- Author: Devii R Rao
Maxwell Farmer is a graduate student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He is doing a survey for his master's program on perspectives of rangeland restoration practitioners. This survey is being conducted with support from the Central Coast Rangeland Coalition. If you are a rancher, agency staff, or anyone else who participates in rangeland restoration, he would love to hear from you. Click here to fill out his survey by the end of August 2024. For additional details, please continue reading.
Invitation to Participate:
You have been invited to participate in a research study examining the different perspectives of rangeland restoration practitioners. More information about the project is provided below. Your participation will include filling out a short electronic survey that is linked at the bottom of this email. Within the survey, there will be a consent form for you to sign if you wish to participate. The survey will only take around 5-10 minutes and includes 12 questions about you, your organization, and the restoration projects that you have been involved in. Please send this invitation to others in your network so the survey can reach as many professionals in this field as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact student researcher Maxwell Farmer using the contact information provided. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Project Description:
This project aims to study the social dynamics and decision-making processes of key stakeholders involved in rangeland restoration on the central coast of California. The purpose of the study is to understand where practitioners gather restoration-related information, how they view collaboration efforts, and the goals and barriers that influence their decision-making. Understanding these social aspects of rangeland restoration on the central coast will help identify how practitioners can continue to improve restoration efforts. The project will be conducted via surveys and interviews with stakeholders involved in this area including professionals from county, state, and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and private landowners actively involved in rangeland restoration in California.
Rangeland Restoration Defined:
Based on the current peer-reviewed literature, restoration for this project is defined as, the management process that helps restore aspects of an ecosystem that has been degraded, in a way that increases ecological integrity and involves and benefits all stakeholders.
Purpose and Benefits of the Study:
- The purpose of the study is to understand how practitioners gather information and make decisions around restoration practices and the extent of their collaboration with other professionals in this field.
- Potential benefits associated with the study include increasing understanding of rangeland restoration priorities and challenges and allowing us to ensure that future research and education will advance restoration of rangeland ecosystems in California.
Survey Link:
https://calpolycafes.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0JLhTbvTYZcQ7Ge
Contact Information:
Email: mwfarmer@calpoly.edu
Phone number: (602)-571-7105
- Author: Devii R Rao
The Range Management Advisory Committee (RMAC) is a program of the Board of Forestry. They are currently looking for two members to serve on the committee. They are particularly looking for committee members who are rangeland owners or who represent rangeland owners.
The folks at RMAC shared the information below related to why a rancher might want to join the committee. The bullet points come from their current committee members:
- The RMAC has the potential to impact individual rancher's rights.
- One purpose of serving on the RMAC is to provide input on rangeland issues from those who live the life and walk the walk. The viewpoints of those who live on the land and rely on it to support themselves and their families into the future is often based on generations of accumulated knowledge gleaned from caring for the land.
- The RMAC provides a unique forum to communicate with various partners and decision-makers with the influence to inform how our rangelands are managed. RMAC works to create bridges between various industry organizations, public agencies, institutions, and the public. As a committee member the contributions as an individual and together as a collective group can have influence in important decisions and policy impacting our rangelands and associated people, industries, and ecologies. RMAC, having the ability to be a bridge, brings various groups and individuals with expertise and specializations together in collaboration to set forth recommendations, create informative materials, and provide credible educational opportunities endorsed by this advisory committee.
- As we work to adapt to current contexts, increasingly volatile in many ways, the RMAC is what its members create. Motivation, care, gumption, and desire to help be a present "voice" at the Board of Forestry's table is what I believe is what RMAC seeks in new committee members.
If you are interested in being a committee member click here to see the call for nominations. Click here for RMAC website to see more information. If you would like to nominate someone, click the RMAC Nomination Form link at the bottom of this post.
Contact Kristina Wolf if you have additional questions:
Kristina Wolf, Environmental Scientist
California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
Phone: (916) 215-4947
Desk: (916) 902-5057
kristina.wolf@bof.ca.gov
RMAC Nomination Form
- Author: Devii R Rao
Do you have livestock in San Benito County? If so, you'll want to attend the livestock pass fire training which will be hosted by the Ag Commissioner's office and presented by CAL FIRE.
A holder of a San Benito County Livestock Pass may have access to a closed area during a disaster if granted by the incident commander, a law enforcement official or their designee. Access to the ranch property is only for the purposes of sheltering, moving, transporting, evacuating, feeding, watering, or administering veterinary care to livestock.
Date: June 21, 2024
Time: 9:00 am
Location: Bolado Park
RSVP by June 7 required: 831-637-5344 or bmancilla@cosb.us
Click here for the flyer with more details.
Livestock Meeting Flyer 2024 Updated
- Author: Devii R Rao
Are you interested in learning more about transitioning your ranching operations to future generations? If so, this workshop is for you.
Date: June 5, 2024
Time: 8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: San Luis Obispo Farm Bureau Office
Cost: $25, includes coffee, light breakfast, and lunch
For more information, contact Robin Hanson at rhanson@rangelandtrust.org.
See flyer for more details.
Conserving Your Legacy Speaker List
- Author: Devii R Rao
Please see request below from UCCE Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor Carolyn Whitesell...
The Bay Area Carnivore-Livestock Interactions Project (BACLIP) is examining various aspects of carnivore-livestock conflict. One part of the project is looking at patterns of whether individual carnivores target and repeatedly attack domestic animals, or whether predation incidents are chance interactions between the two.
To accomplish this, they are collecting DNA from any domestic animals that are attacked or killed by a puma or coyote within San Mateo, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz Counties. The DNA samples are collected with a cotton swab and will be able to identify whether a carnivore was responsible for the injuries, as well as the individual puma or coyote involved. Over time, the researchers on the project can see if the same individuals are responsible for repeated attacks on domestic animals or not. Please note that the sometimes lengthy time it will take for the lab to process the samples means that these data will not be useful for real-time management decisions; the information will be highly valuable in furthering our understanding of local carnivore behavior and how to best protect your pets and livestock.
In the unfortunate event you have a domestic animal (livestock or pet) that is killed by a carnivore and you would be willing to have a genetic sample collected, please contact CDFW at (707) 428-2002 or Dr. Whitesell at (650) 224-4679 ASAP.. Samples are best collected within 24 hours, but even if it's been a few days they may still be able to collect one, depending on the circumstances. Thank you!
