SRM Spotlight Synopsis: Final Report by SRM Outreach Intern, Julia Workman

Serving as Society for Range Management’s first Outreach Intern this semester has been an amazing learning experience. My first goal for the Internship was to glean personal insight from SRM members and make this information available through posts on the SRM blog. My duties taught me to present information in a manner that would appeal to a wide audience, with varied backgrounds but a common interest. Along with this, I had the opportunity to travel to Grand Junction for the Colorado Section fall meeting, and to share what I have learned in the interviewing process. My second goal was to establish relationships and gain experience interacting with the diverse group of professionals involved in SRM. This was achieved through communication with the members I interviewed and various other members with whom I interacted. My time at the Colorado Section meeting allowed me to meet with with experienced members on a personal level while carrying out my internship duties. The insights gained from these experiences will be valuable as I go forth and attempt to achieve my own career ambitions.

To gather the information from SRM members, I conducted ten interviews with members representing eleven different sections (Pacific Northwest, California-Pacific, Idaho, International Mountain, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Northern Great Plains, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida). Nine of these interviews were conducted by telephone, and the remaining interview in person at the Idaho Section fall meeting. Interviewees represented a broad range of professions in the field of rangeland management: two ranchers, three researchers (including one professor emeritus), three government agency-employed resource managers (two with the federal government and one with a state), one private contractor, and one botanist. Most came from rural backgrounds related to rangelands or agriculture, but each had followed a unique career path, and all had played very different roles in SRM. Despite the diversity of individuals I interviewed, there was an overall trend of similar answers and common themes throughout the interviews.

One of the first questions I asked each member was why he or she had joined SRM. Three joined in college, and seven during their professional careers. Their reasons for joining included the information offered, the professional development opportunities, employer or agency encouragement, or a combination of the three. They were then asked, based on their experiences, what SRM can do to attract and retain members. Their answer: Stay relevant! Be more engaged with the public, and more visible. Make apparent exactly what SRM is doing in rangeland management. Another suggestion was that the Society needs to attract students, then keep track of them as they move into the workforce by maintaining personal contact. Attracting individuals at the local level and through agencies is also going to play a big role—again, through personal contact. Another important aspect, which was emphasized again and again by member after member, is outreach. Rangeland management is broadening in its scope, and the spectrum of people the Society is trying to reach should broaden as a reflection of that.

One focus of my interviews was on the changes that are occurring in SRM and the workforce. The members with whom I spoke said that the main principles of SRM have remained the same, which is very important to them. But they also talked about some positive changes, like increased involvement from younger generations and the large student presence in the Society right now. It was great to hear these longtime members talking about how the younger generation is bringing new ideas and a new energy to the profession! From a logistical standpoint, interviewees felt that it is also really important that younger members be able to fill the gaps in the workforce left by retiring members, especially the members of the “Baby Boomer” generation.

Another important theme mentioned with respect to SRM’s recent changes was the way the Society is reaching out to other groups. One example cited was the producer forums which were held at the Annual Meeting in Denver last year. Two interviewees felt that SRM has distanced itself from livestock production groups in the last several years and are really pleased with the reverse in that trend. Another long-term member was pleased with the way the Society is embracing ecology. He pointed to the journal change to Rangeland Ecology and Management as evidence of that; another great example of the Society’s emphasis on ecology is the Ecological Site Description workshops with which SRM is currently involved. This means the Society is reaching out in a lot of different directions and satisfying people with very different interests. One of the most important groups to reach out to is the general public. Rangeland managers are increasingly seeing the need to be aware of society’s opinions and deal with them. As management for broader interests, like open space, becomes more prevalent, it is becoming increasingly important to embrace nontraditional areas like policy and human dimensions—because these aspects are now intrinsically intertwined with rangeland management.

Another big change in SRM is an increased emphasis on using technology, both old and new. The Internet, for example, can be a major tool in facilitating everything from communication to research. Information can be found with an ease never possible before, through resources ranging from online journals to programs like Google Earth that offer a big view and great resolution. As we manage on a broader scale, it is important to let land managers see their parcel in the context of the bigger landscape.

