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Join us at the RP annual meeting in Grand Junction CO, April 25-28. View the hype video!
Registration opening soon.
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RP at SRM
By Sheila Merrigan & Amber Dalke
University of Arizona
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The 75th national Society for Range Management meeting was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico February 6-10. The Rangelands Partnership was well represented all over the meeting. Here is a sprinkling of highlights:
A huge congratulation to RP’s own Miranda Meehan (NDSU), who received SRM’s Outstanding Young Range Professional Award. Miranda has been involved with the RP since 2019 and is actively involved with RP’s recent online marketing training for rangeland professional. Congratulations Miranda!
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The Wildest Woman in Range was awarded to Retta Bruegger (CSU). Retta has been involved with the RP since 2016 and has been critical to the sustainability of the group through grant writing, creative ideas, and her unique perspective on range. Hopefully, the highly coveted vest will makes an appearance at our RP annual meeting in Grand Junction in April!
The Outreach, Communication, and Website (OCW) committee/RP meeting brought together many members to discuss the new SRM website, Rangelands Gateway, and RP project includes RangeDocs. Co-chairs, Amber Dalke and Sarah Noelle (UArizona), will work with Board of Directors liaison, Leslie Roche (UCANR). If you are interested in joining this committee and working with RP members, reach out to Sarah Noelle.
The RP had an excellent booth exhibit at the Tradeshow. The booth was mostly staffed by Sheila Merrigan with assistance from Amber Dalke and North American IYRP volunteers, Courtney Buchanan and Elena Dosamantes. With elevator pitches ready, the booth volunteers showcased the Rangelands Gateway, solicited signups for the newsletter, raised awareness of RangeDocs, NRULPC, and IYRP, and shared Rangelands Gateway and Art of Range stickers. Booth visitors came from at least 18 different states and Canada. As a bonus, John Tanaka (former RP WERA Administrator) and Kristie Maczko were at the adjacent booth representing the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable with a steady supply of swag and Cow Tales candy.
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It was great to see RP members in person and we all look forward to connecting again soon in Colorado. The RP looks forward to participating at the next SRM meeting in Boise, Idaho.
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Unusual Tools for Exploring the Field of Rangeland Science
By Jeremy Kenyon
University of Idaho
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As scholarly information becomes more “open” (meaning fewer tools restricted by subscriptions and paywalls), tools are appearing that seek to take advantage of this openness. Two tools pointed out by librarian Aaron Tay and some others highlight unusual ways of looking at the field of range ecology and management.
First, Open Syllabus provides an insight into which publications and papers are being assigned on college syllabi throughout the globe. It appears to be a work in progress, but with a reported 9 million syllabi used. Quality might be in question at this point, especially as the information seems to be obtained through web scraping of syllabi and reading lists, but it is one of the few sources of information about which publications are being used in classrooms. A quick search reveals that Range Management: Principles and Practices by Jerry Holechek appears to be the most frequently assigned item related to range ecology and management.
Second, Open Editors provides a growing list of individuals who perform roles as editors at various journals. It’s a simple way of seeing the distribution of individuals on different journals without clicking through all the different journal websites. Further, it gives one a view of the institutional distribution of representation on various journals. The data appears fairly comprehensive as most of the major publishers are covered, and it has been updated very recently.
Third, Lens.org provides an open version of a bibliometric analysis tool (i.e. a tool for measuring the dynamics of scholarly publishing). One can search for an author, an institution, or a topic, and drill down into the details, filtering by virtually every field imaginable (or for which they have data). Funding source, specific journals, specific conferences, open access status, and more. The data isn’t perfect and there are errors, however, it appears fairly strong and worth investigating further.
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Figure 1. An example of the analysis provided by Lens.org on the topic of " rangeland ecology and management".
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There are more conventional tools for exploration as well, such as Web of Science, Elsevier’s Scopus, and newer unconventional tools, such as Digital Science’s Dimensions, and Scite.ai. Yet there is a surge in new and open attempts to analyze the structure of various fields, and they may provide new insights on how various publications and institutions contribute to the field.
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The Art of Range Podcast
Recent Podcast Episodes
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The Art of Range Podcast provides education through conversation with some of the brightest minds in rangeland management.
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IYRP Update
By Barb Hutchinson
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IYRP 2026 Resolution goes to UN General Assembly 28 February!
Final Countdown! With sincere thanks to the leadership of the Government of Mongolia and the huge efforts of many, many people around the world, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) 2026 initiative is set for approval at the United Nations General Assembly on 28 February 2022. There are now 75 countries and 300 organizations supporting the resolution for an IYRP. Plans are underway for launch messages and activities. Follow the journey for sustainable rangelands and pastoralism – watch for and share IYRP social media posts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and for IYRP North America: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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