Most rangeland managers, researchers and extension agents intuitively know that many interacting factors influence an individual's decision to change their management, especially when the change involves adoption of a new technology or system of management. Yet rangeland professionals and researchers have been slow to act on this intuition and incorporate social science research into development and extension of rangeland practices, such as targeted grazing, that may enhance economic or ecological sustainability or achieve specific management objectives. This presentation summarizes key contributions of social research on adoption of innovations on rangelands, identifies key gaps remaining in our knowledge, and presents case studies of integrated research and extension projects to illustrate how social research can enhance the relevance of rangeland ecological and economic research and improve the success of our outreach efforts.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.