Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Sustainable Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship WERA-1011 Meeting Reno, Nevada Knudtsen Resources Center, 1000 Valley Rd May 28-29, 2009 Sherman Swanson (NV & Chair for FY 2009), Jim Dobrowolski (DC), Mark Weltz (ARS), Tim DeBoodt (OR), Kelly Crane (ID), Robbie Levalley (CO), Ginger Paige (WY), and John Winder Administrative Advisor (WA) attended the meeting. After brief introductions, John Winder, Liaison to Extension & Experiment Station Directors discussed the WERA opportunity and what makes various groups successful. Sherman Swanson, presented a brief history of this WERA and explained the rationale behind our objectives as a focus for this meeting. We changed the wording of objective 3 to say Identify and validate measureable short-term and long-term indicators of improving watershed health that are indicators of progress that precede long-term changes in water quality, quantity, and timing. Jim Dobrowolski, joined us by speaker phone to present national perspectives on our opportunity to have Impact in his programming in Washington as well as in our own work out west. Mark Weltz, Rangeland Hydrologist, UDSA ARS, Reno presented a slide talk on Scaling and Interlinking Rangeland Watershed Hillslope Processes Related to Water Quality. He focused his remarks around the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) and on the various hydrologic models that he and many others have invested so heavily in creating and validating. He clarified their current state of reliability and some potential uses as well as a challenge for us that we engage in developing the educational programming to make them useful to various extension audiences. Sherman Swanson presented Scaling and Interlinking Rangeland Watershed Riparian Processes Related to Water Quality by extracting slides from the Nevada version of the Riparian Proper Functioning Condition (PFC) Assessment Class to point out the multiple linkages between riparian functions and water quality as well as timing of water flow. The channel evolution process and the many stages of recovery after incision represent dramatic linkages to water quality by influencing inputs, sequestration, and assimilation of sediment and nutrients and mechanisms of influencing water temperature and the physical and biological attributes of water quality. He used the 17 attributes of PFC to illustrate these linkages. Tim DeBoodt, presented Linkages Between Rangeland Vegetation and Water Quantity and explained why many people have not focused on the opportunity to influence water available for watershed and downstream purposes through juniper management. He went on to explain the rationale behind a paired watershed study that he, John Buckhouse, and colleagues at Oregon State University have conducted in central Oregon. Since treating one of the paired watersheds, they have seen clear results in groundwater responses. This has resulted in water becoming available for livestock and riparian vegetation. After discussing our focus going forward, and some specific and timely RFAs , we decided not to pursue either CEAP or National Rangeland Program funds. After discussing our ongoing extension projects related to Sustainable Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship, we took time to identify common barriers to functional watersheds (linking upland and riparian functions, woody encroachment, awareness of rangeland management connections to watershed health, the need for data for hydrology and erosion, the lack of additional woody paired watershed demonstration projects, energy development, urbanization and municipal and industrial water needs, the litigious nature of current resource management, inability to show results without monitoring data, our shrinking presence, public policy and perception, and invasive species) From this we focused our thoughts on educational programs to impact the above and recognized the need to increase awareness of connections between rangeland management (or the lack thereof) and water quantity, quality, and timing. This quickly centered on a focus for creating a delivery structure linking the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM), PFC, Rangeland Health Assessment, and ecological site descriptions. We will work to develop a workshop curriculum that is user friendly for managers and citizens to understand these tools for identifying high leverage rangeland management actions targeting pivotal watershed attributes and processes or functions. This will be the focus of our next meeting in late May of 2010 featuring Reynolds Creek Watershed and involving George Ruyle, Mitch McClaran, Ginger Paige, Mark Weltz, Sherm Swanson, Phil Guertin and other WERA members to work toward this end. Kelly Crane will be the site organizer. In addition, Ginger Paige and Sherman Swanson will strongly consider developing a proposal involving many of these players for the second half of the 406 RFA. Ginger will set up a conference call with web applications for the 18th of June (this time was not available for Ginger and others). Sherm will continue to serve as WERA 1011 Chair for one additional year.

Short-Term 1. Members discussed and planned joint educational programs to enable land managers to leverage models developed by USDA ARS and state experiment stations. 2. Members analyzed barriers to functional watersheds (linking upland and riparian functions, woody encroachment, awareness of rangeland management connections to watershed health, the need for data for hydrology and erosion, the lack of additional woody paired watershed demonstration projects, energy development, urbanization and municipal and industrial water needs, the litigious nature of current resource management, inability to show results without monitoring data, our shrinking presence, public policy and perception, and invasive species).