Get reliable rangeland science

While rangeland management is both an "art and a science," as a rangeland professional most of my training is not in art. Storytelling is an art form that can serve to engage people in material in which they would not otherwise have an interest. Effectively communicating the relevance of rangeland science requires new strategies in an increasingly urbanized society in which potential "consumers" may not have a personal relationship with rangelands. I sought professional help in making our research more engaging to a non-scientific audiences as part of a Center for Collaborative Conservation Fellowship. This poster details improvements to our website and how I made them through a workshop with a poet and teacher of creative writing and digital storytelling, Cameron Scott. The goals of this effort were 1) to improve the website for our outreach and demonstration project, Learning from the Land, and in so doing, 2) learn skills that I could apply to other outreach materials related to the communication of research. Our methodology was to first examine Learning from the Land's website, after which Mr. Scott led me in a series of activities and discussions. We then generated ideas for revising how I told the "story" of the research, and applied strategies to decrease the abstract character of the writing. This process ultimately improved the presentation of material on our website. It forced me to think with greater clarity about our research as I explained what we do to someone unfamiliar with the field and terminology. Learning from the Land is a project that works closely with stakeholders, so communicating in clear, relevant, and interesting ways is critical to our goals. However, this poster details specific recommendations that may benefit others when communicating rangeland research to new audiences.