I also asked interviewees what SRM can do to better serve its members. One important service, they said, involves continuing to provide lines of communication between agencies, landowners, land managers, and environmental groups, while providing a safe venue for discussion between said groups.

It is also very important right now, as many members are retiring and many others joining the workforce for the first time, that knowledge be passed between generations. It is therefore going to be critical to retain members after they retire in order to retain that institutional knowledge for the sake of the profession. One of the most important places for mentoring to occur between generations is at local field days and tours, where the younger members can get their hands dirty and gain real field experience, in a one-on-one scenario. However, Annual Meeting mixers also play an important role in opening channels of communication and fostering relationships.

What these members value about SRM (what it is doing well) was another question posed in these interviews. A few mentioned the journals and continuing education, but every single interviewee emphasized the networking and personal connections they have gained through SRM, and how valuable and irreplaceable those have been.

As for where the Society is headed, half of the members interviewed said that down the road, they want SRM to still be alive. These members want to see the Society still active, relevant, and viable—“continuing to do what we do, respectably.” They would like to see SRM continue to be a voice for rangeland management and for rangelands themselves: it is unique among professional societies in that it speaks for the resource. They said SRM needs to be looking at broader issues as the profession broadens. It needs to continue to diversify its membership, while maintaining its founding ideals. These members want to see the dissimilar groups involved in rangeland management working together toward common goals, because in diversity there is strength.

The overall consensus through these interviews was that the Society is doing very well. All the people with whom I spoke were positive about where SRM is now and where it is headed—at least, in the words of one, “there’s always room for improvement, but it’s not necessarily a poor job.”

As for me, through this experience I gained a much better appreciation for some of the history of SRM and some of the changes the Society has seen in the past few years. It was fascinating to get to know members who have played huge roles in their respective sections and states, within and outside of SRM. The different perspectives these members have, the changes they have seen, and the directions we are taking, say a lot about where we stand as a Society. I find it reassuring that they were for the most part pleased with where we stand. However, it was educational to hear about some of the issues SRM has been facing. New members like me sometimes do not always hear a balanced report involving the negative aspects of a group or the difficulties it is facing.

I believe that I have personally grown in this experience by overcoming a great deal of shyness in talking to strangers over the telephone. By having to do so, on a weekly basis, I have become much more comfortable with introducing myself and conducting business in a professional but relaxed manner. Correspondingly, this development has also helped me in dealing with people face-to-face. It was more natural for me to strike up conversations with total strangers at the Colorado Section meeting, and to ask questions. This is a professional skill that many of the individuals interviewed told me will be important in my career, and I believe that this Internship has been very influential in helping me develop it.

Written communication has also been an important part of this experience. It was my primary means of interaction with others during the Internship, and this required a honing of my writing skills to develop the proper tone in correspondence via email, and in posting of blog updates. The blogging necessitated that I learn to transcribe what members said over the phone into informative and interesting posts that would not offend, mislead, or misrepresent. Representing a professional Society in such a fashion, I learned to pay close attention to the tone and message presented by each phrase and comment to avoid misrepresentation of the individuals and the organization. It was a valuable experience and allowed for a better understanding of the “politics” that such a position means.

Overall, I have had a wonderful semester and would like to thank SRM and its members for the opportunity to take part in this Internship. I believe that the Internship is a great opportunity and hope to see more involvement from both students and members as the program continues to grow.

SRM Spotlight: Dave Pellatz, Wyoming Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

Dave Pellatz of Wyoming says that his work in rangelands is his third or fourth different major career. After receiving degrees in both petroleum engineering and geological engineering as well as owning a couple of different businesses, he has returned to the rural setting he loves.

Dave grew up on a ranch, and his family and in-laws both have ranches in the Thunder Basin grasslands. He says that his career switch allowed him to return to the Thunder Basin area and raise a family there. Dave adds that “if you’re going to live in a place where you’re very distant from jobs, you have to be creative in what you do.” His creativity led him to work on contract as Project Manager for the Thunder Basin Grasslands Prairie Ecosystem Association and as Range Manager for the Thunder Basin Grazing Association. He explains that the skill sets he gained in his other positions have transferred readily since much of what he does pertains to management. However, he does want to gain a better understanding of the ecosystems in which he works. To that end, he is now working on a Master of Science degree in Rangeland Ecosystem Science through Colorado State University.

