August Ludwig Hormay (1907–1999) developed and applied the concept of the rest-rotation grazing management system in areas of the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

. Rest-rotation rangeland management system uses deferred grazing to manage increased plant reproduction and maintenance, while providing grazing lands for both livestock and wildlife. Gus Hormay's rest-rotation management system was developed to increase a healthy

plant community A plant community is a collection or Association (ecology), association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The comp ...

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

and

wildlife habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

, while at the same time increasing

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

production. It has been in use in various forms since the mid-1960s as a rangeland management tool.

Early life

August Ludwig Hormay was born Gustav Hormay on May 10, 1907, to a cabinet-maker father and homemaker mother in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Gus Hormay grew up in a rural area just outside the city of San Francisco and spent much of his childhood around local truck farms and

dairy farms A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

and in the

Sierra Nevada Mountains The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

. He studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

industrial arts Industrial arts is an educational program that features the fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. Industrial Arts are commonly referred to as Technology Education. It may include small engine ...

in high school and graduated fro
Lick-Wilmerding School of Mechanical and Industrial Arts
1921–24. Hormay became interested in

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

while attending college and went on the obtain
University of California Berkeley
B.S. Forestry, 1926–1930. While at

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

, Hormay was appointed the ''Bidwell Fellow of Forestry 1930–1931'' and started his

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

and

field research Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

with bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) that spanned the next fifty years.

Professional career

Gus Hormay started working professionally in

rangeland Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savanna ...

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

in 1931 with the

United States Forestry Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's O ...

and in 1966 he expanded his rest-rotation work with the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

. After his formal retirement in the 1980s, he continued his work in rangelands wildlife management as a

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

until his death in 1999. Gus Hormay worked as a range conservationist at th
California Pacific South West Forest & Range Experiment Station
Forest Service USDA Berkeley, California from 1931 to 1966. In 1942, as part of his research, Hormay set-up several long-term experimental station research plots in

Modoc Modoc may refer to: Ethnic groups *Modoc people, a Native American/First Nations people ** Modoc language ** Modoc Nation, a federally recognized tribe of Modoc * Modoc War, the last armed resistance of the Modoc people in 1873 *The "Modocs", ri ...

Lassen Lassen is a Danish language, Danish and Norwegian language, Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Lars" (equivalent of Laurentius), and thus a parallel form of the more common surname Larsen. Notable people with the surname include: * Ander ...

, and

Plumas National Forest Plumas National Forest is a 1,146,000-acre (464,000 ha) National forest (United States), United States national forest located in northern California at the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Forest was named after i ...

s. While analyzing the data from his laboratory and field research with Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), he

postulated An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or fi ...

his rest-rotation method and further developed a

theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

and practical application system for its use within multiple use rangelands management. Hormay's rest-rotation grazing management system employed various combinations of year-long rest, deferment, early season grazing, and full season grazing in a 3- to 5-year cycle. In the early years of its research and development, it was often referred to as the ''Hormay Grazing System''. Hormay first applied his theory to the Harvey Valley cattle allotment in California's Lassen National Forest in 1952. His work was nationally recognized in 1957 with a United States Department of Agriculture's Superior Service Award. After eight years of monitoring the system, he published the experimental results in 1961. Gus-hormay-1956-B55F28

In 1966 Hormay started working for the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to advise and train both BLM employees and independent

and land management owners how to implement and use the rest-rotation

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

system with multiple use lands. By 1974, BLM demonstration areas using rest-rotation within both federal and state agencies, ranchers and stockmen, various rangeland resource users and

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

s, were involved with the training and outreach for multiple-use land management program and it was spread across the

Intermountain West The Intermountain West, or Intermountain Region, is a geographic and geological region of the Western United States. It is located between the Rocky Mountain Front on the east and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada on the west. Topography ...

grazing allotments and rangelands. During the years 1966–1977, he remained headquartered at California Pacific South West Forest and Range Experiment Station in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, continued his research work with Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) experiments, and wrote several scientific articles on the rest-rotation grazing system and how to apply it, includin
''Principles of Rest-Rotation Grazing and Multiple-Use Land Management'', September, 1970
In 1971 he was awarded the United States Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award and in 1972 Gus received th
Society of Range Management’s
Outstanding Achievement and Service Awards. After his official retirement, Gus continued working as a Rangelands Management Consultant and worked on such projects as: *Professional witness for the 1980 lawsuit of Hinsdale vs. BLM where the District of MT Billings found in favor of plaintiffs (Hinsdale). *Range Management Consultant for the Aunt Molly Fishing Access Refuge, 1985–1986 *Designed and received the 1992 BLM Partners in Spirit Award with the rest-rotation grazing system with Ray Marxer, manager of the historic 250,000-acre Matador Cattle Co. in Montana for the Matador Sage Creek Refuge, 1974–1997 *Consultant design for the rest-rotation grazing system with MFWP of the 55,000-acre Mount Haggin Wildlife Management Area, about 10 miles southwest of Anaconda, Montana. Managed by the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks (MFWP).

