Proceedings brand creation for a prescribed fire culture – utilizing key social media parameters. Lars Coleman*1, J. Kelly Hoffman1, Thomas McDaniel1, R. Patrick Bixler2, Urs P. Kreuter1, Morgan Russell3

Livestock management systems are becoming an increasing focus of attention in scientific study. An area of study that has not been heavily investigated is the social dimension of grazing management. Why do some livestock producers choose one form of grazing management over another? Why is there such a divide between adherents of different management systems? This study is aimed at understanding the differences in motivations and decision making regarding grazing management options across Alberta. Ranches involved in this study represent the Boreal, Montane, Parkland and Grassland Natural Regions of Alberta, and fall in to one of four distinct groups of grazing management systems: Holistic Management, Fast Rotational, Slow Rotational and Continuous/Seasonal. We will investigate the differences in landscape and grazing management by approaching graziers on a personal level, through a series of interviews. Each interview becomes more in-depth, with a focus on understanding perspectives on grazing and what motivates graziers. A biophysical range health assessment on approximately 30 ranches complements these interviews and provides physical evidence of the range health of the land. This assessment will be followed by a second in-person interview with the grazier focused on range health results. This second interview will address the extent to which the range health assessment is in line with expected results. We are currently beginning work on the in-depth interviews and range health assessments, with preliminary results expected for January 2018. With a focus on both the social aspect of grazing through candid interviews and range health assessments, along with grazier discussions, this approach to studying grazing management may result in a new understanding of grazier motivations and mindsets, and improve ways of fostering sustainable grazing management in Alberta and beyond, especially in areas where grazing management is largely a private and self-directed enterprise.  

CAN ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT HELP OVERCOME PERMITTEE-US FOREST SERVICE CONFLICTS? Aaron M. Lien*, George Ruyle, Laura López-Hoffman; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

In 2007, Region 3 of the US Forest Service (encompassing all national forests in Arizona and New Mexico) implemented a new policy to require the use of adaptive management in the administration and management of grazing allotments. This policy change was intended to increase flexibility and responsiveness to unpredictable environmental changes such as short- and long-term drought and wildfires thereby improving environmental, economic, and social outcomes. Resource users and on-the-ground managers have a significant impact on the success or failure of resource management policy. To evaluate how the US Forest Service adaptive management policy has been implemented and its success in improving social outcomes on-the-ground, we interviewed ranchers and forest district staff in Arizona and New Mexico. Interviews explored the management approach used on allotments, the relationship between the US Forest Service and permittees, and the impact of implementation of adaptive management policies on relationships between US Forest Service personnel and permittees. We hypothesized that implementation of adaptive management would have a positive impact on relationships between US Forest Service personnel and permittees because adaptive management provides for greater management flexibility and a context for improved communication about resource challenges and solutions. Our results show the policy has had positive social impacts in some parts of the region, but that these outcomes are variable and dependent on staff turnover in forest district offices, trust between US Forest Service personnel and permittees, and pre-existing conflicts unrelated to adaptive management policy.

CALIFORNIA-PACIFIC SECTION’S RANGE CAMP – IMPACTS OF OVER 30 YEARS OF RANGE EDUCATION. Julie A. Finzel¹, Theresa Beccehtti*²; ¹UC Coop Exten, Bakersfield, CA, ²UCCE, Stockton, CA

The California-Pacific Section (CalPac) started Range Camp in 1984, over 30 years ago, pulling high school kids from across the state and more recently also from Hawaii. It has always been held in Half Moon Bay, California at UC Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center. Many things about camp have changed since that first week, however, the core concept and organization remain the same. Looking ahead to another outstanding 30 years, camp organizers wanted to gain some feedback from past campers. A survey was distributed to former campers dating from 2001 to 2016 camp years.  284 were surveys were mailed, with 248 of those also receiving an email link to the survey for ease of completing. Our response rate was 14%, with the most recent years having a higher return rate of roughly 30% each for 2015 and 2016.  Survey participants were asked to share their background and knowledge prior to camp and then their perceptions of range management after completing the one week camp.  The survey not only captured information on lecture topics and camp activities, but also asked participants to indicate if camp had any influence on their academic or career choices.  73% of the respondents said Range Camp did influence their academic or career choices.  Range Ecology and Range Management appear to be the most influential topics for students.  Of the campers already in the workforce, 64% have a position in a range related field. 95% of campers indicated that Range Camp did increase their understanding of land and natural resource management as well as their perception of how their personal actions might affect the environment. Complete survey results will be presented along with next steps. 

