The Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management (CARM) project is a ten-year, ranch-level, participatory effort to explore how community-engaged research can increase our understanding of conservation and ranching goals. An eleven-member stakeholder group has a shared management responsibility in setting goals and determining thresholds for management change. The stakeholder group is comprised of conservation, public agency and ranching community representatives. Conservation organization representatives, from Environmental Defense Fund, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, and The Nature Conservancy, have expertise in wildlife and rangeland management and research. State and Federal public agency representatives manage and advise on rangeland management. Rancher members are members of the local grazing association.
Results/Conclusions
In the beginning, rangeland and social science researchers lead the stakeholder group through setting objectives for wildlife, vegetation, and livestock production as well as determining thresholds for livestock rotation between pastures. In these early stages, stakeholders agreed to manage for multiple objectives, however each individual advocated and represented their interest. Now that we are in the middle stages of the project, the stakeholder group has coalesced into seeking to meet the objectives not easily met. These changes happened because of complex reasons of building trust and knowledge about the landscape the group is managing. The team has recently added a social objective to capture the team learning aspects of the project. Effective collaboration requires focus on team cohesion and shared vision which requires time and commitment.