Get reliable rangeland science

In 2010, a task force convened by the Secretary of Energy concluded that it is essential for the USA to immediately catalyze a domestic unconventional fuels industry to progress toward energy independence and to meet future food production needs. Rangelands, which dominate much of the western half of the USA, represent a major source of alternative energy resources and are likely to be substantially affected by policies to become increasingly energy independent. However, the impacts of developing such energy sources are poorly defined. The Integrated Social, Economic and Ecological Conceptual (ISEEC) framework was developed by the Sustainable Rangeland Roundtable (SRR) to systematically identify biophysical-socioeconomic links that influence the delivery of ecosystem services and that are affected by alternative uses of rangelands. In this presentation I focus on three issues relating to the ISEEC framework: (1) How the framework can be applied to systematically compare the ecosystem service effects of exploiting rangeland-based biofuel, natural gas and wind energy resources; (2) How the framework can be used to select indicators for monitoring these effects; and (3) How data to quantify the economic indicators thus identified could be derived in order to operationalize them for monitoring purposes. While this approach does not provide a prescription for how society should move forward in developing unconventional energy resources on rangelands, it may enhance coordination between federal, state and local agencies that are attempting to set polices and regulations for the sustainable development of such resources.