This learning process is also where SRM came into play three years ago. Dave explains that since joining, he has used the Society “to accelerate the learning curve to get a broader base of information in specific range topics. The ongoing conferences and the print publications (with back issues online) have been most valuable to him. He adds that Rangeland Ecology and Management suits his needs, but likes that Rangelands is also offered as a more accessible resource for those who aren’t necessarily interested in research.

One division in SRM that Dave sees as less positive is the generation gap. Dave notes that universities are successful to some extent in facilitating the transfer of knowledge to younger generations. However, he believes SRM might be able to participate in this transfer by helping to encourage this at the agency level. Largely, Dave says, the success of any mentoring program depends on who potential mentors have available to teach. Too often, information from people with on-the-ground experience is not captured and does not have the impact it should. Dave says that there would be value in doing interviews with members with many years of experience so that some of their knowledge could be recorded.

Dave sees a broad interest base in rangelands and rangeland management. The use of technology in the field allows information to reach people from many diverse backgrounds. He argues that without a strong online presence, the Society will find it difficult to compete in upcoming years. He would like to see SRM continuing to develop and support the use of technology to share information. “Don’t replace what’s tried and true,” he says, “but if you don’t stay ahead of trends you’ll become irrelevant.”

Dave cautions that it can be dangerous to think that one understands all the interrelationships in the very complex system in which we work. His advice to land managers is to be sure that management decisions are accompanied by continuous monitoring efforts, which help to embrace complexity and the unknowns in the system. “Tread carefully with the tools you employ,” he says. “Know your environment and the parameters before you go out and try to change the world.”

SRM Spotlight: Tate Lantz, South Dakota Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

South Dakota native Tate Lantz is a fan of the producer forums that were held at the Denver Annual Meeting last year. Their value is “a no brainer,” he says, adding that these forums were “at least as well attended as any of the others.” He believes that reaching out in this way to producer-oriented groups and landowners will go a long way toward making these members feel more comfortable in a Society that he believes has moved more toward academia since he joined over twelve years ago.

Tate grew up on a ranch in central South Dakota, raising both cattle and crops. Even after graduating from South Dakota State University and ending up with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), he still enjoys being able to go home and work on the family ranch. Now a Rangeland Management Specialist with the NRCS Rapid City Field Office, Tate also enjoys skiing and snowboarding and, he laughs, “I seem to hunt more than my wife likes!” Tate joined SRM when he first went to work with the NRCS in 1998; he recently finished his term on the South Dakota Section SRM Board of Directors and is also the current Awards Committee Co-Chair for his Section.

The NRCS, Tate says, encouraged him to get involved in SRM by helping new employees to attend conferences and other events. However, it is the connections he has made that have kept him a member of the Society. “You can’t get these benefits anywhere else,” he remarks. The people he has met and the ability to contact them with questions have been instrumental in his career. He adds that SRM has improved younger members’ opportunities to open those lines of communication. When Tate was first starting his career, he says, “you’d just start a conversation when you were sitting next to a guy at the bar.” Now, programs like the Tapping the Top Mixer at Annual Meetings make building relationships a lot easier.

Tate recommends that young members attend the International Meetings and talk to people while there. He adds that younger members should simply introduce themselves if they want to learn more about a topic of discussion between other members, saying that “most will let you right in” to the conversation. The whole meeting, he believes, is a great place to foster relationships between generations. He suggests that older members get to know one or two younger people and stay in contact with them to mentor to them through their careers. He also counsels younger members to actively seek out experienced members and take them on as mentors to coach them through their careers. “It would be nice [for these members] to have… a go-to person,” he explains.

Such connections are especially important in these transitional times. Tate comments that even locally, he sees more NRCS professionals retiring than are starting with the agency. This will be an issue down the road as access to fewer employees places more stress on projects and the workforce. However, it also means that there will be a lot of job openings and opportunities for professionals. Tate observes that SRM seems to be doing well at getting and keeping young people involved, and suggests that it help keep these members abreast of new job opportunities.

