Sustainable Rangeland Management Publication Written

March 8, 2012

A monumental project by the University of Wyoming and nearly 70 collaborating entities across the nation will help public and private groups better manage rangelands and understand their importance to the well-being of communities and economies, according to a UW professor.

"This is the first time the rangeland profession and interest groups have come together to define the important components of social, ecological and economic aspects of sustainable rangeland management," says professor John Tanaka, head of UW's Department of Ecosystem Science and Management in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Tanaka helped direct the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable (SRR), a national effort aimed at developing detailed guidelines to gauge whether rangelands are managed sustainably.

Those guidelines are detailed in the 242-page online document, "Criteria and indicators of sustainable rangeland management." SM-56 is a joint publication of the SRR, UW Extension and Society for Range Management.

"The publication describes the indicators for sustainable rangelands that will be informative to land management agencies, private landowners, organizations with an interest in sustainability, rangeland scientists and others interested in the long-term health and vitality of these lands," Tanaka adds.

The publication is available as a free download. Go to www.uwyo.edu/ces  and click the Publications link on the left side of the page. Click "Search Bulletins," and type "SM-56" in the Publication Number field. Click on the title to open.

For more information about SRR's ongoing activities, go to http://sustainablerangelands.org.

For questions or comments, contact Tanaka at (307) 766-5130 or jtanaka@uwyo.edu.

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