Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief Summary of Minutes of the Annual Meeting (March 30-31, 2020, held virtually via Zoom):

Due to COVID-19 occurring, a decision was made to host the annual meeting virtually, instead of the intended location this year (Tucson, AZ).

Monday, March 30

One of the first items on the agenda was a special welcome to Barbara Petty, Director of Extension at the University of Idaho, and the new WERA 1008 Project Director (replacing John Tanaka). 

State Report Highlights:

State reports were submitted as recorded PowerPoints for viewing prior to the meeting. The reports covered rangelands outreach projects, faculty and staff changes.

• Arizona is working on a large USDA-NIFA grant focused on developing opportunities and growing businesses of limited-resource and Native American beginning farmers and ranchers. Workshops that are being provided as part of this effort include: business planning, range management, and livestock production.
• California’s update included the decision to transition the California Range Camp to being completely online this year. Other updates include some faculty hiring at U.C. Davis and U.C. Berkley for a grassland ecology and management professor and a vegetation ecologist, respectively.
• Colorado provided a unique report in the form of ‘cowboy poetry.’ Highlights include a push in 2020 to further utilize social media to secure website page views, a webinar series for land managers in the Colorado Plateau region (western side), and an increase in rangeland Extension staff.
• Conservation Effects Assessment Project shared the vision of valuing conservation investments on grazing lands, with the goals of using environmental modeling, ecosystem services, remote sensing, and effective targeting to realize their vision and target conservation actions where they are most needed.
• Hawaii shared several projects that the state has been working on, with one of the main efforts being a series of 9 webinars focused on strengthening RREA programming through enhanced connections. Research on the two-line spittle bug infestations are continuing – the population is increasing and spreading rapidly, damaging HI rangelands.
• Idaho showcased research projects that use dormant season grazing to reduce the impact of an invasive annual grass, medusahead, and promote perennial vegetation. An Extension component of this research uses workshops to teach land managers how to use Google Earth Pro/GIS to enhance rangeland awareness. Participants are taught to use these tools to map their operation, use mapping technologies, and asses rangeland health.
• Kansas provided an update about the fire that occurred at the Hale Library – some collections were damaged, but most books were smoke damaged instead of destroyed, and had to be cleaned. Plans are moving forward for new construction and redesign of the library, including new spaces such as an innovation space, a partner space, and a digitization lab. Outreach activities focused on youth efforts: 4-H Discovery Days and a Youth Range Camp. Adult outreach activities consist of Range Management Camps and a large Field Day Collaboration, with different agencies involved.
• Nebraska highlighted a project that they are working on, “Sandhills Rangeland Monitoring Cooperative,” which is housed as an Adobe Spark page. Monitoring efforts on participating ranches include photo points, cover, frequency of occurrence (30-65 species have been counted in some areas!), and dry-weight rank. Environmental aspects are also being accounted for in this project.
• Nevada shared that they have a new range person hired and located in Elko. New research efforts focus on identifying pronghorn movement patterns to assess threats to the pronghorn migratory locations. Dormant season grazing is also being used to diminish the impact of annual grasses on fire loads.
• North Dakota recently received a USDA-NIFA grant to assess the impact of grazing practices on livestock performance and pollinator habitat. Extension efforts have focused on a “Gearing Up for Grazing” program that helps NDSU Extension Agents improve their knowledge of grazing readiness and helps them connect with local producers. impacts of livestock
• Oklahoma has developed new Fact Sheets that focus on how to minimize impacts to wildlife from livestock infrastructure, invasive species, and prescribed fire. There was also an update made to the Rangeland Judging Manual. Other Extension efforts have focused on plant pages, with 3-D photo capture of the plants being a key attribute of the pages.
• South Dakota’s report shared that updates have been made to the SD state page, with highlights focused on the farm and ranch stress initiative, and updated content including faculty research publications. RREA activities in SD have been centered on a Grazing School for producers and a Range Camp for agency professionals.
• Teaching Clearinghouse and HEC Tools update was provided by Karen Launchbaugh and focused on different websites and tools available to recruit students (“Rangeland Recruiting”), provide students with a way to learn about range from a distance (“Range Education at a Distance”), and provide resources to other range professionals (“Rangeland Teaching Clearing House”).
• USFS provided an update from Judith Dyess. Efforts have focused on understanding carrying capacity of rangelands with respect to wild horse populations, which have been at the center of recent discussions in the range world.
• Washington’s report described the success of The Art of Range podcast, with listeners from all over the globe: the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., Argentina, and even Kenya as countries with listeners. Tip Hudson shared his view on using the podcast as an educational medium in a Rangelands
• Wyoming shared a lack of capacity with respect to personnel; however, range work in WY has continued to make progress, with projects focusing on feral horse management, public lands grazing, toxic plant management, and prescribed fire.