Tate’s vision for SRM involves more diversity. He says the different groups— “the producer, the rancher, the hunter, the birdwatcher, and the [academic]—they all need to be involved.” He wants the Society to maintain its activity in rangeland management and hopes that events such as the Annual Meeting will move closer to “the heart of real-life ranching” so that landowners would be better able to attend. Tate believes that the Society will continue to thrive by better incorporating land managers and producers into its ever-changing face.

SRM Spotlight: Dan Macon, California-Pacific Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

“Since I’ve started ranching, I haven’t had as much time to volunteer with SRM,” admits Dan Macon, past president of the California-Pacific Section and current owner of Flying Mule Farm in the foothills northeast of Sacramento. There, in Placer and Nevada counties, they raise mostly sheep, and market grass-fed lamb and beef to restaurants and other consumers. Before the farm was founded in 2001, Dan had a variety of careers, starting with an Agricultural and Managerial Economics degree at the University of California-Davis. After graduation, he worked with the California Cattleman’s Association on federal land policy, endangered species concerns, and range management issues. He also helped start—and served as the first executive director of—the California Rangeland Trust (CRT). After that, he worked with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and then a local land trust.

Dan enjoys reading and camping and is very interested in wildlife. Fly-fishing is another favorite activity when he has the time. Despite the relative inactivity he claims now, he has also been quite involved in SRM since he joined fifteen years ago. Besides serving on the California-Pacific Section board and as the Range Excellence Committee Chair, he has served as Section President in 2001 and received the Ranch Manager of the Year award.

Professional development was Dan’s reason for joining SRM: the Society gave him a chance to gain some technical knowledge of rangeland management since he did not have much background in the field. He says he liked—and likes—that SRM brings together the science and art involved in managing rangelands, and that SRM is the only professional group to bring an ecosystem approach to range management. Looking back, he says that the education he has received through SRM has been very valuable in his career, along with the opportunity to make connections with other professionals. Another strength of the Society, he says, is its ability to make available information to make ranching operations more sustainable and economically viable.

Dan says he was at the forefront of a demographic change among students interested in rangeland management. When he was a student, the profession was beginning to see a shift away from those with agricultural backgrounds—a change which is evident in SRM membership. Dan says that this movement has given range managers a great opportunity to collaborate with other professions and will make the profession stronger in the long run: “diversity is a good thing” when it provides a group with more perspectives and backgrounds.

According to Dan, it is important to bring new and experienced members together. He says that meaningful involvement for young members consists of more than speaking contests, and that direct, hands-on experience with professionals is vital for the professional development of members early in their career. It also provides an opportunity for both young and old to learn from each other. He would like to see more recent college graduates taking on internships on farms and ranches, and SRM continuing to take a bigger role in that: “Opportunities go beyond programs at universities. The professional knowledge is very important.”

Natural resources- and agriculture-related professions, Dan says, will continue to undergo a profound change as interest in local food production for national security increases. He believes that rangeland management is following the same trends as agriculture in that the interest in both has skipped a generation or two, but a new generation is now receptive to SRM’s approach to rangeland management; SRM just needs to reach them. He sees a bit of a struggle in the Society as perceptions of rangelands shift, and believes that SRM will best attract new members in the future by staying relevant. Efforts to broaden outreach to the upcoming generation, while providing professional development opportunities relevant to the public, ranchers, and communities, will be important in achieving this goal.

Dan’s great hope for SRM is that it continues to diversify its membership along a spectrum of ages and backgrounds. He would like to see it recognized as a place for scientific debates and a safe environment for discussions between ranchers and environmental groups.

He also hopes that younger members will get involved by attending section and parent society meetings—but “not going and passively participating: getting involved!” The field tours, he says, are critical and counsels that younger members should seek out more experienced members at these events to get help, information, and mentorship. He concludes with a lesson he has learned from his own diverse background: “Find a way to do what you love!”

