Mark Your Calendars— the Society for Range Management’s Annual Meeting is coming soon!

When: Jan. 29 to Feb. 2, 2017

Where: St. George, Utah

Description: Forums and workshops are designed to provide an opportunity for in-depth, interactive discussion of current and emerging topics of interest to the rangeland community.  The theme for the 2017 conference of the Society for Range Management (SRM)  is “Red Rock & Rangeland.” Click here to register or learn more.

On Tuesday, January 31, the conference will host an all-day symposium on recent research related to woody encroachment on grouse habitat in the Western US, including the issues of redcedar and mesquite encroachment on lesser prairie-chickens. The symposium will showcase recent research recently published in SRM’s on-line journal “Rangeland Ecology & Management–a special issue dedicated to studies related to reducing woodland expansion.

You can watch the symposium presentations live on the Sage Grouse Initiative website on  January 31, 2017. (We’ll post live-streaming details as they are finalized).

Hosted by Oregon State University’s Rick Miller, a 30+ year veteran of woodland expansion science topics, the full-day symposium will include 10 morning presentations covering history, ecology, and management of woodland expansion, along with 10 afternoon talks covering sage-grouse and lesser prairie-chicken response to woodland management.

Presentations will cover a range of woody encroachment topics, including songbird benefits from conifer removal, the effect of woody plants on soil water retention, the impacts of redcedar and mesquite encroachment on lesser prairie-chicken habitat occupancy, and a new mapping tool that will help range managers fine-tune management of encroaching woody plants.

Stay tuned for details on how to live-stream presentations or watch on-demand replays of the symposium.