Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief Summary of Minutes of the Annual Meeting (April 19-21, 2021, held virtually via Zoom):

Due to travel restrictions in place by many participating instructions and ongoing concerns related to COVID-19, the annual meeting was held virtually for the second consecutive year. Given COVID-19 and the tremendous changes of the past year, the theme chosen for the 2021 meeting was Adaptation.

Monday, April 19

The meeting began with opening and welcoming remarks from Livia Olsen, RP Chair, Barb Hutchinson, and Barbara Petty. The first day featured a keynote talk, Resilience and Relationality: Lessons from the Field, presented by Maria Fernandez-Gimenez, Professor, Forest & Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University. Sharing her experience about social-ecological resilience and reminding us all about the importance of learning, sharing knowledge, leading by example, cooperating, strong social networks, maintaining diversity, living with change, listening to the land, traditional knowledge, and innovative/new ideas.

Day one also included updates international range activities, particularly focusing on the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), IYRP communication team, and IYRP panel at the International Rangelands Congress. Additionally, several of the RP’s RREA NFF projects provided updates including: Shrub Encroachment Project Update and Strengthening RREA Programing Through Enhanced Connections: A Web-based Conference Series.

Tuesday, April 20

State Report Highlights:

Pre-recorded state reports focusing on extension rangeland work were shared with attendees prior to the meeting. During the meeting, participants then discussed the reports.

• Alaska – State does not have a rangeland or extension expert working on this project. The Arizona team moved state content to the new platform and added photos of Alaskan tundra and range taken by Jodee Kuden (librarian).
• Arizona – Workforce shortage is a critical issue and the legislature has a bill to find UA Cooperative Extension to start an agriculture internship or training program. The Extension Cooperative Monitoring program has expanded. Virtual meetings and workshops have been used as an adaptation to COVID-19 with higher turnout in some cases than in the past.
• California – At Humboldt State University, significant events including personnel changes, HSU’s transition to a third “Cal Poly” university, and grants that will impact their range program. In addition, UC Rangelands brings together scientists and educators across the University of California and Cooperative Extension (https://rangelands.ucdavis.edu/). In addition to the website, UC Rangelands is on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Major initiatives are Ranch Water Quality Planning Program and Working Rangelands Wednesdays, a bi-weekly webinar series.
• Colorado – Drought has been a main concern for the state and has been a focus for programming, including an adaptation of drought workshop to a one-on-one workshop format. In addition, drought workshop information was formatted for Facebook. Other activates have included updating factsheets and research projects on compost irrigated pasture and RestoreNet.
• Hawaii – Content from the Hawaii state site has been moved to the new Rangelands Gateway format. This is the final year of the RREA web-based conference series. All can be viewed at: https://globalrangelands.org/rreasp/webinars. Education efforts and information for both ranchers and the public on the Spittle Bug continue to be important efforts. Extension outreach initiatives were developed as a result of COVID-19 (pau hana sessions, virtual field day, Hawaii Livestock Extension YouTube channel, newsletter).
• Idaho – The NRCS CIG Grazingland Information System (RangeDocs) has been a major project. JournalMap 2.0 is an app and database that has potential to work with other systems, including the Rangelands Gateway. Youth education programs center on IROAM or the Idaho Rangeland Outdoor Adventure Mobile (https://idrange.org/iroam/).
• Kansas – In addition to the in-person adult range management schools, virtual platforms including Twitter, podcasts, and YouTube are being used to advertise events and share information. Phone calls and emails are also important ways to connect with producers. KSU’s Hale Library has reopened following a 2018 fire. Librarians are promoting the use of freely available open educational resources for course textbooks. The state website has been moved to the new Rangelands Gateway platform.
• Nebraska – ADOBE Spark is being used as an online platform to share research and information. It allows users to link back to pages, and allows flexibility in adding pictures to text, The BeefWatch newsletters and podcast are being used to bring together information. Infographics and fact sheets make data accessible, and webinars reaching a broader clientele.
• North Dakota – The livestock water quality program works to improve the quality of livestock water sources and reduce losses. A webinar series on integrated crop livestock systems reached nearly 1,000 participants. The format of the virtual DIRT Workshop was unique (https://www.ndsu.edu/soilhealth/dirt-workshop/). Videos, podcasts, and social media led to an increased virtual presence. The ND Reclamation Conference was moved to a successful webinar series.
• Oklahoma – The development of several new factsheets, a plant ID website, and an increased social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were highlighted (@OklahomaLands). Lessons learned include less text, the importance of visuals, paring research with interesting visuals, and the importance of having content shared.
• Oregon – Shared information about the various Extension experts in Oregon and their work related to rangelands.
• South Dakota – The BFRDP Grant from USDA is being used to run two programs, beefSD and a new program, AgritourismSD, that’s designed to help producers’ diversify their income source. Other projects highlighted included Beaver Believers and the SDSU Native Plant Initiative. A Professionals Range Camp with the theme of Black Hills ecology is planned for 2021.
• Altar Valley Conservation Alliance – This group was formed when neighbors and stakeholders came together around shared environmental concerns. The Alliance helps people to see the area as a whole, to look to the future, and to engage young people in this effort.

