The Art of Range Podcast

This forum highlighting leading women in ranching operations was recorded Feb 20, 2020 at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado as part of the Society for Range Management annual meeting. The speakers included women from non-traditional ranching backgrounds as well as women whose families have been in the ranching business for several generations. The speakers provide a breadth of perspective as to what ranching is and why women are critical to the mission of sustainable ranches. This list is certainly not comprehensive of all the qualified women, but a group who carry the flag for all those who are instrumental in their ranch operations.

Speakers were:

Mary Budd Flitner, Wyoming rancher-- "Betting It All "

Ashley Hibbard, Montana rancher--"Impostor syndrome". Starts at 19:25.

Julie Sullivan, Colorado rancher--"Hippie Meets Rancher". Starts at 40:30.

Nancy Ranney, New Mexico rancher--"Regenerative Ranching in Mesa Country". Starts at 1:04:35.

Mimi Hillenbrand, South Dakota bison rancher. (With apologies to Mimi, we’ve not included this talk because recording quality was poor and listening would depend on seeing the accompanying video).

The session was coordinated and facilitated by Pat Pfeil, a Florida rancher.

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For more information on rangelands and rangeland science, visit https://globalrangelands.org/

The forum was sponsored by:

National Grazing Lands Coalition

Colorado Cattlemen's Assn

Western Landowners Alliance

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

Colorado Dept. of Agriculture

AgRisk Advisors

Colorado Sheep and Wool Authority

Bamert Seed Company

When does science become art? We often refer to the “Art and Science of Range Management’ but how often do we acknowledge the “art” or the “artist?” in today’s world of ever-expanding technology and engineering, many aspects of the “art” of natural resource and land management are being overshadowed by a desire for predictability driven decision processes.

This session with Jenny Pluhar and Frank Price, involving a conversation with H.L. Bentley, Special Agent in Charge of Grass, Abilene, Texas Field Station, 1898, was recorded at the Society for Range Management annual meeting in Denver in February 2020.

Learn more about Frank Price at https://rangelandsandranching.com/.

The desire to be “right,” or better yet, to not be “wrong,” weighs heavily on the decision-maker and ultimately can lead to inaction for fear of getting the science wrong. Science and management theory have become a driver for many decision-makers in their efforts to minimize potential negative impacts of decisions made, and in the realm of natural resources, command and control are sought over managed ecosystems. Management decisions must be made every day in the world of land management and are nearly always made with less than perfect and far less than complete knowledge. Those tasked with the responsibility of stewarding the lands they manage are confronted with challenges that require a decision in the present that may have long-term implications, both to the operation as well as across a broad array of society. Added to the basic operational challenges of land management, the impacts of social, political, ecological and economic drivers confront the land manager with a complexity of scenarios that cannot be addressed through traditional scientific methodologies. in addressing these facts, the Society for Range Management recognized that rangeland management is the “art and science” of deploying management decisions on the landscapes. Whereas, academic endeavors rightfully focus on the “science,” the practitioner remains the ultimate decision-maker in the rangeland management system, the “artist” if you will, integrating both “art” and “science” into the decision-making process. in many ways, land management is truly a creative endeavor with the managers creativity producing the art of the management process. Science favors one “right” answer, while the artist may create many scenarios on the landscape, utilizing the science but considering all the other drivers mentioned above.

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TRANSCRIPT

A full transcript of this session is available at https://bit.ly/2RnGI9m

This talk was recorded at the Society for Range Management annnual meeting and training February 2020. The talk is from a symposium titled "Strategies for sustainability transformations in western rangelands."

Lynn's presentation is available as a PDF here. hhttps://bit.ly/2QJXxLi

Ranching and rangelands are undergoing rapid and intertwined changes. Changes include 1) ecological transitions due to climate and invasive species; 2) land use transitions associated with urbanization and shifting priorities for public lands; 3) demographic transitions reflected in the increasing average age and decreasing number of ranchers; 3) market transitions associated with changing consumer attitudes and globalized markets, and 4) technological transitions with advances in wireless and sensor technologies and access to “big data”. in this symposium, we ask: how can we direct inevitable change in desirable ways? Through these changes, how can we sustain the flow of rangeland products to consumers and improve environmental conditions in order to maintain or increase the well-being of those who live, work, and recreate on rangelands?

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Transcript: https://bit.ly/2WD8jGj

For more information on rangelands and rangeland science, visit https://globalrangelands.org/

Dr. Karen Launchbaugh's plenary address at the SRM's 2020 annual meeting was titled "Bridging the Gap: What Does SRM Want/Need to be and How to Get There?" This is a recording of that talk.

Karen's PowerPoint presentation is available in PDF at http://bit.ly/2TRiox7 if you want to follow along.

