GRASSLANDS used by pastoral communities for open range grazing contain extremely dynamic ecology and land use patterns. These landscapes are complex, messy and difficult to understand, but interventions that take place for the betterment of these landscapes often focus on a very simplified view of the larger complex system. The normative values behind the interventions, and their goals, depend on the actors that are making those decisions, the biophysical nature of the landscape, the management history of that landscape, and most importantly, the larger political economy.