Following the state reports, there was session on the Rangelands Gateway. This long anticipated new website replaced Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and the membership site. All Rangelands Partnership websites are now integrated into a new, modern platform. During the meeting, the partnership toured the website, discussed the transfer of state-specific content, and the need for continued work on Topics.

Wednesday, April 21

The final day of the meeting focused on the work of the RP action groups and RP businesses meeting.

The Marketing and Social Media action group performed a needs assessment for an upcoming WSARE funded project that will help Partners learn more efficient and effective online marketing strategies. The Collections and Content Management group discussed plans to prioritize print resources to digitize and add to the Rangelands Gateway collections. The Sustainability and Membership action group brainstormed ideas for reaching out through SRM and agency meetings and building closer ties with other organizations; providing learning opportunities; and developing targeted products.

Business Meeting:
During the next year, the partnership will submit the new WERA proposal. Ashley Hall (Arizona) was elected to be the new secretary, Nancy Marshall (South Dakota) will move into the vice chair role, and Krista Ehlert (South Dakota) will move to the chair position. Retta Bruegger agreed to host the 2022 meeting in Grand Junction, Colorado. Travel awards will be available for several new members. RP Roundups will continue to be hosted in 2021-2022.

Community Building

• Successful virtual annual meeting of The Rangelands Partnership (April 2020). Attendees (43 virtual). Positive financial return.
• Recruited two new range specialists to represent Oregon in the Partnership.
• RP Executive Committee and Arizona technical team hosted 4 RP Roundups. These quarterly virtual learning and networking sessions focused on rangeland issues in the west and great plains. Sessions consisted of three sections: 30-minute talk, 2 30-minute breakout sessions, and a 30-minute networking session.
• Strengthened relationships and information sharing among rangeland professionals, librarians, and technology specialists in Western and Great Plains states through multiple communications outlets (i.e. listserv messages, monthly e-newsletter, social media posts), RP Roundups, and annual meeting.
• Several RP members contributed to progress on efforts to get approval from the U.N. for an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).

Technology

Significant steps have been taken toward achievement of the vision of the Rangelands Gateway to be a premier website for dissemination of scientific information on rangeland ecology and management.

• Launched Rangelands Gateway, a redesigned website that merged the Partnership’s Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and Member websites and resources together in one location. This refocused attention on the benefits and accomplishments of the Partnership, particularly for the western United States; streamlined and modernized the website design; improved navigation and accessibility of user-driven information.
• 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 is currently 25,370 (an addition of 1156 records).

Grants

The Rangelands Partnership continues to be recognized as an authority on rangelands that has led to many fruitful collaborations on grants and targeted projects. 

