Get reliable rangeland science

The primary finding of the vegetation working group was that spatial scale should become a central focus of rangeland vegetation research, extension and management. In particular, the impacts of spatial scale in determining how management is applied and assessed should be clearly communicated to users, whether land-managers, advisors or policy makers. Recommendations for specific tasks developed by the group include: How best to describe and communicate resilience of rangeland landscapes to extreme events An improved understanding of the motivations of different user groups for landscape level planning Quantifying the effects of spatial pattern of plants and soils on livestock production, wildlife habitat, and water quality Integrating spatiotemporal variability to improve the accuracy of rangeland monitoring systems Determining the effects of invading native and exotic species on rangeland ecosystem goods and services