The Idaho Rangeland Conservation Partnership (IRCP) was formed in 2018 through a grant with Intermountain West Joint Venture, Bureau of Land Management, and other partners to bring together ranchers, conservationists, agencies, and other rangeland stakeholders to conserve and enhance the social, economic, and ecological values rangelands provide through shared learning.
One of the key aspects of IRCP was to provide an annual meeting forum where stakeholders could engage with diverse perspectives, providing a place for open dialogue and cross-education on rangeland issues. Identifying opportunities, barriers, gaps, and working towards healthy rangeland solutions. All of this in an effort to support the vital working lands and working communities and abundant wildlife. One of the ways IRCP does this is through bringing people together at our annual meeting.
IRCP’s first annual meeting was held in January of 2019 where more than 120 attendees to heard from panels on outcome-based land management; sustainability of the values rangelands bring to the social, economic, and ecological well being of the land, communities, and states; and information on the recreation component of rangelands. The conversations continued in 2020 at our annual meeting where we upped our attendance to over 175, and with panel presentations and breakout sessions.
This meeting included topics on Beaver Dam analogs; BLM’s outcome based grazing projects; and a panel presentations from diverse stakeholders on some of the issues around increase recreational use. Of course, with the COVID pandemic, we were forced to put our annual meeting for 2021 on hold but were very excited to be able to again host this event March 17 and 18, 2022, in Nampa, Idaho at the Idaho Fish and Game office. Over the past months we learned that travel restrictions can hinder some of our attendance, so we opted to hold this meeting as a hybrid version. IRCP’s focus has always been, and continues to be, showing the value of people coming together to share information, cross-education, and have robust discussions on rangeland topics. This year we still had good in person attendance but were also able to bring in meeting attendees via ZOOM and record the sessions.
This year’s meeting opened with keynote speaker, Jared Talley, PhD, who gave an energetic and great presentation on “Collaborating Across Differences: The Situation/The Problem/The Solution”. Jared was the perfect speaker to prime the pump on how all stakeholders have better success working together towards working, sustainable rangelands, while delving into some of the challenges faced when bringing together different viewpoints, but how it is also possible to find common ground to work towards solutions.
IRCP Chairman, Josh Uriarte, who is the Terrestrial Species Manager and Policy Advisor for the Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation, put together a great panel to present on “Sage-grouse 3.0 – Greater Than Grouse”. Panelists Matt Cahill, Sagebrush Sea Program Director for The Nature Conservancy; Brian Rutledge, formerly with Audubon Society; Brett Dumas, Director of Environment Affairs for Idaho Power; and Jarod Blades, Branch Chief of Resources & Science Idaho State BLM shared their perspectives on the sage-grouse issues considering what components of the sage-grouse plans have been working well, and what components need to be reconsidered in Idaho based on their experience and the group they represent. Panelists were also asked to offer ideas on what their organization’s vision was for sage-grouse in Idaho and across the range of sage-grouse habitats, and how they would envision reaching the right spot with this planning effort currently in place in the hopes of not having to come back and readdress the issue again in the near future. The panelists brought diverse perspectives from the large amount of time they have spent on the sage-grouse issue. Questions from the audience were entertained, and the discussion continued offering ideas and thoughts on the topic. Breakout sessions were then held with the in-person attendees and information and thoughts from those breakout sessions shared back with the entire group, concluding the first day of the meeting.
On the second day, we opened with a unique opportunity to hear the Meridian FFA Agriculture Policy team. This dynamic team of young people presented to a group of about thirty meeting attendees coming in early to provide an audience for them to practice their presentation and receive feedback. The topic fit in perfectly with the day’s meeting topic as it centered around the two sides of Idaho’s newly adopted trespass law. The FFA Team did an outstanding job presenting both sides of a complicated issue in a “skit” type fashion and then stood for questions and asked for feedback on how they could improve the presentation for the upcoming Idaho State FFA contests. This was a great reminder of how lucky we are to have programs and opportunities bringing these passionate and knowledgeable youth to the table and mentor them with what our different organizations do.
The scheduled meeting then continued with a timely panel presentation moderated by IRCP Steering Committee Member and US Fish & Wildlife Services employee Jason Pyron on “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: How Can We Put It To Work for Idaho?”. Panelists included June Shoemaker, Idaho BLM Acting Associate State Director; Tawnya Brummett, Forest Supervisor Boise National Forest to share what BLM and FS see with the funds and how they are looking at being applied within the programs. The panel wrapped up with Darren Parker, State Director for Natural Resources for Senator Jim Risch, talking about what the Congressional intent is for these funds and how they can benefit Idaho’s lands and Idaho’s people by putting projects and people on the ground.
Our session wrapped up with a continuation of the conversations around recreation and the issues faced with increase and challenges around the rangeland health, large increases in people in new areas, and the staffing and enforcement challenges agencies face.
This panel was moderated by Brenda Richards, IRCP Coordinator, and was a continues the topics discussed at the IRCP 2020 meeting and from the IRCP Recreation Working Group that came out of that meeting. The presentation by Brenda, revolved around some key issues, challenges, and needs the IRCP Working Group identified and continued with IRCP Steering Committee Member and Executive Director of Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission, Gretchen Hyde, to sharing work IRRC has been doing in an effort to educate the public around recreating on rangelands and a survey they have been working on to gather information on this complex topic.
We then turned to Haley Netherton-Morrison, Boise State University, who has been in charge of the survey and compiling the information to share some of the details and how people are viewing rangelands and recreation from very diverse viewpoints. Discussion and questions were held prior to the breakout sessions on this topic. After lively discussion, conversation, and cross-education during the breakout sessions, information was shared with the audience by a spokesperson from each group. It is clear this will continue to be a topic in many meetings of many different organizations and agencies, including local government, as there are many things to be discussed and addressed.
IRCP hopes to continue to be a place where people can come together to have these types of conversations around such a complex issue and bring people together to continue to work for locally led, collaborative solutions.
Our meeting then adjourned, but it was apparent that meeting in person definitely brings networking and cross education opportunities as many of the attendees continued conversations well after the adjournment.
IRCP looks forward to continuing to work on rangeland issues and will be planning to host our annual meeting for 2023 in January.
The IRCP 2022 Annual Meeting sessions can be viewed by visiting the links below:
Day One: youtu.be/rvdXvuUcouY
Day Two: youtu.be/dZoDjxuwU6o
by Brenda Richards, IRCP Coordinator