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Protect and Enhance the Nation's Resource Base and Environment
Rangelands West: A Western Regional Land-Grant Web
Initiative
Impact Nugget
The Rangelands West web site is widely accepted as an important source
of information on the understanding and management of Western rangelands
in 19 states; on average, the regional homepage receives more than 2,700
hits per day, bringing the total during 2004 to approximately 993,000.
Issue
The Agriculture National Information Network (AgNIC) is an initiative
involving multiple land grant universities and the U.S. National Agricultural
Library. At the University of Arizona, the Managing Rangelands web development
project is a component of AgNIC that distributes basic information to
the public, specialized information to land managers, and educational
resources to students and teachers. The effort at the University of
Arizona includes the Science-Engineering Library and three units in
the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: the School of Natural
Resources, the Arid Lands Information Center, and the Networking Group
of the Educational Computing and Technology unit. The goal is to provide
timely, accurate, trusted information on Western rangelands. Initially
focused on Arizona, the renamed “Rangelands West” portal
is being developed as part of a multi-state collaborative effort.
What has been done?
Over the past 9 years, the Arizona Rangelands site has been regularly
updated and expanded both in content and design to improve its ability
to serve rangeland students and land managers. It includes more than
350 unique pages and features. Besides an archive of full-text articles
published in the Journal of Range Management and other in-depth sections
on rangeland management, the web site includes a section on weeds and
invasive species, and sections on marketing and conservation ranching.
In cooperation with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS),
Ecological Site Descriptions covering all areas of Arizona are also
available. These guides describe soil qualities, vegetation, precipitation,
and other factors that affect decision making in land management.
Recognizing that Western rangelands and environmental issues do not
stop at political boundaries, a Western Rangelands Partnership was formed
to develop a comprehensive Web-based resource on current issues and
knowledge related to U.S. Western rangelands. This resulted in a redesign
of the existing Managing Rangelands site into a regional home page [http://rangelandswest.org/]
and a series of state-specific linked sites [see Arizona Rangelands
at: http://rangelandswest.org/az/index.html]
One of the initial motives for selecting rangelands as the University
of Arizona's contribution to AgNIC was the controversial nature of the
issues surrounding the topic. To defuse those issues and provide access
to balanced and trusted information, a major section is focused on policy
issues concerning public land management, including such topics as wildlife
and endangered species, forests and logging, mining, Indian lands, urbanization,
grazing, recreation and wilderness areas.
Impact
The Rangelands West web site is widely accepted as an important source
of information on the understanding and management of Western rangelands.
On average, the regional homepage receives more than 2,700 hits per
day, bringing the total during 2004 to approximately 993,000. If usage
statistics for each of the participating state sites were included,
the total numbers would be significantly higher.
In addition, the newly established Western Rangelands Partnership is
an accepted model for collaboration within the national AgNIC effort
and now involves librarians and rangelands specialists from 19 Western
land-grant institutions.
A broad cross-section of the public benefits from the web site’s
capabilities. Throughout the past eight years, questions have been sent
in by students from middle school through the post doctoral level. In
addition, reference questions have been received from landowners in
Arizona, with others coming from people in Oregon, Texas, New Mexico,
and as far away as Iran and Jordan. One staff member from the U.S. Forest
Service sent the following comment: “This is a great site; made
me proud to be an alum. Thanks for the obvious effort that went into
it. Appreciate the effort at achieving balance in the discussion.”
Funding
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Arizona Common Ground Roundtable (in kind)
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
NASA/Raytheon
Natural Resources Conservation Service (in kind)
University Library
Contact
George Ruyle, extension specialist, rangelands
Rangeland and Forest Resources Program
School of Renewable Natural Resources
Biosciences East 301, Tucson, AZ 85721
Tel: 520-621-1384; FAX: 520-621-8801
Email: gruyle@ag.arizaona.edu
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