SRM Spotlight: Matt Wagner, Texas Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

“Don’t be afraid to go in a direction that’s outside your comfort zone, your area of expertise,” says Matt Wagner, Deputy Director for the Wildlife Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He has always loved being outdoors—first fishing, then hunting—and learning about the plants and the wildlife there.

So it was that he became involved in Range Management at Texas A&M University and joined SRM, and later (after a brief stint of working on ranches in Texas) received his Master’s degree in Range Management at Montana State University. Matt moved back to Texas with his wife after three years in Montana and began his professional career at the Texas A&M Experimental Station. He has now been with Texas Parks and Wildlife for 22 years, and received his Ph.D. in Regional Planning, with an emphasis in Developmental and Water Planning, from Texas A&M in 2005.

Matt says he still enjoys hunting and fishing, as well as reading (especially about conservation) and getting together with his large family in Texas.  After almost 30 years in SRM, Matt has served on various section committees and as section Director. A little over a year ago, he took on the duties of Second Vice President of the Texas section and in January will assume the role of President of the largest section in the Society for Range Management. He says it’s important to be involved in a professional society for the networking, continuing education, and professional development—especially the opportunity to become a certified professional.

Overall, though, networking is one of the aspects he has found to be most valuable throughout his involvement with SRM. He has met many inspiring people, young and old: especially, he says, “the newer ones who are really hungry for information and whose energy rubs off on some of us old guys.”One aspect of networking in the Society that Matt feels is particularly important is getting long-term members—those with experience—to mentor the newer generations. He comments that the constant communication younger generations now experience, with friends and colleagues, is distracting and creates an expectation that things should happen quickly. They have to learn that anything takes time when dealing with the natural environment. He suggests that the Internet, as a tool with which young people are very familiar, could be employed to organize a mentoring system in SRM.

However, current practices such as the Annual Meeting mixers and especially local field days and tours are great ways for the two groups to come together. He says that younger members can learn a great deal by interacting with older generations at these functions when they turn their cell phones off and are unafraid to introduce themselves to professionals.

Another important shift in the Society today involves incorporation of new viewpoints and reaching out to people in “nontraditional” areas such as policy, human dimensions, and social relationships. The multidisciplinary approach to managing rangelands, Matt says, will retain its importance as the profession moves forward. Rangelands are the largest system in the world so we will always need people with specific training in rangelands, but these people will have to be able to work with other aspects as well. And, says Matt, just as range managers now have to deal with a broader range of factors for successful management, they also have to deal in broader scales. Technology such as Google Earth allows land managers to see their parcels in the context of the surrounding landscape, and integrate the bigger soil and water properties. Matt would like to see larger organization within SRM based on larger landscape details such as watersheds or large ecological areas.

Matt also talked about the changing US and global economy. He admitted that it doesn’t look so bright, but added that by the time today’s college student reaches retirement age, we will have seen natural resources management and the economy merge. “It’s based on scarcity—the economy will follow demand. Natural resource management is the next growth industry.” He foresees a future where natural resource managers become national leaders and hopes that SRM will become more visible to the people “on the land, managing the land” as this change takes place.

SRM Spotlight: Roger Blew, Idaho Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

Ecologist Roger Blew recently acquired his pilot’s license. He also owns half an airplane, which “seems to be the expensive half,” he laughs. Other pastimes include fly fishing, spending time with his dog, Bud, and—until recently—planning the Idaho Section SRM winter meeting.

Roger says joining SRM was a logical step when he began working with Stoller Corporation in Idaho 15 years ago and began work on sagebrush steppe ecosystems—the Society was “a natural fit for where I was in my career, and what I needed in the professional world,” he says. Of course, work in rangelands meant returning to old interests.

He grew up in Kansas and did his undergraduate and graduate studies in rangelands at Emporia State and Kansas State Universities, but his post doctoral work in forest systems at the University of Washington. His work with Stoller in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, after he finished his post doc, brought him back to the interests he had had when taking range classes in Kansas and later pursuing his Ph.D. in soil ecology at the University of Calgary.

Since joining Stoller Corporation and SRM upon completion of his post doc, Roger has served as the Idaho section newsletter editor for four or five years, and recently took over the duties of Idaho Section President at the section meeting, on November 11.