Action Group Updates:

1. Marketing and Social Media: The Rangelands Partnership newsletter is focusing efforts on the marketing side, with respect to announcing the new website launch. Facebook posts are going to be utilized more heavily by scheduling posts that engage people with information about rangeland plants, animals, threats, and challenges.
2. Collections and Content Management: Work is being discussed on including conference proceedings, and collecting more resources from the database by sending out a monthly request to audience members.
3. Partnership Sustainability: Funding challenges for general operations; most successful in gaining competitive grants; working on a scope of work and template for members to use in grant proposals.

Guest Speakers – Highlights:

What’s New in Arizona Cooperative Extension?.

Jeff Silvertooth, Associate Dean and Director, Extension and Economic Development, University of Arizona

            Jeff provided an overview of AZ Extension, highlighting the success of external funding bridging the gap between state and Smith-Lever funds.

Communications with Purpose: Science for Society Panel

Theresa Crimmins (USA National Phenology Network); Elise Gornish (UA Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration); Rosemary Brandt (UA CALS Media Relations)

Theresa, Elise, and Rosemary were great panelists and shared their perspectives on communicating science. Theresa shared social media tips; multiple platforms with multiple people help get your word out, strong captions and hashtags are essential. Elise emphasized the importance of listening in communication; stakeholders generally know more, so let them tell you the type of information they need and the format that they desire. Rosemary discussed how her role is to the bridge the gap between the public and scientists; media coverage is powerful and she shared tips on how to use it to your advantage.

RREA Strategic Plan Webinar Project Update:

This two-year project will organize a series of webinars based on the nine critical issues described in the new 2018-2022 RREA Strategic plan (prepared by the Rangelands Partnership); available at https://ucanr.edu/sites/rrea/files/291575.pdf . The long-term goal is to strengthen RREA/Extension programming. As of the annual meeting, two webinars had been hosted, with high attendance.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Business Meeting:

Retta Brugger, Chair, provided her year-end report. She reviewed the “Action Items/To-do List” from the 2019 annual meeting.

Barbara Petty, WERA 1008 administrator, provided an administrative update. She mentioned that all Western Governors Association initiatives are concerned with aspects of rangelands. She encouraged the Partnership to write a strong impact section of the yearly report because there are many accomplishments to highlight. The Partnership should also consider applying for NIFA awards. A NIFA Partnership Award application has been started. It will need to be submitted by one partner institution’s dean or director.

Jeremy Kenyon, Treasurer, shared that the current balance is $7,300. Hosting the annual meeting virtually this year saved some expenses. Participants had the option of paying a registration fee this year – several people did, strengthening the finances.

Krista Ehlert, Secretary, shared her report and Nancy Marshall will step into this role for 2020/2021.

The 2021 meeting location was discussed, and is likely to be in Grand Junction, Colorado. Retta Brugger will be the lead organizer. The decision to hold the 2021 meeting virtually will occur if needed, depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Travel awards for officers was discussed to help augment cost of attending the annual meeting. Attendees who were supposed to receive travel awards for this year will be given them for the 2021 meeting.

Barb Hutchinson received an award for all of her hardwork and dedicated effort to the Rangelands Partnership. Thank you, Barb! Barb will be retiring in 2020, but will continue her efforts with the Rangelands Partnership as they relate to her International work.