ALONE ON THE RANGE: EXPLORING FIRST-GENERATION RANCHERS’ ADAPTATIONS TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN CALIFORNIA

. Kate Munden-Dixon*¹, Leslie Roche², Tracy Schohr³, Justin D. Derner⁴, Bethany B. Cutts⁵, Kenneth W. Tate¹; ¹University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, ²University of California, Davis, CA, ³UCCE, Oroville, CA, ⁴USDA-ARS, Cheyenne, WY, ⁵North Carolina State, Raleigh, NC

California’s ranching landscape is shifting as new ranchers enter, often with differing socio-economic backgrounds and goals. In contrast to multi-generational ranchers (MGRs), research suggests that first-generation farmers and ranchers (FGRs) are more likely to be younger, highly educated, non-White, non-Hispanic and female (Ahearn and Newton 2009). This talk will first discuss findings from a survey of California Cattlemen Association members to identify how FGRs’ operations, values, concerns and information sources differ from MGRs within California. Identifying these differences, as well as the nexus of similarities is critical, as previous research has indicated that understanding variations in FGRs’ operations and decision-making is key to crafting policies and initiatives to support these beginning ranchers and the health of rangelands (Huntsinger & Oviedo, 2014; Roche et al., 2015). The latter half of the presentation will present preliminary findings from an ongoing state-wide study in California that aims to identify the alternative goals of first-generation ranchers and strategies to access rangelands, markets, and information. Through the use of semi-structured interviews and surveys, this project offers an in-depth look into the diversity of first-generation ranchers involved in cattle, sheep and goats. This presentation will conclude with implications for the future of California ranchers and offer potential lessons for other rangelands undergoing demographic transitions.   

POINT BLUE’S RANGELAND WATERSHED INITIATIVE: CULTIVATING LEOPOLDIAN LAND STEWARDS. Kate Howard*¹, Carrie Richards²; ¹Point Blue Conservation Science, Yuba City, CA, ²Richards Grassfed Beef, Oregon House, CA

Point Blue Conservation Science in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has implemented a Rangeland Watershed Initiative in 22 counties in California and Nevada. Partner Biologists work in NRCS offices to assist land owners and managers increase soil health, water-holding capacity, and biodiversity as well as production on California rangelands. This Partner Biologist model relies heavily on building trusting relationships with private landowners. One of our goals is to cultivate and promote Leopoldian Land Stewards, based on a suite of characteristics that demonstrate an individual’s desire and ability to treat the land as a member of the community and maintain healthy functioning ecosystems for future generations to come. By tapping into ranchers’ inherit husbandry skills and family legacies, partner biologists encourage land owners extend these principles to the landscapes they work and rely upon. Ranchers face many challenges in today’s world. Partner Biologists work with them to help address an array of these challenges. By working together toward common goals of healthy landscapes and thriving communities, we are helping to promote and conserve the unique and diverse rangelands and the families and communities that live and work on them.

HOW CAPACITY-BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS CAN IMPROVE RANGELAND STEWARDSHIP: EXAMPLES FROM THE NRCS AND POINT BLUE.
. Tiffany Russell*; Point Blue Conservation Science, Susanville, CA

ABSTRACT

Partner biologists work with landowners, agencies, and non-governmental organizations to help improve wildlife habitat and the sustainability of working lands. They increase the capacity of existing agencies, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), as well bring in new partners and investors in private land conservation.  In California, partner biologists are adding value by identifying wildlife habitat opportunities within the regular NRCS Conservation Planning process, writing plans specifically for funds designated for wildlife benefits, providing additional capacity to monitor projects, helping with collaborative planning efforts in the local community, and connecting innovative producers and conservation partners. 

