2011 SRM Fly-In, Washington D.C.

Guest post by Gary Frasier, SRM First Vice President

2011 Fly-In

Washington D.C.

SUMMARY REPORT


2-5 May 2011 

Participants: 

Jack Alexander, SRM President

Gary Frasier, SRM 1^st Vice President 

Wally Butler, SRM 2^nd Vice President

Aleta Rudeen, SRM Director of Outreach and Leadership Development 

Kimberly Haile, SRM Young Professional

Jess Peterson, SRM Executive Vice President

Kelly Fogarty, SRM Washington D.C. Liaison 

The Society for Range Management (SRM) executive committee travels to Washington D.C. each year.  The purpose of this trip is to converse with SRMs partners about current and past projects and to identify their current training needs and how SRM can help them meet those needs and maintain its role as an professional society for its members.

The Spring, 2011 Washington Fly-In consisted of two full days of short meetings with various Federal Agencies, (Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, and US Department of Agriculture officials), Sister Societies (The Wildlife Society, American Fisheries Society, Society of American Foresters), and commodity organizations (Public Lands Council, American Sheep Industry).  There was also a Reception by Western Skies Strategies (Jess Peterson) and a 2011 American Lamb BBQ hosted by the American Sheep Industry.

Under the leadership of SRM President Jack Alexander, discussions with each group centered on the Ecological Site Description Workshops facilitated by SRM, Training and Certification opportunities, and Native Range Forums, past and upcoming. 

We were well received by all groups. SRM is perceived as a credible science-based organization.  The discussions were very open with the dialog directed toward how we could all work more closely to achieve the goals of proper management of natural resources, especially during these times of reduced budgets. 

The Fly-In was considered a successful activity of getting to better know the “Washington Scene” and to expose the various groups we met with to SRM’s goals and objectives.

Interagency Rangeland ESD Pilot Workshop

 
The Interagency Rangeland Ecological Site Description (ESD) Pilot Workshop was held November 16 - 18, 2010 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  The workshop was a huge success with over 85 participants and three full days of excellent presentations and valuable discussions.  The Pilot Workshop convened technical leadership from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Forest Service, and was held at the Agricultural Research Service Jornada Experimental Range.

One primary objective of this workshop was to generate interest and support for a continuing interagency collaborative approach in the employment and utility of ESDs as well as for subsequent field-level training workshops. SRM is pleased to be in a position to support these ground-breaking efforts and is committed to moving forward with end products from the Pilot Workshop and next steps.  SRM is particularly excited to be a major player in the development of subsequent field level training workshops targeted for late Spring/early Fall 2011.  These subsequent workshops are intended to embrace a much broader audience including the entire SRM membership as well as non-members. Instructors for these workshops will not be limited to federal employees, but will encompass the larger knowledge base from university scientists, private consultants and other interested parties. 

Workshop objectives were to:

1. Provide an in-depth background on the fundamentals of ecological sites and descriptions.
2. Increase the understanding of current and emerging policy and science on how to define ESD's and develop ESD projects.
3. Explore collaborative applications of ESDs to decision-making across a variety of state-level (regional) scenarios.
4. Scope preliminary plans for moving forward with agency implementation at the field level.

To meet these objectives, the Pilot Workshop included a variety of presentations on ESDs and the interagency approach to their development and use.  The middle of the workshop included an informative field tour, which was useful in linking the scientific concepts of ESDs to what ecological sites and different states might look like on the ground.  The workshop concluded with breakout sessions and an open mic session to discuss the challenges and opportunities of ESDs, and a synthesis of the workshop.

Click here to view the Pilot Workshop agenda and details.  Click here to visit the Jornada website for access to workshop presentations and materials, including PDF documents of PowerPoint presentations from the Pilot Workshop.  A special thank you to the sponsors of this Pilot Program and to all of those who were instrumental in moving this process forward.

Stay tuned for information on the subsequent training workshops.