Rangelands Gateway Update:

The new website design was revealed by the Arizona team. The University of Arizona’s web designer/developer then took the participants through the functionality of the new design. The partner state resources will again be available as a clickable map. The search function can filter by collection or type of resource. There are over 20,000 pieces of content, currently! Members were encouraged to continue to add content to their state sites.

Action Group Work – Breakout Rooms:

1. Marketing and Social Media: A list of partner social media handles will be developed, to further enhance the sharing of information and the ability to stay connected through these platforms.
2. Collections and Content Management: A survey will be sent out regarding the conference proceedings. The inclusion of Ag Experiment Station and Extension publications was discussed.
3. Partnership Sustainability: Members were challenged to think about the audience for the Rangelands Partnership, and ways to engage these individuals with specific products we can offer, such as the RREA webinar series.

Guest Speaker – Highlights:

Socio-Ecological Systems – Emphasizing the Human Dimension (Special Keynote first presented at SRM)

Leslie Roche, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist, U.C. Davis

            Leslie discussed the need for having “beef” in the room, emphasizing how to have “campus to county” connections with stakeholders. Grand challenges for rangelands were discussed as a means to engage stakeholders, and include: global food demand, climate change, and invasive species. Ways to address these grand challenges were presented and included intra and inter-disciplinary work, discovering multidimensional linkages, and moving away from the top-down traditional methods of Extension and outreach. Her suggestion was “Extension 3.0” – a bottom up method that starts with stakeholders and how they view the landscape, as a way to increase the capacity of collaboration.

International Rangeland Partnership Activities Update:

The RP continues to support the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) effort by serving as the Secretariat for the IYRP Support Group. This includes hosting conference calls, posting minutes, managing the IYRP website, as well as the IYRP Support Group listserv. In addition, the proposal for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists went in via the Mongolian government. Karen Launchbaugh and Barb Hutchinson were instrumental in these efforts.

NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Grazingland Information System Update:

This three-year project is led by the University of Idaho with involvement of many RP members. Project objectives include: (1) development of a grazingland thesaurus to classify and tag key phrases in selected technical resources; (2) identifying key grazingland technical guides and handbooks to be tagged and made available through RP-developed web and mobile applications; (3) using the ontology to tag and classify information within the identified technical resources; (4) developing a mobile-friendly interface; and (5) testing the ontology and the mobile app with RP stakeholders. Project evaluation and reporting are also key activities.

The Idaho team shared that next steps are wot work with material experts to identify gaps and expand terminology, and to integrate the grazingland thesaurus with the UN AGROVOC. The team also highlighted tools to annotate documents, and capture and store the data in a way that provides an opportunity to build machine learning models.

RP Meeting Adjourned at 5:00pm following a summary of action plans with members identifying one particular task they hope to achieve during the next year.

