Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Presentations: The meeting commenced at 2:30pm on Thursday, 19 November, 2009 in the NMSU Department of Agricultural Economics. The first presentation was Urbanization and Land Use Land Cover Change in Dona Ana County New Mexico by Jack Wright of the NMSU Geography Department. Information on land use change in the Las Cruces area was covered, including a GIS animation of agricultural land conversions over time, with projections out to 2050. There was a discussion by the group about the factors affecting conversion, what type of information should be collected and the limitations of projections in general. Rhonda Skaggs of the NMSU Department of Agricultural Economics next presented Exploring Linkages Between Socio-Economic and Ecological Processes in Rangeland Landscapes. This was an update of Rhondas work that she presented in our Hawaii meeting in 2006. New information was incorporated into this presentation as well as an innovative GIS time series application that generated a lot of discussion among the group. The project centers on tracking rangeland allotment ownership over time to try and understand the causes and effects of change in ownership. This is ongoing work. Business meeting minutes: Following the presentations, the business portion of the meeting began. The main issue discussed was the future of the project. Some members present voiced concern that even though project participants are working on projects germane to the regional project, there is no one project inclusive of all or most of the project members. It was decided that we should continue to discuss the issue and seek input from those who were not present before making any decisions. The meeting adjourned at 4:45 pm. Field Trip: Alan Torrell organized a group field trip for Friday with Ed Frederickson and Frederico Gonzalez of the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range (http://researchmag.nmsu.edu/2008_SP/feature_cattle.html ) to look at a rural residential development near San Lorenzo in south central New Mexico. The developers are trying to develop a piece of agricultural land into an eco-friendly community. It was a good.

Short-Term Outcomes: Results of Nevada public land grazing and mining studies have been accepted by Elko County Commissioners. Study has been accepted by BLM offices for incorporation into rangeland plans. In addition, study and procedures are being incorporated into Rangeland Five studies. Work done in Alaska may keep federal land managers from running afoul of the law and risking expensive and time consuming legal challenges. It should provide federal land managers with a clearer understanding of their duties and responsibilities and provide state managers with a better understanding of the laws that constrain their federal counterparts. This work is of interest to all federal land and wildlife managers who deal with migratory birds, particularly in Alaska. The work related to the Marine Mammal Protection Act will be of interest to those agencies that manage marine wildlife under the statute, as well as to the native communities and organizations that depend on marine mammals for subsistence, economic, and cultural purposes. As the concept of Assisted Migration becomes a hot topic in conservation biology circles it will be useful for scientists, conservationists, and advocates to understand the legal regime in which such a program would have to operate. From New Mexico, major variables found to influence land value included the amount of public and state land included with the ranch sale, ranch location, elevation and scenic appeal, distance to town, and the time of sale. Ranch values were found to increase over the 2003 - 2005 period and then they flattened out. In Oregon, economic impacts related to juniper control and cheatgrass control are being used to design management options and additional research on alternatives. Through the development of the ranch models, we have been able to determine more accurately how a yearlong beef cattle ranching operation should respond to policy and ecological changes given random weather and cattle prices. We were also able to learn about the different levels of responses for ranches in different parts of the western U.S. The main policies studied related to changes in public land grazing and those impacts on cattle ranches. Participation in the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable has fostered an increase in understanding of the complex relationships among economic, sociological, and ecological components of the rangeland system. While we have some knowledge of each component, the roundtable has allowed discussion and learning of the interactions among the components. The survey of rangeland professionals about rangeland science education was published and the information is being used in university accreditation processes conducted by the Society for Range Management as well as by individual departments in evaluating their undergraduate degree requirements. The survey related to rangeland science education has stimulated broad discussion among rangeland practitioners and educators. Activities: Nevada: Development of an interregional fiscal social accounting model has been completed. This model derived impacts of reduced public land grazing in rural Nevada and accompanying impacts to urban Nevada. Also development of an integrated linear programming/Social Accounting Model continues. The procedures follow studies by Everett and McCarl (1978), Brink and McCarl (1974), and Bowker and Richardson (1981). The interregional fiscal SAM model follows procedures outlined by Kilkenny (1998). Later procedures will be developed to incorporate a ranch level linear programming model into a county computable general equilibrium model. Alaska: An examination of the potential for direct conflict between the states Intensive Management statute and the enabling legislation for certain federal land management agencies. After an analysis of the applicable statutes and case law was completed it was clear that the conflict in question is impairing the Park Service's ability to meet its statutory goals and the Park Service should preempt these rules on Park Service lands. An