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... •Adaptive management should explicitly involve stakeholders, emphasize multiple iterations of identifying and prioritizing outcomes, and tightly link science-informed monitoring to decision-making benchmarks for effective feedback loops.•Short-term monitoring procedures should be simple, quick, and based on consistent methods that are focused on locations where meaningful change is expected or unc ...
Emily Kachergis; Scott W. Miller; Sarah E. McCord; Melissa Dickard; Shannon Savage; Lindsay V. Reynolds; Nika Lepak; Chris Dietrich; Adam Green; Aleta Nafus; Karen Prentice; Zoe Davidson
adaptive management; decision making; information management; inventories; range management; rangelands
Abstract:
... •The BLM Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) strategy recommends five principles for building multiscale monitoring programs: standardized methods and indicators; data management and stewardship; appropriate sample designs; remote sensing integration; and structured implementation. These principles guide monitoring across public lands.•We find the AIM principles are sound and worthy of con ...
... •Natural solutions, such as “avoided conversion of grasslands,” offer agricultural land managers a way to mitigate climate change while monetizing climate benefits.•Managers who avoid converting grasslands to other uses, such as row crops, can quantify the amount of stored carbon and sell credits, but high costs of developing carbon credit projects price many landowners out of the carbon market.•A ...
... •Grazing management for providing multiple ecosystem services at the ranch scale requires balancing desired outcomes.•Abundant challenges involve matching the spatial heterogeneity in soils and associated plant community characteristics with the temporal variability in precipitation.•Prescriptive grazing (season-long continuous and time-controlled rotational grazing) removes the human experiential ...
... •A workshop focusing on invasive annual grass management in sagebrush steppe was held on December 14 and 15, 2020•The workshop was attended by 250 participants with over 30 presenters.•This special issue of Rangelands includes papers authored by the presenters on the topics covered in the workshop. ...
agroecosystems; collective action; decision making; rangelands; social change; sustainable agriculture
Abstract:
... • Integrated social-ecological research is crucial for the development and assessment of sustainable agricultural production that supports health and well-being for producers, rural communities, and agroecosystems. • One challenge for integration is that commonly used concepts like ecosystem services do not represent all environmental processes that support or degrade health and well-being. • Soci ...
... •The application of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) has expanded to include livestock management, however the effects of sUAS disturbance on domestic horses (Equus calibus) has not been well documented.•We developed an ethogram to classify and record horse behaviors and changes in response to disturbance using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro sUAS by monitoring horse behavior at 5 second intervals from 3 ...
arid lands; ecological restoration; indigenous species; intraspecific variation; issues and policy; rangelands; Intermountain West region
Abstract:
... •Using native species in seed-based restoration efforts is critical for recreating or maintaining healthy, resistant, and resilient ecosystems and communities in the Intermountain Western United States.•The use of seed from native species has increased dramatically in the last few decades, and so have research and the development of new guidance for best practices.•Despite all the valuable effort ...
Artemisia; fire severity; fire spread; fire suppression; fuel moisture index; grasses; rangelands; risk; wildfires
Abstract:
... •Wildfires and incidents of large fires have increased substantially in the past few decades, in part from increases in fine, dry fuels. Fine fuel management is needed, and grazing is likely the only tool applicable at the scale needed to have meaningful effects.•Moderate grazing decreases wildfire probability by decreasing fuel amount, continuity, and height and increasing fuel moisture content. ...
Brady W. Allred; Megan K. Creutzburg; John C. Carlson; Christopher J. Cole; Colin M. Dovichin; Michael C. Duniway; Matthew O. Jones; Jeremy D. Maestas; David E. Naugle; Travis W. Nauman; Gregory S. Okin; Matthew C. Reeves; Matthew Rigge; Shannon L. Savage; Dirac Twidwell; Daniel R. Uden; Bo Zhou
decision making; range management; rangelands; space and time
Abstract:
... •Rangeland management has entered a new era with the accessibility and advancement of satellite-derived maps.•Maps provide a comprehensive view of rangelands in space and time, and challenge us to think critically about natural variability.•Here, we advance the practice of using satellite-derived maps with four guiding principles designed to increase end user confidence and thereby accessibility o ...
... •Monitoring courses, offered at universities and through professional training, are critical to successfully collecting and applying rangeland monitoring data.•Instructors can meet course objectives by carefully considering course content, the target audience, delivery approaches, evaluation mechanisms, and training for new instructors.•Shared principles and practices taught in monitoring courses ...
