Our History:

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Louisiana GLCI is a consortium of individuals and organizations working together to maintain and improve the management of health of Louisiana’s grazing lands. LGLCI seeks to promote ecologically and economically sound management of grazing lands for all their adapted uses and multiple benefits to the environment and society, through voluntary technical assistance and education. We help Louisiana landowners implement conservation practices on grazing lands that will benefit soil, water, air, plants, and animals.​

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LGLCI provides on-ground technical assistance to private land owners and operators to effectively implement conservation activities and programs. We assist Natural Resources Conservation Service with the development and use of Ecological Site Descriptions and Forage Suitability Site Descriptions to improve conservation planning and application. The LGLCI supports cooperative conservation by expanding local, state and national partnerships. We do this by hosting pasture walks, conducting presentations at Louisiana colleges and professional organizations, host field demonstrations, grazing management workshops, bus tours, and soil quality workshops. 

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Our story began in the summer of 1991, when a group of agricultural, environmental, and scientific organizations gathered in the mountainside city of Bozeman, Montana. They sought a solution to the lack of technical assistance available by the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to the operators of private grazing lands. Out of their initial meeting sprang the sponsorship of the National Grazing Lands Coalition Initiative, designed to strengthen the NRCS and help sustain America’s grazing operations.

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Six years later, in 1997, the National GLCI founded the Louisiana GLCI for the support and preservation of Louisiana's grazing lands. Our aim is to,

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• Encourage landowner support for efforts to protect and improve the state’s privately owned grazing lands

• To strengthen land stewardship partnerships between grazing land managers and other groups

• Foster cooperative conservation through mutually beneficial partnerships between grazing land operators and other groups

• Nurture enterprise diversification for multiple resource benefits and promote rural economic development

• Offer voluntary technical assistance, education, and research to grazing land operators

• Advise agencies and organizations that provide technical assistance and information to the owners of grazing lands

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As the LGLCI looks to the future, we are proud of where we started and confident in where we are headed. With the of the NRCS and our dedicated partners, our organization is better equipped than ever beofre to help Louisiana’s landowners and managers improve their operations and protect their grazing lands. Today, we are represented by members from fifteen parishes, including: East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Beauregard, Jefferson, West Baton Rouge, Calcasieu, Ascension, Rapides, Lincoln, Iberia, West Carroll, Franklin, Sabine, and Lafayette. We look forward to continued growth and hope to see you soon at one of our events! 

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Click here to see our upcoming events.