Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The 2010 WERA-40 business meeting was held in Boise, Idaho at the Northwest Watershed Research Center on October 15th. The meeting was preceded by a field trip tour of the Murphy Wildfire Complex on the 14th that burned 600,000 acres of sagebrush steppe in July of 2007. The discussion at the various stops along the tour was framed around state and transition models STMs. The STM model used in the field trip is attached as an appendix in the meeting minutes. During the business meeting on the 15th, Doug Ramsey from Utah State University was elected as secretary and the venue for the 2011 meeting was set for Salt Lake City, Utah. Old business Eva Strand provided a report on past years activities including the WERA 40 objectives: 1. Provide a discussion platform for university and Federal scientists working on ecological thresholds, biodiversity and formative processes in arid ecosystems 2. Review draft reports and technical bulletins for regional applicability and then organize and present at least one national level symposium to introduce new material on ecological site descriptors and ecological thresholds to natural resource managers and the general public 3. Publish symposium proceedings; target audiences will be Western States Cooperative Extension Agents and undergraduate educators teaching in Natural Resource, Rangeland and Wildlife Programs. 4. Meet with other Western Region Committees, e.g. WERA55 Range Resource Economics and Policy, WDC001 Rangelands West, to integrate the updated descriptors into policy recommendations and electronic information bases. Objective 1: This objective has been met during annual WERA 40 meetings 2006-2010 Objective 2: A symposium was organized at the SRM National Meeting in Denver 2010 where nine scientists (some of the WERA 40 members) presented scientific papers relating to state-and-transition models. Objective 3: The symposium proceedings are not yet published. Three of the nine participating scientists have submitted proceedings, two will submit by January 1, 2011, and the remaining scientists will be contacted and encouraged to submit their contributions by January 1, 2011. We plan to publish the proceedings online at the Montana State Extension and possibly also in the form of SRM Monographs. A one year extension will allow us to meet this objective. Objective 4: We have not yet met with WERA55 or other committee. WERA55 is no longer active and an alternative activity will be conducted. We propose to invite speakers to WERA40 2011 with expertise and vision for how STMs may be incorporated in agency regulatory policy. Speakers from NRCS, Federal Agencies, or LANDFIRE were proposed. A one year extension will allow us to meet this objective. New Business: The group discussed the possibility of initiating a multistate project that involves range education. The number of universities offering education in rangeland ecology and management are decreasing and several range departments have been merged with other departments with a risk of loss of range curricula across the nation. The WERA 40 group sees an opportunity to join forces between existing range curricula where multiple schools provide education to students at other institutions. Students would get credit at their home institution, but could take the on-line class from another institution at instate tuition rates. The group discussed the STMs provided by NRCS for the area visited in the field tour. It was pointed out that there is a difference between the historic reference state and the current reference state. The historic reference state does not contain ANY invasive species while most current reference states have at least traces of invasives such as cheetgrass. Questions that remain unresolved are: How do we include trace amounts of invasive species such as Bromus tectorum? What other characteristics make the community vulnerable to trace amounts of invasives? How do we measure resilience? In researching STMs it was pointed out that after a disturbance, we need to leave no-treatment areas for reference (no seeding for example) to learn about the plant community response in the absence of management activity. STM research needs to address the probability of a transition and what triggers the higher risk. Challenges remain around taking the step from conceptual STMs to STMs that are applicable in a research context. The group discussed training on STMs online: What they are, examples from across the west, check with SRM workshop leaders, Landscape Toolbox webinars, training for different audiences, workshop opportunities for graduate students. Training videos on STMs are available from the Jornada experimental range. The group agreed that there is a need for development of assessments for determining what state a site is currently in. The group will work on publishing the proceedings from the Denver 2010 SRM meeting in the SRM Monographs or online at Montana State Extension. See action items below for the process. Action items: Laurie Abbott and Kevin Sedivec will submit their symposium papers presented at SRM WERA40 session in Denver 2010 to Eva Strand and Clayton Marlow by January 1, 2011. Eva Strand and Clayton Marlow will encourage the remaining speakers (Sam Fuhlendorf, Pat Shaver, and Mel George) at the WERA40 session in Denver 2010 to submit their proceeding papers. After all Denver proceedings are collected, Kevin Sedivec will review them and determine the potential for creating a synthesis paper based on the content. Eva Strand will look into alternative publication avenues such as the SRM Mongraphs. Eva Strand will work with Bret Hess to apply for a one-year extension for the current WERA 40 group. The application for an extension must be submitted by January 15, 2011. A writing group was formed (Mike Smith, Eva Strand, Laurie Abbott) to charter the future for the next 5 years of WERA040 (2012-2017). One suggested topic for the future is Education and training about STMs across different audiences. The writing group will present their suggestions at the 2011 WERA 40 meeting. The draft for renewal needs to be completed at the 2011 meeting and submitted to WERA 40 administrator Bret Hess by January 15, 2012 Invite speakers to WERA40 2011 with expertise and vision for how STMs may be incorporated in agency regulatory policy and how inappropriate use of STMs can be avoided. Speakers from NRCS, Federal Agencies, and/or LANDFIRE were proposed.

1. A symposium on the applications of state-and-transition models was held at the SRM 2010 in Denver. 2. Three WERA 40 members have completed their proceeding papers and additional proceedings papers are in the works. 3. We have secured support for publishing the proceedings from the SRM symposium from Montana State University Extension. 4. We have the possibility of publishing the proceedings papers at the SRM Monographs.