WSU Case Study Video
Sustainable Ranching & Climate Adaptation
By Tip Hudson
Washington State University
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Rangelands represent about 21.6 million acres in the Pacific Northwest. Cow-calf operations are the primary users of this grazing resource and will have to adapt to climate change effects on rangelands. However, management directed toward current rangeland stresses which may be amplified under a changing climate—including fire risk, invasive plants, and droughts—is beneficial under every future scenario. And although climate change discussions have become highly politicized, Pacific Northwest ranchers support "no-regrets strategies" that provide ecological and economic benefits in addition to those relating to climate change.
A team of Washington State University Extension specialists recently produced a series of case study short films to foster adoption of “no-regrets strategies” by sharing individual success stories of ranchers in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.
Successful ranchers are already experienced at considering economic, production, and weather risks in their decision making. They are well poised to identify and implement practices that increase resilience to climate change, while balancing the other risks they face. Forward-thinking ranchers can provide insights into their resilience management practices, enabling others to join them. These multi-media case studies are designed to share those insights and encourage other ranchers to consider making changes to enhance the resilience of their operations. Each case study consists of a video highlighting an innovative rancher and their climate-resilient practices and a peer-reviewed written fact sheet with descriptions of the rancher’s context and motivations; process of innovation; benefits, challenges and solutions to adopting practices. This narrative is paired with easy-to-digest sidebars providing key science findings relevant to the practices being discussed. By pairing these insights with key science findings we also give ranchers tools to adjust these practices to their particular operational context. The videos are available now. Written publications have been peer-reviewed but are still in design. These should be published by September 2019. Jack Southworth, the Oregon rancher, was also featured on the Art of Range podcast.
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The Big 2018 Earthquake
By Jodee Kuden
University of Alaska, Anchorage
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On November 30th, 2018 we rolled and shook with a 7.0 (Alaska Earthquake Center Richter scale) or 7.1 (USGS Richter scale) magnitude earthquake epicenter near Anchorage. One expects the wind to move or the water, but not the solid ground. I won’t repeat what you can easily find through a Google search about earthquakes or the shaker we had here in Anchorage. That first big shake was unnerving, but what created more anxiety for many Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla, and Palmer residents were the numerous aftershocks- hundreds within the first three days. It seemed like the ground didn’t stop moving for many days or nights.
The Consortium Library at the University of Alaska Anchorage sustained damage primarily to the books coming off the shelves and other things hanging from walls or stored on shelves that crashed to the floor. We estimated over 100,000 books on the floor. There was no structural damage to the library building. Because Anchorage had the second largest earthquake ever recorded (9.2) back in 1964, the municipality has stringent earthquake building codes. Both sections of the library were built after that great quake. For this 2018 earthquake the ground shook in an east-west direction. This affected what items dropped off the shelving in commercial and residential buildings and if cabinet doors opened or not.
We had books on the floor throughout the entire building. Every row had a few or many volumes come off the shelves. We did not have any shelving that buckled/collapsed or tilted that caused a domino effect. Also, we had many ceiling tiles fall or come loose from the little metal/plastic brackets holding them in the drop ceiling configuration. Fortunately, no water lines or sprinkler lines were broken in the library. A couple of other campus buildings had line breakage. From Friday morning to Wednesday morning all campus buildings were closed for damage assessment and air quality testing. We received special permission to get into the library building and began clean up on Monday afternoon. The areas where ceiling tiles came loose were designated as hard hat zones. The first areas where books were picked up had no ceiling issues and many library employees worked long hours stacking and sorting books on the floor. An aside, my office was fine on Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday morning an aftershock shook the ceiling tiles loose and my office became a hard hat zone until those tiles were fixed.
The Library cordoned off areas and stacks so when campus opened for business on Wednesday, the library had study spaces available for students to use. Clean up and pick up work continued until the end of April. The majority of the sorting and stacking was completed by the start of Spring semester, mid-January. During my hours of crawling around the book stacks assessing items for damage, I ran across a few titles of books about earthquakes.
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We estimated over $38,000 damages to materials and spent of $55,000 in labor just for the first 3 months of clean up.
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Join the WERA 1008 List
By Barb Hutchinson
University of Arizona
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Who is on the WERA List:
Arizona - Barb Hutchinson, George Ruyle, Sheila Merrigan, Jeanne Pfander, Kelly Arizmendi, Matt Rahr, Sarah Noelle, Amber Dalke
Colorado - Jocelyn Boice, Retta Bruegger
Hawaii - Mark Thorne
Idaho - Jeremy Kenyon, Karen Launchbaugh
Kansas - Walt Fick,
Nevada - Brad Schultz
North Dakota - Nicole Juve
Oklahoma - Karen Hickman
Utah - Beth Burritt
Washington - Tip Hudson
Wyoming - Kristie Maczko, Derek Scasta, David Kruger
Either you or your Agricultural Experiment Station should be able to submit the Appendix E for WERA 1008.
Joining the WERA List: To Create and Submit an Appendix E for a Proposed/Existing Project:
- Go to the National Information Management Support System
- Insert your login and password. (If you don't have a login, you'll need to register, also at the above URL.)