 Accomplishments

• Successful annual meeting of the Rangelands West Partnership (May 2019, Fargo, ND). Attendees (24 on-site; 4 virtual). Positive financial return for the
• Initiated a website redesign project to merge the Partnership’s websites and products together in one location. This will refocus attention on the benefits and accomplishments of the Partnership particularly for the western United States; streamline and modernizs the website design; and integrate the Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and Member websites. University of Arizona IT team engaged a website redesign expert to assist in this iterative process.
• RP Executive Committee drafted new mission and vision statements.
• Recruited new member range specialists for North and South Dakota.
• Several RP-related grant projects were completed (noted above in Arizona’s RP technical report).
• Progress was made on the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) initiative (also noted above).
• Washington State University launched “The Art of Range” podcast in October 2018 involving RP members as well as SRM; funded by Western Center for Risk Management
• Received funding for a three-year NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project “A National Grazingland Information System: Expanding Global Rangelands.org through a Grazingland Thesaurus and Mobile Content Access.
• Received funding for several other new projects (see also above).
• Continued distributing information and updates via RP social media and the RP Newsletter. The Newsletter format was updated with a more professional design and an agreement was made with SRM’s journal Rangelands to adapt certain RP newsletter articles for a new column. New initiatives in social media led to increased engagement with content posted.
• Increased quantity of peer-reviewed rangeland information and resources to meet the needs of a broad range of users and audiences from around the world. Total number of resources in the database are currently 24,214 (an addition of 1,022 records).
• Strengthened relationships and information sharing among rangeland professionals, librarians, and IT specialists in Western U.S. states through multiple communications outlets, i.e listserv messages, monthly e-newsletter; social media posts, and annual meeting.
• Developed standardized methods for metadata, incorporating input from the RP members and other interested stakeholders into revised data entry procedures.
• Continued increases in RP website usage. The Global Rangelands website usage has increased steadily from 41,480 in 2016 to 58,292 in 2017 to 92,688 users in 2018; page views increased from 282,995 in 2017 to 413,036 in 2018 with 115,881sessions documented (up from 71,752 sessions in 2017 and 51,364 sessions in 2016). Thirty-nine percent of users are from the U.S., with the other 61% from 206 different countries (up from 187 countries in 2016 and 204 in 2017).
• Continued increases in RP social media. The RP Facebook increased page likes to 1013 as of December 2018 (up from 915 on 1/1/2018). Typically, 2-4 posts are scheduled weekly and the largest reach for an individual post was greater than 650 people. The Global Rangelands YouTube channel featured 260 videos in 21 playlists (up from 200 videos and 19 playlists in 2017) with currently 802,438 views of videos in all playlists (some videos appear in more than 1 playlist). The RP Twitter page currently has 610 followers.
• Completed “brush management” workshops and web resources topic page project funded by WSARE Professional Development Program. All presentations, PowerPoints, handouts, storymap and videos are available at: https://globalrangelands.org/brush-management-workshops.  Two of the videos developed during this project were aired on the PBS show “Arizona Illustrated”. Pre- and post-evaluations were conducted for the workshops as well as four months after the final one was held.  Comments were highly complementary and while only 43% of participants attending the first workshop felt confident to plan a brush control project, that number increased after workshops two (76%) and three (78%) and up to 80% in the final survey.   
• Completed a two-year project to update the RREA Strategic Plan. This resulted in the publication of the 2018-2022 RREA Strategic Plan and additional related resources through a customized webpage: https://globalrangelands.org/rreasp/.  Executive summaries are provided as is information about the national survey conducted at the outset of the project.
• Based on user feedback, the redesigned RP website will provide improved navigation and accessibility of user-driven information.
• Significant steps taken toward the achievement of the primary vision of the RP to be a premier website for dissemination of scientific information on rangeland ecology andmanagement.
• The Rangelands Partnership is increasingly recognized as an authority on rangelands that has led to many fruitful collaborations on grants and targeted projects.    

Challenges of the Past Year:

• Intensive workload for redesign of Rangeland Partnership websites.
• Recruiting new members when retirements or position changes occur.
• Consolidating and reorganizing content on websites as part of redesign process.
• Engaging Partnership members actively in updating topics and other website content, as well as Action Group objectives.
• Tracking and maintaining quality output from the many grants the Partnership members have received.
• Continuing to build and expand unique state rangelands websites with locally-specific content – and adding metadata records for that content to the RP database with limited time and
• Maintaining productivity for engaging, relevant, and educational social media posts.
• Continuing to assess options for long-term sustainability and funding
• Helping to gain an IYRP designation within often unclear UN procedures.

In Process / Next Step Activities:

• Incorporate feedback received from the Partnership in the redesign of the suite of websites; relaunch later this year.
• Continue to work with IT/web design experts in development of the redesigned website.
• Continue to keep Partnership members engaged in redesign and Action Group responsibilities.
• Encourage members to identify the RP in publications, posters, and presentation.
• Continue to develop collaborative grant proposals that specifically identify connection to the RP.
• Continue to pursue harvesting rangelands records from institutional repositories; create a toolkit for members to use for setting up harvesting
• Review and finalize the new mission and vision statements.
• Develop templates to assist members in including the RP in grant proposals and other outreach activities.
• Develop a succession plan for key
• Encourage members to contribute to social media and marketing locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to highlight the partnership.