HABITAT FOR THE HOGWALLOW STARFISH (HESPEREVAX CAULESCENS) AND OTHER SPECIAL STATUS SPECIES ON CALIFORNIA’S RANGELANDS: ENCLOSURE AND ACCUMULATION ON A CATTLE RANCH

Past critiques of conservation easements have focused on the nature of perpetuity, enforcement limitations, and lack of easement flexibility and conservation effectiveness (Korngold 2009; Owley 2011).  I argue that easements especially an exacted easement, one that is fulfilling a mitigation requirement fundamentally change the landowner’s relationship to the land and its associated conservation values. Through review of three exacted conservation easement agreements, their management plans and endowment budgets, I provide evidence that re-territorialization, dispossession, and enclosure leading to accumulation perpetuate conflict between ranch landowners and conservation interests over protected versus working lands.  First, re-territorializing of the ranch as a preserve changes how ranchers can use the rangeland resources. It fails to value livestock production or rancher ecological knowledge, which contribute to ecosystem sustainability.  Second, prohibitions on some rangeland management practices like pest control, water development, and range seeding may render parts of the land of little value for livestock production resulting in dispossession.  Third, enclosure for conservation requires compliance and for exacted easements typically requires resource enhancements leading to accumulation.  A service industry emerges to uphold environmental regulations required for “special status” species that previously had no economic value. On the surface, all conservation easements give sustainable management “a foot in the door” and support the rancher’s place on the landscape, but taking a closer look reveals new enclosures of rangeland resources from exacted conservation easements and dispossession of livestock ranchers combined with accumulation by third party, non-state agents.

THE RANCHER AS THE STEWARD: BUILDING A LANDSCAPE OF COLLABORATION IN THE AMERICAN WEST

The armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early 2016 is the latest encounter in a long history of conflict surrounding the federally managed lands in the Intermountain west region of the United States. The standoff appeals to a narrative of the American West that pits the renegade against the lawman and the rancher against the management agency, celebrating the rugged individualism characteristic of the Western machismo. This project offers a counter-narrative of communities in the Intermountain west that wish to retain their unique cultural histories while evolving with the needs and commitments of contemporary environmental governance. In this paper, I aim to both offer a perspective of western communities that centers on their relationship to the land, including their willingness and desire to care for the environment as stewards, while highlighting some of the conceptual issues that impede this stewardship.

This project stems from my own publicly engaged philosophical research in the deserts of Nevada surrounding collaborative efforts to better manage public lands. Standing in stark contrast to the strategies of those that forcefully occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are those community members that seek to engage with local management agencies in collaborations that center trust, humility, and authentic dialogue in working through the environmental conflicts that impact the ecosystems, economies, and cultures of the west. This project builds a counter-narrative from these collaborations that considers new strategies of environmental governance on public lands, including discussion of the different types of expert knowledge brought to bear in public land management, the obstacles of deciding who to include and exclude in collaborative efforts, and the institutional obstacles that prevent legitimate collaboration and problem-solving at the local level. 
 

ECONOMICS OF SAGE-GROUSE CONSERVATION PRACTICES AT THE RANCH LEVEL. Anna T. Maher*¹, Nicolas E. Quintana Ashwell¹, John Tanaka²; ¹UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING, LARAMIE, WY, ²University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY

The conservation practices championed by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) have reduced threats to the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in 90% of the species’ breeding habitat. How livestock are grazed has changed on millions of acres of land across the western United States. Although these practices have resulted in positive conservation outcomes, this study is the first widespread effort to quantify their economic impact on ranch operations.

VALIDATION OF A MULTI-SPECIES NEAR INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY CALIBRATION FOR FECAL NITROGEN IN FREE-RANGING RUMINANTS.

Nitrogen is one of the constituents found in mammalian feces. Fecal nitrogen can be monitored to indicate forage diet quality or potential re-deposition of nitrogen into an ecosystem. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive, non-destructive analytical method used to determine fecal nitrogen. Multi-species NIRS calibrations have been developed for forage quality and composition but it is not known how well fecal NIRS calibrations might apply across herbivore species. We applied NIRS to determine fecal nitrogen in a temporo-spatially diverse calibration derived from multiple ruminant herbivore species (i.e. cattle, bison, deer, elk, goats, and sheep). Fecal samples collected fresh from the ground representing a herd or flock composite were shipped frozen or chilled to our laboratory via 2-d priority mail. Upon arrival, samples were processed for NIRS (400 to 2498 nm). Predictive calibrations  and validations were developed using partial least squares regression for: 1) all samples, 2) cattle only, 3) all except bison, 4) all except deer, 5) all except elk, 6) all except goats, and 7) all except sheep. All multiple coefficient of determination values for fecal nitrogen calibrations were ≥ 0.97. Corresponding standard error of cross validation values were ≤ 0.13. Validation results include simple coefficient of determination and standard error of prediction for each alternate species (3-7 above) using the cattle derived calibration ranged from 0.76 to 0.84, and 0.28 to 0.5 respectively. Similar values for the sequential species leave-one-out validation for fecal nitrogen were 0.67 to 0.89, and 0.17 to 0.47 respectively. Multi-species fecal NIRS calibrations for fecal nitrogen will facilitate real-time monitoring for pollution mitigation, precision application of soil amendments, livestock supplemental feeding, or wildlife habitat evaluation within appropriate guidelines. Our multi-species calibration results should be considered a preliminary evaluation of the technique.