... •Available rangeland data, from field-measured plots to remotely sensed landscapes, provide much needed information for mapping and modeling wildlife habitats.•Better integration of wildlife habitat characteristics into rangeland monitoring schemes is needed for most rangeland wildlife species at varying spatial and temporal scales.•Here, we aim to stimulate use of and inspire ideas about rangelan ...
fire fighters; landscapes; rangelands; risk; wildfires; wildland
Abstract:
... •Effective wildland fire response and suppression are critical for reducing the size of frequent and severe wildfires, thereby reducing the risk of post-fire conversion to invasive annual grass-dominated plant communities.•Wildland firefighter safety and strategic deployment of resources are paramount for timely initial attack to prevent incidents from escalating.•By mobilizing a timely and safe i ...
adaptive management; grasses; land management; plant response; rangelands; uncertainty
Abstract:
... •Use of adaptive management supported by robust monitoring is vital to solving severe rangeland problems, such as the exotic annual grass invasion and fire cycle in sagebrush-steppe rangelands.•Uncertainty in post-fire plant-community composition and plant response to treatments poses a challenge to land management and research but can be addressed with a high density of observations over short ti ...
... •Collection, interpretation, and application of use-based monitoring data across large landscapes is challenging given the inherent variability in growing conditions and field-based estimates.•We present several approaches on leveraging geospatial data and technology to cope with this variability including weather and climate data, satellite remote-sensing data and associated tools, as well as liv ...
health effects assessments; land management; rangelands; remote sensing; vegetation; watersheds; Colorado
Abstract:
... During grazing permit renewals, the Bureau of Land Management assesses land health using indicators that are typically measured using field-based data collected from individual sites within grazing allotments. However, agency guidance suggests that assessments be completed at larger spatial scales. We explored how the current generation of remotely sensed data products could be used to quantify as ...
data collection; land management; landscapes; rangelands
Abstract:
... •Adaptive land management requires monitoring of resource conditions, which requires choices about where and when to monitor a landscape.•Designing a sampling design for a monitoring program can be broken down in to eight steps: identifying questions, defining objectives, selecting reporting units, deciding data collection methods, defining the sample frame, selecting an appropriate design type, d ...
Sarah E. McCord; Justin L. Welty; Jennifer Courtwright; Catherine Dillon; Alex Traynor; Sarah H. Burnett; Ericha M. Courtright; Gene Fults; Jason W. Karl; Justin W. Van Zee; Nicholas P. Webb; Craig Tweedie
adaptive management; concrete; cost effectiveness; data quality; ecosystems; information management; quality control; rangelands
Abstract:
... •High-quality rangeland data are critical to supporting adaptive management. However, concrete, cost-saving steps to ensure data quality are often poorly defined and understood.•Data quality is more than data management. Ensuring data quality requires 1) clear communication among team members; 2) appropriate sample design; 3) training of data collectors, data managers, and data users; 4) observer ...
... •Management interventions for addressing invading annual grasses and encroaching conifers and their effects on fire dynamics in the sagebrush ecosystem are largely reactive.•Reactive management limits tools for promoting long-term ecosystem resilience on a fire-prone landscape.•We propose an integrated fire management approach in which all management activities before, during, and after wildfire a ...
Artemisia; germplasm; habitats; rangeland restoration; rangelands; soil chemistry; steppes; weeds; wildlife; Intermountain West region
Abstract:
... •Restoration practices employed in semiarid sagebrush steppe of the North American Intermountain West are typically based on objectives to restore habitat to mid- to late-seral plant communities.•Incorporating succession management techniques including representation from early seral community species in restoration plans and seed mixtures could bridge the temporal gap between disturbance and stab ...
data collection; ecological function; rangelands; remote sensing; vegetation
Abstract:
... •Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health and other well-designed qualitative assessments are useful for understanding ecological function and can be used to prioritize areas for monitoring, restoration, or management changes. When completed by experienced, trained multidisciplinary teams, qualitative assessments provide reliable information about ecological processes and are repeatable across ...
Oregon; basins; landscapes; rangelands; spatial data
Abstract:
... •Invasive annual grasses pose a widespread threat to western rangelands, and a strategic and proactive approach is needed to tackle this problem.•Oregon partners used new spatial data to develop a geographic strategy for management of invasive annual grasses at landscape scales across jurisdictional boundaries. The geographic strategy considers annual and perennial herbaceous cover along with site ...
... • This Special Issue of Rangelands describes the Defend the Core framework, based on a December 2020 symposium focused on the impacts of wildfire and invasive annual grasses in Oregon, the Northern Great Basin, and sagebrush ecosystems across the West. • Invasive annual grasses, wildfire, and climate change are changing ecosystem processes in the sagebrush biome at a pace and scale requiring an as ...
aquifers; drought; flood irrigation; rangelands; runoff; water storage; watersheds; Montana
Abstract:
... •The concept of natural water storage has gained traction as an alternative to traditional dams that can potentially mitigate the impacts of changing precipitation patterns by slowing runoff and increasing aquifer recharge. We investigated the barriers and opportunities for two natural water storage practices, flood irrigation and beaver mimicry.•We interviewed 8 amenity and 14 traditional rancher ...
