Southeast Colorado has been in a severe drought since 2000. Since drought and the associated factors are endemic in southeastern Colorado, the ranch has developed an on-going evolution of management and decision processes to adapt to that ever changing environment. In 2002, the rainfall was so little that no growth was present on the perennial plants, this precipitated an unwelcome but necessary decision to destock the ranch. The management has been at a reduced stocking rate ever since. The Ranch has had a large wildfire, periodic floods and outbreaks of grasshoppers. This has caused the ranch to develop a systematic approach to their decision process that incorporates observation, monitoring, forecasting, adaptation and implementation into their management framework to the ranch operation. To date, this approach has allowed range to recover and prosper beyond what was once possible even though the drought persists and for a gradual restocking of the range as changes in resource capability warrants it.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.