Millions of acres of western rangelands have been developed for agriculture and energy development and need restoration from severe disturbances that have left them limited in their ability to provide ecosystem services. Often, the path to recovery for these rangelands is not likely when ecological thresholds are crossed, and the system doesn’t have the ecological resilience to recover because the loss of key ecosystem processes has been impaired or lost. Therefore, managers are often left with the mission to rehabilitate severely disturbed rangelands in a manner that provides the greatest function and the most ecosystem services demanded by society. The technology and knowledge required to restore or rehabilitate these lands are constantly changing and evolving as advances are made in plant materials, herbicides, and seeding technologies. The western rangelands that have experienced these dramatic disturbances are still needed to provide ecological services such as wildlife habitat, livestock forage, pollinator habitat, and other uses that benefit society. The difficulty is sometimes finding the solution of “how” to rehabilitate these rangelands. There are literally hundreds of research papers that have been published, yet land managers in the West are still sometimes uncertain of the most effective, cost-efficient methods to restore severely disturbed rangeland ecosystems to a higher-functioning status.
Do you have ideas for restoring disturbed rangeland into a more productive, diverse plant community? Consider entering a team into the Rangeland Restoration Challenge 2024!
Utah State University and the University of Wyoming, along with partner organizations, are accepting entries for 4-person teams to compete in the first-ever Rangeland Restoration challenge. Each team will be assigned a plot of land at the Utah State University Bastian Agricultural Center near Herriman, Utah. Pre-competition vegetation and soil data will be collected to establish a baseline of the ecological condition of each plot. Each team will develop and implement a restoration plan to meet the land management goals clearly specified for the site. There are team categories for Professionals, Amateurs and Youth; see the Challenge website for details. Prizes will be awarded to top teams and runner up in each category.
The performance of all teams will be evaluated by a panel of non-biased agricultural and natural resources professionals.
Key Dates:
July 29th at 2:00 PM - Challenge Webinar (Provide at outline of the challenge, educational resources, Q&A, etc.)
Submit questions here: https://forms.gle/Q6nHAxe8dV8ReMWf9
August 29th, September 6th, September 10th, September 16th at 9:00 AM - Site visit (teams will have a choice of 4 dates to visit your plot)
August 30th at 11:59 PM - Registration Closes
September 3rd - Virtual Kickoff Meeting (Introduce teams, review the rules and challenge details, etc.)
September 15th - Teams may begin seeding
Registration
To register, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/pa9Qyp3QpLfS1mvE9
Contact
Have Questions? Please contact:
Eric Thacker, eric.thacker@usu.edu
Brian Mealor, bamealor@uwyo.edu