- On the Left side Menu, Select Participants then Select Draft/Edit
- On the Left side Menu, Select "Draft New"
- Select the project number for proposed WERA_TEMP1234 or existing WERA1008
- Fill out the form.
- Click on Submit.
Please contact Barb Hutchinson if you have any problems joining.
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Wide-Ranging Rangeland Resources
Compiled by the University of Arizona Team
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The free WebSoil 2.0 App was released in June and is available for download for both iOS and Android users.
Life on the Range Video Series on wolves in Idaho. Part 1 of the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission series about Rocky Mountain wolves in Idaho explores how American attitudes toward wolves and predators evolved over time.
Read, Where bison once roamed, prairie revives under cow hoofs, an interesting, positive ranching and grasslands.
The West’s worst fires aren’t burning in forests: Range fires get bigger every year, threatening sagebrush habitat and rural towns. Published in High Country News in June.
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International Report | July 2019
By Barb Hutchinson
University of Arizona
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Event: The UN Decade of Family Farming was launched at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN in Rome on May 29th 2019. The initiative aims to improve the life of family farmers around the world. Learn about the six key actions that can help family farmers thrive in the coming decade: Embracing change – how family farmers can face the future.
Blogs:
E-learning Course: “Sustainable Land Management and Land Restoration” was launched last March during the Land and Water Days 2019 in Cairo. The course focuses on Sustainable Land Management practices, and their place within the global development agenda, specifically in order to achieve SDG target 15.3, which aims "to achieve a land degradation-neutral world".
Newsletter: Sustainable Rangeland Management project newsletter (Tanzania) For nearly 10 years, the Sustainable Rangeland Management Project has been working with local and national authorities in Tanzania to secure rangelands for pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and smallholder farmers through joint village land use planning and land certification including the provision of group Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy.
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Publication: The global livestock sector is asking itself a critical question: How do we contribute to the development of societies while promoting environmental sustainability? To answer the question, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization have launched the Investing in Sustainable Livestock (ISL) Guide, an online platform that provides livestock project managers with the information and tools necessary to implement environmentally sound projects.
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Publication: IFAD and the World Bank have published a new book "Pastoral Development in Ethiopia: Trends and the Way Forward". This book combines the results of an impact analysis of the development investments over half a century, a review of the existing thinking in pastoral and agropastoral development, and an assessment of the currently stark socio-economic conditions affecting pastoral and agropastoral communities. It presents a compelling picture of present pastoral and agropastoral development trends in Ethiopia and evokes alternative pathways for the future.
Publication: “Mobile Pastoralism and Protected Areas: Conflict, Collaboration and Connectivity” by Engin Yılmaz, Liza Zogib, Pablo Urivelarrea and Semiha Demirbaş Çağlayan: PARKS Vol. 25.1 May 2019.
Publication: “Predictive Livestock Early Warning System (PLEWS): Monitoring forage condition and implications for animal production in Kenya.” Weather and climate extremes have impacted forage conditions and lead to loss of animal production and livelihood of livestock-dependent communities in Kenya. Monitoring of forage conditions and developing a reliable early warning system can reduce the loss of livestock and improve the resilience.
Publication: The TerrAfrica publication "Sustainable rangeland management in Sub-Saharan Africa – Guidelines to good practice" is available from the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies.
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Reports: Since 2000, the InterAcademy Partnership for Policy has mobilized the best scientists and engineers worldwide to provide high quality, in-depth advice to international organizations and national governments on critical scientific issues. Previous reports have focused on building scientific and technological capacity worldwide; achieving a sustainable energy future; enhancing African agriculture; a review of the processes of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); and, most recently, the science community’s role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Web Pastoralist Resources (India): Close to 35 million pastoralists graze India’s forests, grasslands, and farm fallows. They are a familiar sight by the roadside, as they migrate between summer and winter grazing grounds, often over hundreds of kilometres. Their many contributions have rarely received the recognition they have deserved. The website provides reports and other information.
Website: The Land Portal Foundation Launched the “Thematic Portfolio on Land in Post-Conflict Settings.” Countries and regions devastated by war and civil strife remain fragile and vulnerable for decades after the fighting has ceased. In this post-conflict period, as social, political, and economic institutions are rebuilt, reconfigured or established anew, land is increasingly acknowledged as not only a key driver or root cause for conflicts, but as a critical factor for relapse and a bottleneck to recovery. "By providing greater access to information on land issues in post-conflict settings, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the underlying causes of this enormous issue the world is faced with today,” said Laura Meggiolaro, Land Portal Team Leader.
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Website: This online resource (map) documenting human rights violations against indigenous peoples in Africa, includes both historical and contemporary case studies that details how pastoralists and hunter-gatherers have been subject to encroachments on or evictions from their ancestral territories for reasons spanning conservation, agribusiness, infrastructure projects, extractive industries, conflicts with farmers, or the increasing numbers of refugees. All cases are compiled from multiple resources and include references. Submit ideas for new cases.
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