2023 Annual Meeting
April 17-19, 2023
Manhattan, KS
Meeting Summary
Focused on the theme of Coming Back Strong, the 2023 Rangelands Partnership annual meeting was held on April 17-20. Twenty participants traveled to attend on-site at the Kansas State University (KSU) campus in Manhattan, KS and 10 participants joined virtually.
The meeting, held at the beautiful Hale Library, opened with a creative and innovative keynote talk presented by Erin Wiersma, Associate Professor of Art at Kansas State University. In her presentation, Erin described her work as an artist on the Konza Prairie Biological Station in the Flint Hills just 6 miles (10 km) south of the KSU campus. Her works are made by pulling, rubbing, dragging, and lifting large sheets of paper over the land after controlled burns. Her work has been displayed in galleries across the U.S. and in Europe.
RP Chair Nancy Marshall (South Dakota) facilitated a quick icebreaker activity where attendees in small groups discussed and agreed on one word that describes the Partnership. Results from this activity included: community, people, persistence, collaboration, connection, adaptability and order out of chaos!
As always, the state “lightning reports” were a highlight for attendees. Participants enjoyed hearing updates from their RP range science and librarian colleagues about state activities, including Extension programming, grant-funded projects, and other activities in the past year.
There was also an engaging presentation given remotely by Barb Hutchinson on the activities of the North American Regional Support Team for the 2026 International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP). Initiatives in the works for the North American region include a feature-length documentary; a film festival; identifying and/or submitting short videos for the central IYRP website; creating educational materials and outreach resources (including for K-12); conference events & presentations and a social media campaign. To join any initiatives, contact Barb.
The RangeDocs videos session by Amber Dalke presented engaging and informative videos that have been developed with grant funding from RREA. Other videos and a RangeDocs guide will be available on RangeDocs soon.
The first day of the meeting closed with a trip to the Prairiewood Retreat & Preserve and a wildflower walk led by Mike Haddock, Associate Dean of Research, Education and Engagement at KSU Libraries and author of the Kansas Wildflowers & Grasses book and website. The wildflower walk was followed by a delicious banquet held at the Prairiewood Preserve’s Blue Sage Barn.
During the RP business meeting held on Wednesday morning, reports were given by RP Executive Committee (EC) officers. Sergio Arispe (Oregon) was welcomed enthusiastically when he was elected as incoming RP EC Secretary for 2023-24. Jeanne Pfander (Arizona) is moving to the Vice Chair position, and Ashley Hall (Arizona) will lead the EC as Chair.
RP Trailblazer awards this year were given to Amy Shannon (Associate Professor, Life & Environmental Sciences Librarian, U Nevada, Reno) and Brad Shultz (Nevada Cooperative Extension) who have been representing Nevada in the Partnership since 2002!
It was announced that the 2024 RP Annual Meeting will be held in Hawaii, hosted by Mark Thorne (HI). Doug Tolleson at Texas A&M has offered to host the 2025 RP meeting.
The meeting closed with many thanks to the KSU local arrangements team Livia Olsen, Walt Fick, Carolyn Jackson, and others at KSU Libraries for their hard work in making the meeting successful. Attendees also gave a round of applause and thanks to outgoing Chair Nancy Marshall who has completed her 3-year term of service to the Partnership.
The optional RP annual meeting field tour on the following day took some on-site attendees to the Konza Prairie!
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