Roger believes that SRM has undergone some important changes since he joined—namely, the transition of the flagship journal from the Journal of Range Management to Rangeland Ecology and Management, an ecology-based publication more similar to the journal of 15 years ago and the associated emphasis of ecologists in the Society. He also notes that new demands have been placed on ranch managers as new values have been placed on rangelands, and says that SRM has made a positive move to become more applicable to broader society by accommodating those changing values. The range profession itself has changed as well, incorporating new technology and new emphases on grazing plans and assessments, NEPA documentation, and other office-related work. Field work is still a major component of managing rangelands, but different skill sets (such as understanding statistical models and new tools such as GIS and GPS) are gaining more importance. These and other factors have forced managers to look at landscapes as a whole and highlighted the need for interagency cooperation and management for multiple uses.

When it comes down to it, Roger sees and strongly supports a movement to place greater emphasis on plant ecology in the Society. He argues that it is the basis for rangeland management: as he has heard from ranchers, “we’re not raising beef, we’re raising grass.” He also likes that rangeland management is now incorporating such ideas from plant ecology as state and transition models. To Roger, the exchange of ideas—between people and groups—is extremely important, and one of the aspects of SRM he has found most valuable in his career. This goes hand in hand with the opportunity for continuing education through SRM, important because “learning doesn’t stop when we graduate [from] college”—we need to update our knowledge as the science changes. He says he appreciates being able to learn from other SRM members’ experiences, both successes and failures.

On that note, he advises that younger SRM members can get the most out of their membership by getting involved, especially by attending—and participating in—meetings at all levels. The URME, Range Cup, and Plant ID contests, among others, are great ways of making a student’s name known to potential employers. Plus, the meetings provide opportunities to gain exposure to current issues, and gain valuable knowledge from the older generations. He comments that the way SRM includes students in the Society through its undergraduate education, involvement, and mentoring emphases is unique among the societies of which he is a member.

Roger joked at the Idaho section business meeting, that a good deal of his success in planning the meeting was due to “good people.” After reiterating this point in his interview, he added, “First rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people: hire people who are better than you!”

SRM Spotlight: Chuck Quimby, Colorado Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

For the busy professional, it can be difficult to maintain a high level of involvement in a society like SRM. Life member Chuck Quimby, Rangeland Program Manager for the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region, can relate. This Colorado Section Member enjoys playing the bagpipes (although he declined to elaborate on his skill level), as well as hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation. He received his B.S. in rangeland management with a wildlife management minor from the University of Arizona, where he also earned his Master’s degree in watershed management. He has been with the Forest Service for 39 years since graduating, not including seasonal work and a brief stint with the NRCS. Chuck says that his job keeps him busy, which means that he has been able to hold “no real offices” in SRM serving on the editorial board for Rangelands magazine. Yet he has maintained an active membership since the late sixties, when he joined as a college student. He says he joined because SRM was the professional organization for rangeland management.

Chuck decided early to become a life member because of the importance of staying involved with such an organization, and has maintained his membership in the Society for the value of his interactions with other members and access to the Society’s journals.

The Society, Chuck says, is still meeting the needs of the workforce at least as well as when he joined. He cites Rangelands and Rangeland Ecology and Management as examples of these services which also enable the Society to reach a broader and richer audience. He adds that the sections are doing a good job of staying strong and keeping people informed.

Chuck adds that SRM has done a good job of keeping its focus fairly constant, with its emphases on science and on-the-ground application, since he joined—despite some important changes. The “biggest and best” change he has seen has been the outreach to other groups with an interest in rangelands, especially professional groups and the livestock industry. He explains that livestock grazing has recently come under attack in Western culture, and hopes that SRM will be to maintain the importance of livestock grazing on the rangelands of the West. Chuck also hopes that SRM will stay relevant—the “go-to leader” for rangeland management—as it begins to deal with new aspects of rangeland management in a changing culture. “Open spaces” and zoning have not had bearing on rangeland management in the past, he points out, but will play critical roles in the future as urban areas continue to encroach on the rangeland interface. He also notes the demographic change seen all over the workforce today: an aging workforce in both the Society and agencies: “I’ve been around for 39 years, but I’m not going to stay forever,” he says.

