Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

On 3 October 2013, we had a day-long tour of the Nevada Test Site with the land manager. This tour was outstanding in all respects and led to many good discussions about land condition, reclamation activities, what constitutes land in good condition, and site potential Jeff was elected Chair-elect and enjoyed doing the minutes immediately after the election, and will become Chair after the meeting. He will arrange the tour/meeting next year. Elect a secretary (to become Chair-elect after the meeting): suggest Craig Carr? Barry will contact him given that he was not at the meeting to accept. Mike Borman will be the alternate Chair-elect in case Craig declines the opportunity. WERA 40 charter document was reviewed. (http://nimss.umd.edu/homepages/outline.cfm?trackID=14696) Next year the tentative tour would be of mine reclamation in the morning and range improvement at the Empire/ Las Cienegas BLM in the afternoon. Both are in the vicinity of Tucson AZ. The tour and meeting would be in the first week of October.

Accomplishments: Rebuilt membership list, renewed charter, organized annual meeting and field trip. State and transitions educational link to web pages on Rangelands West Jeff was elected Chair-elect for 2013 and will be Chair for 2014. He will arrange the tour and meeting next year. The tentative plan is a mine tour and Las Cienegas BLM, both in the vicinity of Tucson AZ, in the first week of October. Elect a Chair-elect for 2014/Chair for 2015: Craig Carr was suggested but given that he was not in attendance Barry will contact him. Mike Borman will be the alternate, if Craig declines. Short term outcomes: Future: Identified occasional participation by USGS and ARS as agencies we need to reach out to. EPA should also be engaged. Outputs: This report. Activities: A day-long field trip to the Nevada test site on 3 October was attended by the above members. It was an outstanding trip demonstrating numerous examples of disturbed sites with varying amounts of recovery. As part of the interaction with the guest speaker, there was extended discussion of reclamation methods and the determination of when sites can be considered recovered. Milestones: Schedule a poster session on Ecosystem gains and losses – case study based from several perspectives, especially range improvements. Invite producers. Working title: State and transitions examples of ecosystem services. Sacramento SRM meeting 2015. Need poster session proposal into SRM by the end of April/beginning of May 2014. The poster session will attempt to be in collaboration with resource economics potentially with the former Economic WERA Outreach to FFA or 4H was suggested as a place to talk about S&T Have S&T geo-referenced photos with narratives put up with Rangelands partnerships. Add S&T presentations to the re-usable teaching objects site of RSEC.