Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-2540 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor

Phone: (307) 766-3571

E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

 

Date: Jan. 12, 2006

Society for Range Management honors Cheyenne rancher, UW professor

            The Wyoming Section of the Society for Range Management has honored Laramie County rancher Mark Eisele with its 2005 Excellence in Rangeland Stewardship Award.

Eisele and his wife, Trudy, live west of Cheyenne at the foot of the Sherman Mountains.

            The professional scientific society also recognized University of Wyoming Professor Tom Thurow for his service on the state SRM council. He was an advisory board member for the past two years.

            “The Wyoming Section is very robust and on a positive growth trajectory, and that is something that is the envy of a lot of SRM societies in other portions of the country,” said Thurow, a professor in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Renewable Resources.

            “The same holds true for the Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management program of the renewable resources department. We are one of the few range programs that has dramatically grown. During my tenure as department head, we climbed from about eighth place nationally to a very firm second in terms of undergraduate and graduate numbers,” said Thurow, who stepped up in 2005 to serve as a teaching and research faculty member after having served as department head for 5 1/2 years.

            Thurow and Eisele were honored at the Wyoming SRM’s winter meeting last month in Casper.

            Paul Meiman, a University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service range specialist stationed in the Lander office, was elected to the state SRM council.

            Meiman chairs the Information and Education Committee for the Wyoming SRM and serves on the nominating committee for the national SRM.

            About the award presented to Eisele, said Meiman, “I have been impressed by Mark’s openness to input from natural resource specialists on the condition of the rangelands he uses in his operation and the effectiveness of his management efforts.

            “Mark is one of those individuals who sincerely wants to hear it all. His interest is not limited to just those areas where he is doing a good job. If there is some aspect of his management that could or should be improved, he wants to hear that, too,” Meiman continued. “In my opinion, this is one very important indicator of excellence in natural resource stewardship.”

            Eisele’s operation consists of private and public lands; included is the Pole Mountain Allotment on the Medicine Bow National Forest. One of the pastures in the allotment receives the highest year-round recreation use of any area on Pole Mountain, Meiman said.

            “As a result, Mark has reconstructed gates and division fences on high-use trails and roads to make them user-friendly for bicyclists, which benefits both his operation and the recreating public,” Meiman noted.

            In recent drought years, Meiman said, Eisele made “significant and voluntary adjustments” to his grazing operation. He worked with the U.S. Forest Service and UW to initiate a rangeland monitoring program, which he successfully carried out.

            Eisele, who is president of the Pole Mountain Grazing Association, has been instrumental in unifying the permit holders who run cattle in the allotment area. “He has been a progressive and effective leader as permittees and the Forest Service deal with critical natural resource management issues,” Meiman continued.

            Eisele’s operation includes lands classified under the federal Endangered Species Act as suitable habitat for two threatened species – the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Colorado butterfly plant. “Mark has been actively involved throughout the legal stages of conservation for both species and in managing his lands so that suitable vegetative conditions are provided for those species of special concern,” Meiman said.

            He added that Eisele invites local students to his place to let them experience a rural lifestyle, observe a working ranch and gain an appreciation for rangeland stewardship.

                “In doing so, he educates them about what is necessary to move farm and ranch products to the shelves of the local grocery store,” Meiman said.

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