Chuck believes SRM should work more closely with universities and agencies to produce graduates qualified to work in a variety of fields. It’s not enough anymore, he says, to graduate with a range degree: a professional needs to be able to interact with fish, wildlife, and water, as well. The presence of older, retired members in the Society is also an important resource for younger members so long as they make use of the opportunity to gain the knowledge born of years of experience.

All that said, Chuck still most highly values how the SRM enables him to interact with “a lot of different professionals in a lot of different fields” and appreciates the training, education, and knowledge exchange it has to offer, as well as being able to keep abreast of the latest science through access to SRM’s journals. He hopes SRM will be able to stay alive, active, and relevant in the coming years, and more engaged in a changing Western America and a changing world. Many groups, he says, don’t like or don’t understand what range managers and SRM do, but he hopes our importance will be made apparent to those people who care about rangelands and even to those who don’t know what rangelands really are.

Chuck has two pieces of advice for younger members. The first concerns SRM involvement: Join, he says, and go to as many functions as you can; when you’re there, interact with other members. Take initiative, because your own interest will carry you the farthest. His second is broader: There is no dumb advice. He clarifies, “You can learn from anybody, anywhere; you just have to be able to put [their advice] in perspective and make it fit your situation.”

SRM Spotlight: Duane McCartney, Northern Great Plains and International Mountain Sections

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern

After more than 25 years in the Society for Range Management, Duane McCartney says the best advice he ever received was from a retired scientist in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, who simply told him, “SRM is a great organization and you should join it!” Duane took these words to heart and has been deeply involved with SRM ever since.

Duane is a retired research scientist with Agriculture Canada who enjoys canoeing, cross country skiing, landscape photography, and construction. A Forage Beef Management Systems Research Scientist, he points to his early life experiences in 4-H as the first step on his path to becoming an SRM member. He later attended the University of Guelph in southern Ontario and received a degree in Animal Science before coming to Agriculture Canada. There, he researched cost-saving methods for beef and forage production in West Canada, focusing on management systems in that area. It was during the same period, in Swift Current, that Duane’s mentor, an SRM member, advised him to join the organization. Duane followed this advice and even chartered the Saskatchewan SRM section after becoming a member, at a time when the province had only a handful of SRM members.

Since then, Duane has been heavily involved both as a member of the Nominations Committee and the Awards Committee, on which he has also served as Chair. His advice for younger members who want to get the most out of their membership echoes the same principles he has followed: “The big thing is to be involved.” He recommends that students join and actively participate in their university range clubs while in college, and later in the section associated with their post-graduation location. He adds that section committees are always looking for younger member involvement, which can lead to opportunities for early career members. Further, Duane advises that involvement in field days and local tours, with the chance to interact one-on-one with older members, is a great way to learn and critical to the transfer of knowledge to the next generation.

Throughout his 25 years of involvement, Duane has seen many changes in the demographics of the Society. Membership has fluctuated some, and the younger members, such as students, have taken a larger role. He notes that now the Society has “more ladies—that’s a big one.” There is also a greater emphasis on multiuse and less on ranching now than in the past, though the ranching aspect has made a comeback in recent years. Yet, he says, the main principles are still the same; with good leadership, the Society has been able to change with the times and without altering the things most important to its membership. SRM is, as always, an excellent venue for communication among professionals and researchers, a setting for employers and prospective employees to meet, and a Society which manages to include something for everyone at the national meetings. Duane places high value on the friends from all over the world that the Society has allowed him to make, and the chances to take tours of other ecosystems—“ones I wouldn’t see in Canada.”

The SRM of twenty-five years from now, Duane hopes, will be similar to that of today—a strong organization, and an important voice for range management involving a diversity of people. He sees a big role for SRM as the focus switches from managing rangelands for livestock to managing rangelands for multiuse, and the involvement of a broad spectrum of people as it seeks to meet society’s changing needs.

