Annual/Termination Reports:

[01/01/1970] [02/06/2020] [07/17/2020] [08/16/2021] [04/04/2022]

Report Information

Participants

Eric Thacker Utah State University- David Dahlgren, Utah state University-Jeffery Beck, University of Wyoming-John Ritten, University of Wyoming-Roger Coupal, University of Wyoming-Tracy Johnson, University of Idaho-Jim Sprinkle, University of Idaho-JD Wulfhorst, University of Idaho-Shane Roberts, Idaho Fish and Game-Lance McNew, University of Montana-Jeff Mosley, Montana State University-Christian Hagen, Oregon State University-John Dinkins, Oregon State University-Gregory Torell, New Mexico State University-Sam Smallidge, New Mexico State University-Steve Ramsey, New Mexico State University-Jim Sediger, University of Nevada Reno-Lorelle Berkely, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Brief Summary of Minutes

The group met to develop a draft multistate research proposal. Discussion on objectives for an integrated ecological, biological, social, and economic proposal for either NSF Dynamic of intergrated Socio-environmental Systems and/or NIFA occurred.  Draft objectives and methods were developed.  A framework for analysis was developed.  An outline for a manuscript describing the foundation of the model was developed. 

 

Accomplishments

<h3>As a newly formed committee, the purpose was to develop a multistate research proposal. The proposal was accepted and we will schedule our first meeting in early 2020.</h3><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Publications

<p>As a newly formed committee, we have nothing to submit at this time.</p>

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Eric Thacker Utah State University- David Dahlgren, Utah state University-Jeffery Beck, University of Wyoming-John Ritten, University of Wyoming-Roger Coupal, University of Wyoming-Tracy Johnson, University of Idaho-Jim Sprinkle, University of Idaho-JD Wulfhorst, University of Idaho-Shane Roberts, Idaho Fish and Game-Lance McNew, University of Montana-Jeff Mosley, Montana State University-Christian Hagen, Oregon State University-John Dinkins, Oregon State University-Gregory Torell, New Mexico State University-Sam Smallidge, New Mexico State University-Steve Ramsey, New Mexico State University-Jim Sediger, University of Nevada Reno-Lorelle Berkely, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Brief Summary of Minutes

The group met to develop a draft multistate research proposal. Discussion on objectives for an integrated ecological, biological, social, and economic proposal for either NSF Dynamic of intergrated Socio-environmental Systems and/or NIFA occurred.  Draft objectives and methods were developed.  A framework for analysis was developed.  An outline for a manuscript describing the foundation of the model was developed. 

 

Accomplishments

<p>The group met to develop a draft multistate research proposal. Discussion on objectives for an integrated ecological, biological, social, and economic proposal for either NSF Dynamic of intergrated Socio-environmental Systems and/or NIFA occurred.&nbsp; Draft objectives and methods were developed.&nbsp; A framework for analysis was developed.&nbsp; An outline for a manuscript describing the foundation of the model was developed.&nbsp;</p>

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Eric Thacker Utah State University- David Dahlgren, Utah state University-Jeffery Beck, University of Wyoming-John Ritten, University of Wyoming-Roger Coupal, University of Wyoming-Tracy Johnson, University of Idaho-Jim Sprinkle, University of Idaho-JD Wulfhorst, University of Idaho-Shane Roberts, Idaho Fish and Game-Lance McNew, University of Montana-Jeff Mosley, Montana State University-Christian Hagen, Oregon State University-John Dinkins, Oregon State University-Gregory Torell, New Mexico State University-Sam Smallidge, New Mexico State University-Steve Ramsey, New Mexico State University-Jim Sediger, University of Nevada Reno-Lorelle Berkely, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

<p>Due to the COVid-19 Outbreak, much of the research work has been suspended as has our ability to meet and discuss accomplishments.</p>

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Attendees: C. Hagen, J. Sedinger, P. Williams, J. Dinkins, D. Dahlgren, J. Ritten, J. Mosely, R. Coupal, L. Berkley, J.D. Wulfhorst

Brief Summary of Minutes

Project/Activity Number: W1188 Resiliency of Sagebrush Communities and Rural Economies

1. Progress Report: Describe results since the project was last approved; compare actual accomplishments with the objectives in the project outline; reasons should be given if project objectives were not met. Rate the project on accomplishments of stated objectives.

Progress Report

ExcellentGoodFairUnacceptable

Comments:

 

Objectives of our W1188  project include 1) prioritize threats to sagebrush ecosystems and develop prioritization framework, 2) evaluate links between land management and health of rural communities in sagebrush biome, and 3)  engage local communities in research and outreach.