INFLUENCE OF FIRE ON THE THERMAL ENVIRONMENTS OF SAGEBRUSH (ARTEMISIA SPP.) COMMUNITIES

All organisms have some range of temperature that constrains their ability to function properly (i.e., thermal sensitivity) and can even influence individual fitness. Thus, understanding the relationship between organisms and their thermal environments is fundamental to their conservation and management. Little is known about the thermal environments of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities and the effects of fire on the thermal landscape. Our objective was to provide a baseline of spatial and temporal thermal heterogeneity by measuring operative temperature within a sagebrush landscape affected by fire. Operative temperature characterizes the temperature of organisms in their environment independently of thermoregulation by integrating ambient temperature, solar radiation and conductive and convective heat transfer between organisms and their environments. Sagebrush communities affected by fire provided many thermal options for organisms. We observed a wide thermal gradient with a range of operative temperature from -8° to 61° C. Furthermore, when ambient temperature was 10° C, operative temperature varied 37° C (range: -3° to 34° C). Fire increased thermal heterogeneity across the landscape. Unburned sagebrush areas were cooler and had a lower rate of increase than burned sagebrush areas indicating that this relationship was magnified as ambient temperature increased. Additionally, the magnitude at which thermal environments were modified differed among unburned and burned, big (A. tridentata spp.) and low sagebrush (A. arbuscula) areas. Unburned big sagebrush areas buffered operative temperature relative to ambient temperature slightly more than burned big sagebrush, unburned low sagebrush, and burned low sagebrush areas. These results show high thermal variation among sagebrush communities and that fire alters thermal patterns across the landscape, which will likely influence the behavior of sagebrush obligate organisms, including Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).  

COMPARING BIRD COMMUNITIES IN WINTER PATCH AND PATCH BURN GRAZING SYSTEMS IN WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA. Jennifer Lutze*¹, Patricia S. Johnson², Kent Jensen¹, Jameson R. Brennan², Ashleigh Rhea¹; ¹South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, ²South Dakota State University, Rapid City, SD

The suite of grassland bird species native to the Northern Great Plains (NGP) requires a mosaic of diverse habitats ranging from excessive to lightly disturbed plant communities. Many of these species have been on a considerable decline since 1966, more so than any other group of birds in North America. A major cause of this decline has been loss of habitat, more specifically loss of heterogeneity in the NGP. Contemporary grazing strategies manage for uniform use of plant communities and have resulted in reduced structural heterogeneity at both the pasture and landscape scales. Patch-burn grazing (PBG) has been a very effective management strategy in the tallgrass prairies to increase structural heterogeneity, and bird responses have been very positive. However, burning is extremely unpopular in much of the NGP. Therefore, we conducted research to evaluate winter-patch grazing (WPG) as a non-pyric strategy to increase the structural heterogeneity on mixed grass prairie pastures and increase avian diversity. WPG was implemented at the SDSU Cottonwood Research Station and on two cooperator ranches in 2016. In October 2016, a large wildfire burned a considerable amount of the station research pastures. This provided a unique opportunity to compare the effects of WPG and PBG on structural heterogeneity and avian diversity on NGP grasslands. Differences in bird parameters (e.g. species diversity, composition, densities, and nest success) and habitat parameters (e.g. plant community height, composition, VOR), were analyzed to determine treatment differences. Results from this study will help inform land managers of the potential for WPG to serve as a substitute for PBG for improving grassland heterogeneity, and as a management strategy for improving grassland bird habitat.

EFFECTS OF RANGELAND MANAGEMENT ON SHARP-TAILED GROUSE HABITAT SELECTION IN MIXED GRASS PRAIRIES. Megan C. Milligan*¹, Lance B. McNew¹, Lorelle I. Berkeley²; ¹Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, ²Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Helena, MT