... •Monitoring supports iterative learning about the effectiveness of management actions, information that can help managers plan future actions, facilitate decision-making, and improve outcomes.•Adaptive monitoring is the evolution of a monitoring program in response to new management questions; new or changing environmental or socioeconomic conditions, improved monitoring methods, models, and tools ...
... •We analyzed the composition and spatial variations of soil seed banks of plant species and densities of soil seed banks in Prosopis juliflora invaded and noninvaded grasslands.•Soil samples were collected from soil layers of 0 to 3, 3 to 6, and 6 to 9 cm.•The highest density of 1,037 ± 633 seedlings/m² was recovered from a soil depth of 3 to 6 cm. But, the lowest density of 461 ± 315 seedlings/m² ...
information exchange; issues and policy; rangelands
Abstract:
... •The 2020 SRM Annual Meeting piloted “Campfire Conversation,” round-table discussions styled after the World Café approach.•The event attracted 280 attendees and enabled multidirectional knowledge exchange (i.e., “cuss and discuss”), rather than one-way “chalk-and-talk.” Attendees participated in three 20-minute facilitated round-table discussions around three topics they selected from a menu of 1 ...
... •New geographic strategies provide the landscape context needed for effective management of invasive annual grasses in sagebrush country.•Identifying and proactively defending intact rangeland cores from annual grass invasion is a top priority for management.•Minimizing vulnerability of rangeland cores to annual grass conversion includes reducing exposure to annual grass seed sources, improving re ...
... •Sustainable beef is a socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable product that prioritizes planet, people, animals, and progress. Beef sustainability requires awareness of the complex relationships among these three pillars.•In practice, sustainability to beef farmers and ranchers is about taking care of the animals, land, and water, while being a good neighbor and commun ...
... • Fire is considered a critical process for limiting shrub encroachment and maintaining grassland structure and functions.• Fire can be detrimental to grasses in upland settings of arid desert grasslands, but no studies have been performed in more productive swale grasslands.• Monitoring of a prescribed fire treatment in a swale grassland in southern New Mexico indicated that perennial grasses had ...
... •There is an increasing use of carcass detection dogs to find remains of dead livestock in Norwegian rangelands. But how effective are these dogs actually?•We compared the efficiency of approved carcass detection dog equipages (CDEs, i.e., dog and man) with people searching for sheep carcasses without dogs.•CDEs found significantly more carcasses than people without dogs, and kilometers traveled a ...
... •Sustainable ranch management must consider not only impacts of grazing management on range condition (ecological sustainability) but also on cattle production relative to overhead costs (economic sustainability) and on biodiversity (biological sustainability).•Rates of growth and reproduction in herbivore populations are determined by access to sufficient high-quality forage and concomitant optim ...
... •Kangaroo rats occur exclusively in arid environments of western North America, where they often function as ecosystem engineers and keystone species.•These rodents can exist on a diet of seeds without drinking free water.•Kangaroo rats evade attacks from their primary predators, owls and snakes, using split-second gymnastic-like maneuvers.•Kangaroo rat activities, such as digging, altering soil s ...
decision making; human resources; rangelands; Wyoming
Abstract:
... •The King Ranch in Wyoming, established in 1911, has for generations been “Ranching on the Edge” and adapting to new challenges as they operate on the perimeter of Wyoming's largest city, Cheyenne.•Lessons learned from King Ranch are highlighted regarding decision-making approaches, management strategies, and partnerships used to manage complex and highly variable systems for multiple goals.•Chall ...
... •Invasive annual grasses on sagebrush rangelands are negatively impacting land uses and values ranging from forage for grazing livestock to native plant diversity, wildlife habitat, and human safety via associated increases in the wildfire footprint.•In December 2020 a diverse group of managers, scientists, and government officials held a symposium to discuss existing and emerging options for amel ...
adaptive management; databases; digital libraries; ecosystem management; grasses; rangelands
Abstract:
... •The continued expansion of invasive annual grasses is a complex ecosystem management problem requiring a shift in focus from a discrete, single treatment approach to one of adaptive management with sustained investment.•Four case studies shared at the 2020 Invasive Annual Grass workshop provide lessons learned and opportunities to advance future management efforts to inform the direction for new ...
... •The three most well-recognized sustainability pillars are environmental, social, and economic.•Ranch economic sustainability hinges on asset value dynamics and ranch profitability.•Ranch economic sustainability metrics include multiyear average positive accrual adjusted net income, rate of return on assets (valued at market value) >1.5%, equity to assets ratio (valued at market value) >50%, and c ...