 

Our funding proposals discussed below addresses each of these objectives as priorities in accomplishing the stated research goals therein.  Specifically, our conceptual model helps us identify priority threats facing the sagebrush biome eventhough our initial proposal focuses on livestock grazing, future proposals will examine the roles of several threats simultaneously and identify those that are of greatest priority to a specific region.  Because our conceptual model is a coupling of socio-economic and ecological processes, it enables us to directly estimate the effects of conservation actions (i.e., managing for sage-grouse) on ecological processes, how those processes affect economics and community security.   Which in turn, will potentially drive new human interactions within the system to affect other changes in conservation or landuse.  Our proposal seeks to engage representative local communities in the surveying and interviewing of its citizens to enhance our understanding as to how conservation efforts are directly or indirectly affecting their economic and social well being.  Our goal is to provide outreach materials from this work to practioners and to land owners, and public land permittees.

 

Due to the pandemic, the team has not had the ability to meet in person since being approved by the MRC. Regardless, the team has made good progress and has been able to attract a diversity of participants from LGUs and state and federal agencies. As a new group, the team is still finding its footing and determining opportunities to leverage grant funds and determining how best to share collective research results with interested stakeholders and the public. Moving forward, the team will be working on the development of outreach materials that can provide research results and perspectives beyond peer reviewed journals and professional conferences.  Our interdisciplinary team spent 2-3 months developing a research proposal, SUSTAINING RURAL LIVELIHOODS, LIVESTOCK GRAZING, AND SAGE-GROUSE HABITAT IN WESTERN SAGEBRUSH SYSTEMS, for an integrated project under USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) call for proposals under Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grants.  It was submitted on 17 June 2021 through University Nevada-Reno, under Dr. Perry Williams, as PI.

2. Linkages: Is there evidence of the interdependence among project participants and with other projects/agencies? Please list relevant examples. How well is the technical committee working together? Document any linkages. Is there evidence of delivering accomplishments to peer groups, stakeholders, clientele, and other multistate activities? Rate this project on linkages.

Linkages

ExcellentGoodFairUnacceptable

Comments

As mentioned above, our project includes, sociologists, economists, and ecologists to try to disentangle how conservation of endangered species affects, local communities, economies and other ecosystem services. This team has met via Zoom 5 times since February, and subgroups met 1-2 additional times prior to the AFRI proposal submission.  This team has been extremely successful in working across disciplines and in fact seeking avenues to integrate ecological, economic and sociological questions into a single framework for understanding how conservation of a single species may affect the economics and social structures of small rural communities.

 

 

3. Funding: Has outside funding been obtained from other federal and state agencies or the private sector by the technical committee to support project activities? Rate this project on its accomplishments in leveraging outside funding to help solve the problem being investigated.

Funding

ExcellentGoodFairUnacceptable

Comments

 

As mentioned above funding has been applied for thought AFRI’s Competitive Grants of Foundational and Applied Sciences.  In particular, our proposal sought funding under the “Sustainable Agroecosystems: health, functions, processes and management.” Here is the project summary from the proposal:  Natural landscapes commonly support rural economies through livestock grazing. Threats to these landscapes threaten rural socio-economic values. However, federal policy and management concerning natural resources also influence socio-economic values. Conserving natural resources and socio-economic values requires a new paradigm that explicitly models the relationship among social, economic, and ecological values as a complex system that dynamically interacts. We hypothesize that socio-economic, and ecological values are inextricably linked in natural landscapes. Specifically, that socio-economic values in rural communities are tied to ecological values of resistance (ability of a system to buffer against disturbance) and resilience (ability of a system to rebound after a disturbance; R&R). To examine this hypothesis, we propose to develop a cohesive framework to examine how range management affects range productivity, ecosystem health, and society across an R&R gradient. Given the unprecedented conservation effort of sagebrush obligate species, we focus on the sagebrush ecosystem of western North America. We will examine and measure connections among socio-economic and ecological outcomes of sage-grouse policy decisions. Our objectives are to 1) quantify economic tradeoffs, feedback loops, and threshold-effects of grazing strategies, and how those strategies affect sagebrush habitat, 2) assess the sociological R&R of rural communities to changes in grazing strategies, and 3) quantify how grazing affects sage-grouse populations. We will use historic and current data on ranch management, economics, and sage-grouse demography. We will collect new sociological data to understand socio-economic values of rural communities, and how those values co-vary with changes in ecology, economics, and policy and regulation.

We anticipate submitting a proposal to National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Integrated Social-Environmental Systems (DISES)  November 2021, using the NIFA proposal as a foundation.

4. Information and Technology Transfer: Document information and technology transfer which is required for every project supported by Multistate Research Funds. Rate this project on plans or accomplishments for delivering the results to users which include other researchers (journal articles, technical reports, etc.), Cooperative Extension, industry, producers, students, etc.

IT Transfer

ExcellentGoodFairUnacceptable

Comments:

 

We have not generated outputs or outcomes yet to transfer to the field or to agricultural producers in the region.  Once we receive funding for our proposals we will implement an extensive outreach campaign to inform practitioners, public land grazing permittees and private land owners of our findings and implications for rural communities.

