be able to optimize long-term economic stability, it is necessary to monitor land conservation practices. Properly designed, repeated observations over time, can separate management results from natural results, and distinguish effective grazing practices from less effective or harmful. Clearly, the ability to gather this type of information is at the core of land stewardship and ecosystem management. Furthermore, verification from monitoring is critical relative to larger global issues such as carbon sequestration and carbon offset opportunities.
Land EKGÔ Monitoring was developed as a practical model for land stewards to self-apply, allowing them to effectively track and manage ecological health and function of their natural systems. This monitoring approach will be presented as a standardized instrument which not only depicts rangeland trends efficiently, but has capacity to automatically store, analyze, and report ecosystem health on a larger scale.