Achievements

Field research

Hormay left a living legacy of his work in the Matador National Demonstration Area on Matador's Sage Creek Allotment south of

Dillon, Montana Dillon is a city in and the county seat of Beaverhead County, Montana, Beaverhead County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,880 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was named for Sidney Dillon (1812–1892), preside ...

. The Nature Conservancy'sbr>Matador Ranch's
national rest-rotation experimental demonstration area has been under rest-rotation range management system since 1974 when Hormay first installed the system while working for the Bureau of Land Management. It is a long-term concrete example of rest-rotation multiple-use land management. In 1992, Hormay and the Matador's Sage Creek Allotment received the Partners in Public Spirit Award, and in 1999, at the age of 92, Gus Hormay was still visiting the rest-rotation test plots on the Matador's Sage Creek Allotment and documenting the success of his initial experiment he had started twenty-five years earlier.

Awards

Awards given to Gus Hormay for his rest-rotation work across the western United States. #U.S. Department of Agriculture, Superior Service Award, 1957 #U.S. Department of Interior, Distinguished Service Award, June 1971 #Frederic G. Renner Award, Society for Range Management, February, 1973 #Range Manager of the Year Award, California Section of the Society for Range Management, 1983 #Society of American Foresters Award, May 13, 1983 #Bureau of Land Management, Partners in Public Spirit Award, January 15, 1992

Publications

Publications by August L. Hormay: *August Ludwig Hormay and A Fausett (1942). Standards for judging the degree of forage utilization of California annual-type ranges. Berkeley, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay (1942). A key for identifying some important annual range grasses in the immature stage. Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August L Hormay (1942). Moderate Grazing Pays on California Annual-Type Ranges. United States Forest Service. *A L Hormay (1943). Observations on species composition in northeastern California meadows as influenced by moisture supply. Berkeley, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay (1943). Bitterbrush in California. Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay (1944)
Moderate grazing pays on California annual-type ranges
Washington, D.C., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. *M W Talbot and August Ludwig Hormay (1945). First-season records of cattle weights from a pine-timber range and a mountain meadow range. Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay (1946). Moderate grazing pays on California annual-type ranges. Washington, D.C., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. *Hormay, A. L. (1949)
Getting Better Records of Vegetation Changes with the Line Interception Method
Journal of Range management, Vol.2, No. 2, April, 1949. *Hormay, A.L. and Bentley, J.R. (1949)
The Land-variability Factor in Cattle-grazing Experiments
Proceedings of the Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1949, 465–467. *Hormay, August L. (1956)
How Livestock Grazing Habits and Growth Requirements of Range Plants Determine Sound Grazing Management
Journal of Range Management, Vol. 9, No. 4, July, 1956. *A L Hormay and M W Talbot (1956). Increasing forage and livestock production on northeastern California mountain summer ranges. Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay and A B Evanko (1958). Rest-rotation grazing: a management system for bunchgrass ranges. Berkeley, California Forest and Range Experiment Station. *August Ludwig Hormay (1960). Moderate grazing pays on California annual-type ranges. Washington, D.C., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. *A L Hormay and M W Talbot (1961)
Rest-rotation grazing: a new management system for perennial bunchgrass ranges
. Washington, D.C. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. *Hormay, A. L. (1966)
Principles of Rest-Rotation Grazing and Multiple-Use Land Management
US Dept. Agr. Bureau of Land Management, 1966. *August Ludwig Hormay (1970)

Washington, Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. *August Ludwig Hormay (1970). Outline summary of discussions: on rest-rotation grazing system. *August Ludwig Hormay (1972). Principles of rest-rotation grazing and multiple-use land management. Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management : U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. *August Ludwig Hormay (1987, 1970). Principles of rest-rotation grazing and multiple-use land management. Washington, D.C., U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service.

References

External links

*
Aunt Molly Wildlife Management Area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hormay, August Ludwig American ecologists American agriculturalists 1907 births 1999 deaths Recipients of the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award