Holistic Resource Management (HRM) is a ranch management strategy plagued by controversy; experimental evidence from ecological studies has consistently failed to support that HRM provides ecological benefits, yet many ranchers staunchly support the method.

Using a qualitative approach, we found that the HRM processes used on four case study ranches in eastern Colorado provided a systematic framework for key ranch stakeholders to improve long-term, adaptive approaches to managing ranches as complex socioecological systems.

Notably, the ranchers emphasized the planning benefits of HRM over the grazing benefits, suggesting the value of the system is not in how the cattle are grazed but in how it changes the way ranchers make decisions about how to graze their cattle and manage the many other complexities of operating a ranch.

Approaching HRM as a planning framework versus as a grazing strategy may be a key factor in the difference in claims between ranchers practicing HRM and researchers studying grazing systems.

Remote sensing for rapid estimation of forage losses.

Cross referencing forage losses from drought with ecological sites can aid seeding decisions.

Drought monitors, by themselves, do not necessarily reflect extent and scope of forage losses.

Partnering with multiple agencies and stakeholders can enhance the overall response to drought.

We introduce the concept of biodiversity potential to assign equal biodiversity value among socially valued and undervalued ecosystems.

Widespread greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) ecosystems were examined as a case study of biodiversity potential of an undervalued ecosystem at the sodic end of soil salinity.

Groundwater pumping could drop the water table below greasewood taproots, which could degrade wildlife habitat through decreased canopy cover, increased mineral soil, invasive flammable non-native annual species, and exotic forbs.

State-and-transition simulation models and field studies can be used to assess degraded greasewood ecosystems.