SRM Spotlight: Lynne Breese, Pacific Northwest Section

By Julia Workman, SRM Outreach Intern



Lynn (with Bonnie and Kippy) monitoring a prescribed range burn



For ranchers Lynne Breese and her husband John of Prineville, Oregon, membership in the Society for Range Management is about being part of a big family. “It’s like going to a family reunion,” she says of attending SRM functions. Members “don’t always agree, but we can learn from each other and we’ve become such good friends, we can work out problems together.” Since joining the organization in the early 90s, Lynne has certainly been involved in that family.

Lynne was raised in an agricultural setting, with a father who worked as a researcher at the Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station in Ontario. She also participated in 4-H, an experience which would later lead her to a home economics degree and a career as an extension agent with Oregon State University.

Lynne joined SRM in the early 1990s, about the time she took a role in the full-time management of the ranch. She says that then as now, it was important to both her and her husband (who had joined a few years before) that SRM provided them a medium for meeting people with a variety of experiences on rangelands, and allowed them the opportunity to learn more about the things they wanted to do with the ranch.
John and Lynne’s ranch has been in the family for well over a century, since John’s great-grandfather homesteaded it in the late 1880s. She notes that in photos of the original homestead, there is a conspicuous lack of invasive junipers. Juniper control is thus an important part of the couple’s management. She relates how she and John often host student groups who come to “learn on the land,” by working on the ranch: “they help cut little junipers to eat,” she explains with a chuckle, noting that all parties seem to benefit from the exchange. The different activities these students engage in during their time on the ranch are important learning events for all participants, and Lynne believes such events to be one of the best ways for young members to learn from older ones. Especially in light of current workforce trends away from agricultural backgrounds, Lynne emphasizes that students need to “get out and get their hands and feet dirty” in order to learn. They need to work with those who live and work on the land in order to gain a practical knowledge of the field. “You don’t do that by sitting at a computer,” she adds, also noting that agencies and retirees are great resources to tap for gaining this sort of experience.

However, hosting student groups is just one example of the Breeses’ participation in SRM. Lynne has served as director of the Pacific Northwest Section and is currently a co-editor for the Pacific Northwest Section newsletter. John and Lynne also frequent various SRM events, from conventions to workshops. Lynne remarks that participation is crucial to the continued success of the organization, along with members’ willingness to talk and listen to each other. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” she cites as the best advice she has ever received, “but do be willing to listen.”

Lynne’s vision for SRM involves an organization that “continues to do what we do.” She notes that the need for practical range management skills is not going to go away; if anything, it will only become greater. Society for Range Management members should thus be prepared to reach out to potential new members through agencies and personal invitations, with an ability to explain SRM’s relevance to all stakeholders—both those who manage the land and those who benefit from its successful management.

Nebraska Youth Range Camp

Early last week I attended part of the Nebraska Youth Range Camp, near Halsey, Nebraska.  The camp had 41 high school students in attendance from around the state.  During the week-long camp, students gain experience and training in rangeland ecology and management through a variety of presentations and lesson plans.  Time is spent both outside and in, as students learn about topics ranging from plant identification, range sites, ecology, and condition, grazing strategies, tips for going to college, and conflict management.  Two take home messages from Monday evening and Tuesday morning were 1) there is much more to rangeland ecosystems than just cows, and 2) get involved!

The Nebraska Youth Range Camp is operating in its 47th year and has trained more than 1,500 students since its inception in 1963.  While all students in attendance had some interest in rangelands, many were unsure how they would apply that interest as they went off to college and on to their careers.  Instructors highlighted the utility of mentors and students were encouraged to get in touch with other professionals (SRM members included) to use as resources for college and beyond.

While visiting the camp, I had the exciting opportunity to experience my first ever tornado warning, when the warning alarm went off shortly after bedtime.  Everyone at camp: all 41 high school students, a group of 4-H campers, and all instructors, crammed into the basement/bomb shelter of one small building to wait out the watch.  I was glad I had my camera on hand to capture some stylish students during the hour plus spent in the basement.  My personal favorite: several folks sporting a pj's and cowboy boots combo.
Thank you to the Nebraska Youth Range Camp for their hospitality!  Stay tuned - I am heading to the Pacific Northwest section meeting in Kelowna, B.C. this week.