Karen Launchbaugh is a professor of rangeland ecology at the University of Idaho who specializes in topics related to grazing behavior, range animal nutrition, and targeted grazing. Dr. Launchbaugh’s research and teaching focus on applying principles of grazing management and targeted grazing to manage invasive plants, wildland fuels, and livestock-wildlife interactions. She is currently conducting research on how cattle grazing affect nesting sage-grouse and using targeted grazing to manage cheatgrass. Karen grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in western North Dakota where she developed a passion for un-derstanding rangelands and learned about the SRM through Ranch Camp and the High School Youth Forum. She subsequently obtained three college degrees in rangeland science and management including a B.S. from North Dakota State Universi-ty, M.S. from Texas A&M University, and Ph.D. from Utah State University. Karen currently serves as director of the Rangeland Center at the University of Idaho. the Center is a unique organization of 35 university scientists and educators who work closely with land managers to bring science to management issues on Idaho’s range-lands. Together, the Center’s faculty and partners “bring science and solutions to the range.”

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RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Brunson, M. W. & Huntsinger, L. Ranching As A Conservation Strategy: Can Old Ranchers Save The New West? Rangeland Ecology & Management 61, 137–147 (2008). PDF available at https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jrm/article/view/19844

Howery, L.D., 2015. A Brief History of How the Society for Range Management was Founded. Rangelands 37, 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2014.12.007.

Article available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005281400008X and a PDF is here: https://bit.ly/3bukFp8.

For more information on rangelands and rangeland science, visit https://globalrangelands.org/

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/3jogGPB

What's good for cattle nutrition is sometimes different than what's good for plants. Dr. Bohnert talks about the timing of nutrient supply on rangelands and the nutrient demand of late winter- or spring-calving beef cattle and how to manage body condition to optimize calf performance.

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Resources

TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/31B0lyt

Join Barry Perryman, Matt Williamson, and Karen Launchbaugh as they discuss recent research on cheatgrass causation and association and strategies to hold invasive annual grass at bay.

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ARTICLES MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Williamson article, “Fire, livestock grazing, topography, and precipitation affect occurrence and prevalence of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in the central Great Basin, USA”.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-019-02120-8

Reducing cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) fuel loads using fall cattle grazing

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1080744615301121

PDF here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brad_Schultz/publication/325182735_Viewpoint_An_Alternative_Management_Paradigm_for_Plant_Communities_Affected_by_Invasive_Annual_Grass_in_the_Intermountain_West/links/5b7588fda6fdcc87df814299/Viewpoint-An-Alternative-Management-Paradigm-for-Plant-Communities-Affected-by-Invasive-Annual-Grass-in-the-Intermountain-West.pdf

Grazing Management on Seeded and Unseeded Post-Fire Public Rangelands

https://www.appliedanimalscience.org/article/S1080-7446(15)30975-X/abstract

TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2ODRW8h

Join Julie Elliott, Chuck Butterfield, Hailey Wilmer and Matt Barnes as they discuss their new approach to the Society’s 2020 annual meetings. Interaction, conversation and hands-on learning rather than presentation is the outworking of a planning process that capitalizes on the integrative nature of rangeland science and rangeland people and the process of translating and transforming the Society’s meetings and trainings to the 21st century.

Find out more at http://www.srm2020.org/

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TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2RGM6Vv

"Six patches make you six times less likely to be entirely wrong". Diversity and variability drive rangeland health. Healthy rangelands provide an array of ecological and social goods and services. Resiliency describes the robustness of natural mechanisms that allow land to continue providing those EGS over time with and through disturbance. Disturbances are necessary processes to create botanical diversity, but also changing diversity, across space and time. Human-caused disturbances should avoid pushing ecosystems over thresholds, tipping points, into new degraded stable states. Dr. Fuhlendorf says scientists and managers should "embrace ecological humility" and assume we know less than we think we do.

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Resources

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2T0VKDx

"Six patches make you six times less likely to be entirely wrong". Diversity and variability drive rangeland health. Healthy rangelands provide an array of ecological and social goods and services. Resiliency describes the robustness of natural mechanisms that allow land to continue providing those EGS over time with and through disturbance. Disturbances are necessary processes to create botanical diversity, but also changing diversity, across space and time. Human-caused disturbances should avoid pushing ecosystems over thresholds, tipping points, into new degraded stable states. Dr. Fuhlendorf says scientists and managers should "embrace ecological humility" and assume we know less than we think we do.

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Resources

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/36uoQ28

Regenerative agriculture has gained popularity in response to concerns about the long-term effects of various agrochemical inputs we use on a variety of landscapes as well as the growing recognition of the complexity and sheer volume of microbial life in the soil-plant interface and below. Nicole discusses the origins of her book For the Love of Soil and some possible conclusions for building up soil health on rangelands.

Her book can be purchased on Amazon or at her website https://www.integritysoils.co.nz/

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TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2tw4I0W