analysis of the Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to meet its obligations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to provide regulatory guidance to agencies on the matter of incidental takes. This work analyzes why agencies continue to violate the statute, what they are risking, and suggests regulatory changes for Fish and Wildlife that could correct this regulatory gap. An examination of several inconsistencies in the implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act regarding the native Alaskan hunting exemption and the meaning of the term "waste." An analysis of the relevant case law, statutes, and policy statements has been conducted. An examination of the issue of Assisted Migration, a method of dealing with increasingly endangered flora and fauna in a time of climate change, which is currently being debated by Conservation Biologists. An analysis of the existing legal support and legal obstacles to such a course of action has been completed. New Mexico: Data for 383 recent New Mexico sales were entered into a database and hedonic models were developed. Initial models including parcels less than 2 sections and others targeted for development predicted poorly with ranch-related variables and these small sales were deleted from the analysis. Complete data were available for 274 ranch sales negotiated between April 2002 and March 2008 and with a good distribution of sales across the state and across the Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs) within the state. Model results were similar and included similar explanatory variables to earlier hedonic models published for New Mexico and the Great Basin. In these models, the dependent variable is defined to be $/total acre (including state and federal land acreage). Two new variables were added to the model. Google Maps were used to calculate the distance from the ranch headquarters to a paved road. As would be expected, increased dirt road distances to the ranch decreased ranch values. The second variable added was for ranches with perennial streams with fishing in northern New Mexico. As expected, having a stream with fishing access on the ranch was found to substantially increase ranch value. The R2 of the model was 94%. Dr. Rhonda Skaggs has continued work on developing a socio-economic database for individual BLM grazing allotments in SW New Mexico. Preliminary model development and results indicate that allotment turnover is strongly related to grazing conditions (e.g., high turnover is correlated with increased woody plant coverage and reduced grazing capacity). Data collection for this research project continues. Idaho: Rimbey continues to work on a regional research project dealing with the factors that influence ranch values in western states. We have updated ranch sale databases for New Mexico and the Great Basin with recent sales. We are attempting to bring in water rights and other variables into the models. Torells RANVAL website contains the models, publications, etc. associated with this project: http://ranval.nmsu.edu/. Large, 5 year, regional project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (USDA and USDI) dealing with vegetation management issues related to the sagebrush biome, with particular emphasis on cheatgrass and juniper invasion. Tanaka (OSU) and Rimbey are providing the ranch-level analysis for this project. We will be enhancing GAMS models developed through WCC55/W1192 in this project that deals with Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Utah scientists. Faculty at Nevada are providing regional analysis and non-market benefits and costs. Sage-STEP website provides more information on this large, regional project: http://www.sagestep.org/. Rimbey has been assisting a team from Idaho and California looking at the factors that influence the price of cull cows (both beef and dairy). Visual observations on factors like body condition, ambulatory nature, surgical evidence and others are made on cattle going through saleyards in Idaho and California. Coupled with this is hard data on cattle weights, prices. Over 19,000 head were entered into a database from sales this spring and fall (2008). The project will be completed this winter, with analysis and report to the Beef Council. Regression techniques are being used to determine the factors that influence value, as well as incidence of quality issues. Due to concerns about the IDL Grazing Program losing money, a Task Force was created to look at the issue. Rimbey is serving as the Academic Representative, along with livestock producers, Land Board and IDL staff. We met on about a monthly basis between December, 2005 and last winter. At that time, the Land Board created a grazing subcommittee that is looking at the departments grazing program. The Livestock Group is still meeting and providing input to IDL and the subcommittee. We have developed policy recommendations for dealing with conflicted leases, improvement credits, grazing management and staffing issues that are currently being considered by the Land Board. Rimbey also performed regression analysis on the lease rate calculation formulae with the addition of 14 years of new data. He is also working with Utah Trust Lands on developing a fee formula for updating their lease rates. A regional proposal submitted to BLM to determine the staffing and use of social and economic impact analysis within the agency was funded this past year for about $134,000. Wulfhorst and Rimbey are working with colleagues in Oregon, Wyoming and New Mexico. We have interviewed BLM social science staff (according to BLM, they number fewer than 25 out of the 11,000+ in BLM), critically reviewed selected management plans, EISs and other planning documents in terms of the use of social science techniques and impact assessment within the BLM. A telephone survey of BLM staff and managers was conducted by SSRU last winter and we are currently interviewing subgroups of BLM clientele (via Resource Advisory Councils) divided into Public-at-Large, Commodity and Conservation. A final report to BLM will be submitted during the winter of 2008-09. Wulfhorst and Rimbey were asked to conduct focus groups for the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission (IRRC). We completed 6 of the sessions around the state. Purpose is to gain input from IRRC constituents (those that pay the bills) on existing programs and future direction and issues of the commission. Final report is available at: http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/aers/PDF/AEES/AEES07-03.pdf . Since Wulfhorst was on sabbatical leave for portions of 2007-2008 some of the product extensions from this data are still forthcoming. These data also provided the basis for development of several survey questions submitted as part of a partnership project with Idaho Preferred, a state-based program emphasizing sustainable and local agricultural production/consumption. These data will be used as pilot data to support a rangelands proposal anticipated to WSARE in coordination with producers and IRRC in 2009. Wulfhorst is working with an interdisciplinary team from Washington State University on a CEAP-Rangelands project focused on watershed health in southeastern Washington. The salmon-habitat impacted by overgrazing in this watershed with highly-erodible soils is critical and much effort has been oriented toward trying to alter best management practices among ranchers in the area with little success. Data collection will include qualitative interviews with key informants as well as a general public survey related to the multiple use aspects of the watershed and whether a more collaborative process could be devised to incentivize best management practices. Oregon: During most of the previous year, John Tanaka was on sabbatical leave as the Interim Executive Vice President of the Society for Range Management. While on leave, he was a co-organizer of the Wildfires and Invasive Plants in American Deserts Conference and Workshop held in Reno, Nevada from December 9-11, 2008. This conference drew 309 attendees. Information is on the website at http://rangelands.org/deserts. A grant was submitted and funded from the USDA-CSREES to lead the development of the Rangeland Stewardship and Health eXtension website in cooperation with at least 13 land grant universities. This project is just getting underway. The eXtension website will include information on all aspects of rangelands including ecology, economics, social systems, policy, and educational materials for adults and youth. (Objective 5, H1). Tanaka has continued involvement with the Western Rangelands Partnership that is responsible for the http://RangelandsWest.org website. The partnership has been designated as WERA-1008 and will be coordinating with the eXtension website listed above. (Objective 5, H1) Tanaka has continued involvement with the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable, serving on its steering committee and leading its research objective. During the year, Tanaka served on a writing group to develop a book on rangeland ecosystem goods and services and worked with the National Agricultural Statistics Service to extract data from the Census of Agriculture for the Oregon Multi-Agency Pilot Project on economic and social indicators. (Objective 1, H1; Objective 2, H1) Large, 5 year, regional project funded by the Joint Fire Science Program (USDA and USDI) dealing with vegetation management issues related to the sagebrush biome, with particular emphasis on cheatgrass and juniper invasion. Tanaka (OSU) and Rimbey (UI) are providing the ranch-level analysis for this project. We will be enhancing GAMS models developed through WCC55/W1192 in this project that deals with Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Utah scientists. Faculty at Nevada are providing regional analysis and non-market benefits and costs. Sage-STEP website provides more information on this large, regional project: http://www.sagestep.org/. (Objective 2, H2) A regional proposal submitted to BLM to determine the staffing and use of social and economic impact analysis within the agency was funded this past year for about $134,000. Tanaka is working with colleagues in Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico. We have interviewed BLM social science staff (according to BLM, they number fewer than 25 out of the 11,000+ in BLM), critically reviewed selected management plans, EISs and other planning documents in terms of the use of social science techniques and impact assessment within the BLM. A telephone survey of BLM staff and managers was conducted by UI last winter and subgroups of BLM clientele (via Resource Advisory Councils) divided into -Public-at-Large-, -Commodity- and -Conservation-. A final report to BLM will be submitted during the winter of 2008-09. (Objective 5, H1) Hannah Gosnell was funded by the USGS and Institute for Water and Watersheds at OSU in 2007-2008 to study the emergence and evolution of place-based, collaborative conservation efforts on ranch landscapes in the Upper Klamath Basin, and the ways in which social and ecological outcomes were related to various place-specific factors, including degree of ownership fragmentation. The team hypothesized that ownership fragmentation, which varies significantly among the three major tributaries to Upper Klamath Lake (the Wood, the Williamson, and the Sprague) was a contributing factor, along with other factors, to social fragmentation and conflict over natural resource management. Results are still being analyzed. Gosnell also submitted a grant proposal to the USDA CSREES with Bruce Weber and Junjie Wu (OSU AREC) to analyze the critical mass of farmland required to sustain local agricultural economies, and to determine whether there might be a -tipping point- related to farmland conversion and agricultural economic viability in the suburban and exurban West. The proposal was not funded. (Objective 1, H1 and H3; Objective 4, H1) Milestones: Progress is being made in all proposal areas, though some not as quickly as prolposed due to funding constraints. Milestone #1 was only partially successful due to a limited number of proposals accepted, though much more state-level funds were accessed through various sources that did allow progress. Milestone #2 was accomplished. Milestone #3 has been accomplished, though more will be coming out from the various project participants.

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