Sheri Spiegal; Nicholas P. Webb; Elizabeth H. Boughton; Raoul K. Boughton; Amanda L. Bentley Brymer; Patrick E. Clark; Chandra Holifield Collins; David L. Hoover; Nicole Kaplan; Sarah E. McCord; Gwendŵr Meredith; Lauren M. Porensky; David Toledo; Hailey Wilmer; JD Wulfhorst; Brandon T. Bestelmeyer
... •The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network launched the LTAR Agricultural Performance Indicator Framework to evaluate how agricultural innovations perform relative to sustainable intensification goals in five domains: Environment, Productivity, Economic, Human Condition, and Social.•Here we describe our progress and plans for measuring the performance of agricultural innovations on rangelands.• ...
... • There are three general stages of a well's life on US public land: 1) the permitting process to drill, 2) active extraction of fossil fuel resource, and 3) plugging and abandonment of well.• There is no national standard for oil and gas reclamation in the United States similar to mining and therefore current reclamation practices and standards fail to achieve long-term effectiveness across the w ...
... •Maintaining economic sustainability requires reduced inputs such as mechanically harvested forage. It is estimated that grazing versus feeding cattle during the winter can save 42% to 70% of the yearly input costs in the western United States and Saskatchewan, Canada.•Grass mixtures of intermediate wheatgrass and meadow bromegrass produced 2 and 3 times the stockpiled forage than orchardgrass and ...
... •Bringing diverse groups together in collaboration to solve complex landscape-scale issues presents opportunities and challenges.•Collaborating at the planning stage of restoration projects can be slow. It takes time to build relationships, and meeting people “where they are at” is often the accomplishment.•Success in collaboration comes from gathering the local knowledge to move forward with impl ...
... •We explored private landowner perceptions about the invasive Kentucky bluegrass in the US northern Great Plains.•Landowner responses to a mail survey indicated little to no preventative action.•We also employed a scenario approach to assess landowner perceptions based on changes to ecosystem services.•Scenario results indicated that the early stage of invasion was considered slightly acceptable. ...
... •Rangeland resilience is influenced by a variety of ecosystem properties that fall into two broad categories, 1) abiotic and 2) biotic.•Although important to consider in land management planning, abiotic properties cannot be directly influenced with management. In contrast, biotic properties of the ecosystem can be readily influenced by management.•The formula for robust biotic resilience to wildf ...
Bromus tectorum; imazapic; invasive species; rangeland degradation; rangelands; secondary succession; wildfires; Intermountain West region
Abstract:
... •The accidental and subsequent invasion of cheatgrass throughout millions of hectares of Intermountain West rangelands has truncated secondary succession by providing a fine-textured, early maturing fuel that has increased the chance, rate, spread, and season of wildfire.•The restoration or rehabilitation of degraded rangelands throughout the Intermountain West is very challenging due to annual in ...
cooperative research; ecology; occupations; range management; rangelands
Abstract:
... •The Society for Range Management and the profession of rangeland ecology were founded about 80 years ago to bring scientific information to the management of rangelands. Sustaining a strong connection between science and management set the foundation for the rangeland profession, though this connection has been challenging to sustain.•An era of collaborative research and conservation has fueled p ...
... •The combination of stocking rate and marketing date that maximizes average net return per head will not necessarily maximize average net return per hectare.•The combination of stocking rate and marketing date that maximizes average net return per hectare often comes with risk-related tradeoffs, such as a higher risk and magnitude of negative net returns.•The combination of stocking rate and marke ...
... •Knowledge is not in our heads but arises out of our relations with the environment we inhabit. This implies cognitive diversity in our knowledge systems.•Expertise is not enough for solving the major problems of the third millennium and difference (another way of thinking) is just as important.•Transdisciplinarity is achieved through collaborative and participatory research processes that cogener ...
... •Native perennial grass restoration in the Great Basin is limited by low seedling establishment.•Native seedling establishment is decreased by increased competition from exotic annual grasses and altered fire regimes and have not had sufficient time to adapt.•Non-native bunchgrasses like crested wheatgrass have adapted to human management of grazing systems and possess physiological traits that in ...
Sarcobatus vermiculatus; biodiversity; canopy; case studies; ecosystems; forbs; groundwater extraction; mineral soils; rangelands; simulation models; tap roots; water table; wildlife habitats
Abstract:
... •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 ...
bias; climate change; data collection; decision support systems; depth; ecosystem services; ecosystems; field methods; forage; forage production; grazing; grazing management; growing season; indigenous species; information; knowledge; landscapes; livestock; livestock production; managers; net primary productivity; plant communities; rangelands; remote sensing; sampling; stocking rate; variability; Western United States
Abstract:
... •Rangeland-based livestock raising is the only agricultural production system that maintains native plant communities, providing ecosystem services in the same space as food and fiber production.•Annual aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) underlies forage production and multiple ecosystem services. ANPP is highly variable in rangelands in the western United States, across the landscape, fr ...