Regional Committee or AA Recommendation:

Recommendation

--Select One--Approve/continue projectApprove/continue project with revision (provide specific reasons)Disapprove/terminate project

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Hagen, Christian, christian.hagen@oregonstate.edu, Oregon State University; Beck, Jeffery, jlbeck@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming; Maczko, Kristie, kmaczko@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming; Ritten, John, jritten@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming; Wilcox, Kevin, kwilcox@uwyo.edu, University of Wyoming; Wulfhorst, JD, jd@uidaho.edu, University of Idaho; Moseley, Jeff, jeff.moseley@montana.edu, Montana State University; McNew, Lance, lance.mcnew@montana.edu, Montana State University; Dinkins, Jon, jonathan.dinkins@oregonstate.edu, Oregon State University; Williams, Perry, perryw@unr.edu, University Nevada-Reno; Dahlgren, David, david.dahlgren@usu.edu, Utah State University; Berkeley, Lorelle, berk0035@umn.edu, Montana Department of Fish and Wildlife; Donkin, Shawn, shawn.donkin@oregonstate.edu, Oregon State University

Brief Summary of Minutes

Brief summary of minutes of annual meeting: We recapped the and summarized the NIFA proposal, identified tasks and milestones for the coming year.  We identified potential individuals to serve on the oversight committee.  Specifically, representation from BLM, USDA, NGOs and State Wildlife Agency(s).  We identified the need for bi-weekly calls to discuss data needs for sage-grouse demographic model development. Perry indicated he had selected a Ph.D. student to develop the sage-grouse model. 

Accomplishments

<p><strong>Accomplishments: </strong>The W1188 successfully applied and received funding from USDA-AFRI NIFA for a proposal titled &ldquo;<em>Sustaining rural livelihoods, livestock grazing, and sage-grouse habitat in western sagebrush systems</em>&rdquo; ($650,000) and was awarded through University Nevada-Reno, with Perry Williams as Lead Investigator.&nbsp; Two proposals were submitted to the National Science Foundation 1) &ldquo;<em>Socioeconomic Resilience and Transformation in the New Rural West-the Convergence of Energy Development, Exurban Development, and Climate Change</em>&rdquo;.NSF-DISES for $1.6 mill submitted through Montana State Univeristy, with Lance McNew, as lead investigator, and 2) &ldquo;<em>Developing Transferability and Fluency in a Transdisciplinarian Effort to Disentangle Socioeconomic-Ecological Resilience in the Sagebrush Biome</em>&rdquo; NSF-MCA ($250,000) was submitted by Christian Hagen, Oregon State University, with&nbsp; JD Wulfhorst and Katherine Lee University of Idaho, as co-investigators and as host institution for Hagen&rsquo;s activities.</p>

Publications

Impact Statements

1. The human and economic dimensions of sagebrush communities have an unprecedented scope, and there is a need for resilience-based management of the sagebrush biome. Our approach will provide a holistic view of agroecosystem sustainability as it pertains to quantifiable economics related to livestock production, energy development and qualitative sociological components such as sense of place, community security, and anxiety from contemporary threats of climate change. In addition to improving our basic understanding of rural SESs, our project will address critical knowledge gaps in resource dependent rural communities for community corridors in our study area, which allows for testing specific hypotheses about the correlations and dynamics between socio-economic, ecological resilience, and ecosystem health. Policy initiatives such as President Biden’s 30×30 conservation plan and transition to renewable energy necessitates understanding how these changes may affect resource dependent rural communities. The structure of our models, from micro (livestock production) to macro (regional development model) scale, will inform a vector of socioeconomic resilience measures that will be linked directly to ecosystem health (sage-grouse populations). This approach will allow for variation in environmental socio-economic inputs and assumptions to represent key attributes of rural communities. Our proposed work will assist in informing resource dependent communities in planning and negotiating with and between multiple institutions, private landowners and resource managers in the western United States. As mentioned above, the sagebrush biome is exposed to several stressors due to climate change, invasive species, and human development, all of which also affect human dimensions. It is our hope that this work will contribute significantly to improving delivery of conservation actions that will mutually benefit rural communities, the ecosystem, and wildlife therein. The models developed in this project will be part of the tools and information needed for ranchers, agency personnel, and local policymakers to make better and more secure decisions about future economic growth. Students and faculty will work with agencies and local citizen representatives to use the decision support systems to create more economically and socially resilient communities. Scientists will have a better sense of how local residents think about the environment around them and the science that is produced. The framework proposed here will be transferable to other biomes that share natural resource based economies. The multi-attribute decision model will provide a framework to serve as a decision tool for planners and scientists alike to assess socio-ecological interactions and outcomes both in a planning sense but also as a management tool that can serve adaptive management in intervening years

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