• Completed a two-year RREA National Focus Funds project “Strengthening RREA Programing Through Enhanced Connections: A Web-based Conference Series”. While this project was geared toward forestry and range Extension professionals, any interested parties were welcome to attend the webinars. The purpose of the series was to increase capacity among renewable resource Extension professionals as a result of the cross-pollination of ideas, approaches, technology use, and methodologies that will lead to more informed, better served stakeholders and a stronger RREA program. Across all nine webinars there were 1069 registrations and 649 participants (58% of registrations). More than 59% of the participants worked in Extension while 41% worked in other fields including academia, public agencies, and private natural resource services. Nearly every land grant institution was represented across all nine webinars. Webinar three, Engaging local Communities to restore Fire adapted Ecosystems had the highest number of participants at 174 including individuals from Australia, Spain, Guatemala, Columbia, Slovakia, Canada, Brazil and Jordan. Overall, 96.2% of survey respondents indicated that it was somewhat to very likely that something they heard during the webinars would enhance their existing Extension programing. Information on the webinars, as well as the recordings and discussions, may be viewed at https://globalrangelands.org/rreasp/webinars.
• Continued work on the NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant “A National Grazingland Information System: Expanding GlobalRangelands.org Through A Grazingland Thesaurus and Mobile Content Access”. Launched RangeDocs (https://docs.rangelandsgateway.org/), an innovative tool which allows rangeland professionals and producers to locate paragraph-level information in key documents, store documents in RangeDocs reading lists, and access those documents offline. Approved for a one-year no-cost extension on the grant through September 2022.
• The University of Arizona and Colorado State University received funding for a two-year WSARE Professional Development Program project “Increasing the Online Communication Toolbox for Sustainable Rangeland Management: A Train-the-Trainer Program” (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2023; WSARE Project #WPDP21-026)
• The University of Arizona, Colorado State University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and University of Idaho received funding for a two-year RREA National Focus Funds project “Expanding Extension Capacity Through RangeDocs: Searchable Rangeland Science” (September 1, 2021 – August 30, 2023; USDA NIFA NFF 2021-46401-34740).
• Washington State University received funding for a RREA National Focus Funds project “Big landscapes meet big data: informing grazing management in a variable and changing world” (starting September 2021)

Communication

• Continued distributing information and updates via RP social media and the RP Newsletter.
• Continued increases in newsletter subscription and engagement. The electronic newsletter, managed through MailChimp, is sent monthly to 206 recipients (Partners, rangelands professionals, and key university administrators). The newsletter focuses on RP related updates and articles written by RP members. Majority of newsletter recipients review the newsletter on a desktop (59.2%). Fifty-seven percent of recipients are highly or moderately engaged and open and click Partnership newsletter articles.
• Continued increases in RP social media activity. The RP Facebook increased page likes to 1,143 as of December 2020. Plant identification related FB posts were popular with the largest reach for an individual post being 767. The Global Rangelands YouTube channel featured 299 videos in 25 playlists (some videos in more than one playlist). The RP Twitter page currently has 641 followers.
• Continued increases in RP website usage. The Global Rangelands website usage has increased steadily from 41,480 in 2016 to 145,154 users in 2020. Page views increased from 282,995 in 2017 to 563,588 in 2020 with 179,446 sessions documented in 2020. Thirty-seven percent of users were from the U.S., with the other 63% from 215 different countries.

Challenges of the Past Year:

• Intensive workload for redesign of Rangeland Partnership websites.
• 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 
• Recruiting new members when retirements or position changes occur.
• Continuing to assess options for long-term sustainability and funding.
• Maintaining productivity for engaging, relevant, and educational social media posts.
• Helping to gain an IYRP designation within often unclear UN procedures.

In Process / Next Step Activities:

• Continue to work with technology experts to identify and correct issues related to the transition to Rangelands Gateway.
• Continue to keep Partnership members engaged in Rangeland Gateway 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 content from institutional repositories; create a toolkit for members to use for setting up harvesting
• Develop a succession plan for key Partners and recruiting strategy for new members.
• Encourage members to contribute to social media and marketing locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to highlight the Partnership.