Range managers are overwhelmed with daily duties and do not have the time to use, let alone research, the latest tools or technologies that have the potential to improve their day-to-day operations. Grazing allotments are monitored to ensure that best management practices are applied, standards and guidelines are met, and landscapes are meeting or moving towards desired conditions. Given the litigious environment surrounding public land management we should do everything we can to effectively communicate management goals, and perhaps more importantly, provide rationale for when, where, why and how actions are undertaken, or plans are developed. This process increasingly demands more efficiency and there are numerous tools available, right now, that managers can explore to accomplish objectives more quickly and transparently. As a result, we are hosting a “Rangeland Technology Summit” where we unveil and explain 40 technologies that are ready for managers to use. This will be done in a group scenario where momentum and progress on this issue can be made.

Project Scope & Components: The idea is to engage managers through a meeting where we unveil the technologies through a series of brief lightning style talks (5 minutes / technology element). Each speaker will be responsible for their technology. Each manager should select 3 – 5 technologies for which they wish to learn more about. Each technology will have an expert that uses or developed it available to explain everything in a deep dive interactive presentation. Both the 5 minute and 20 minute prerecorded technology pitches will be available following the event.

Deliverables + benefits: 1) The meeting itself. It’s an unprecedented strategy to make identification and adoption of best available science easier for managers. 2) An online, living guide to technologies available to rangeland managers in the USDA Forest Service and elsewhere. 3) Recorded 20 minute (and the 5 minute lightning sessions) that can be revisited remotely anytime. 4) Identify new Science / Management Partnerships to be developed across more regions 5) Connects science and management in a unique way.