The Rimrock Report
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA,
SCHOOL OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
January 2013
Volume 6, Issue 1
Rangeland Management at Your Finger Tips: Introducing three new websites
Chances are at some time over the past ten years, you may have heard of the
Rangelands West and Arizona Rangelands websites or even the Western Rangelands
Partnership. You may also know that for several years, the Partnership has been
involved in a major effort to redesign the websites to be more relevant and userfriendly. Have you ever conducted a Google search and received thousands or hundreds
of thousands of hits, most of them not related to your search? The purpose of the new
suite of rangelands websites is to give you just the information you need as well as
information you can be confident has been evaluated and prepared by experts in the
field.
In 1996 a group of Cooperative Extension rangeland specialists, librarians, and IT
specialists from the University of Arizona came together to develop an Arizona
Rangelands website. These early efforts produced some of the first interactive
ecological site maps, access to previously unavailable resources, and detailed
information about public land grazing issues including NEPA. In 2002, the Arizona
Rangelands project expanded to become what is now known as the Rangelands
Partnership – a collaboration of 19 western U.S. land-grant institutions and several
international organizations. The mission of
the Partnership is to provide key information
and decision-making tools about sustainable
management of rangelands as well as
professional development and educational
resources.
The Partnership has now launched a suite of
three new websites:
Global Rangelands is the home
website, useful for gaining an
international perspective on rangeland
themes and searching the database
Inside this issue:
Rangeland Management 2 - 3
at Your Fingertips Introducing three new
websites
Introducing Christopher 4
Bernau
AZSRM Winter Meeting
at Prescott Resort
5
Plant of the “week”
6
Just Me Talking
8
The site you
will likely find
most helpful to
you is Arizona
Rangelands.
The Rimrock Report
Rangeland Management at Your Finger Tips: Introducing three new websites ...continued
which contains more than 13,000 full-text articles,
reports, videos, learning tools, and targeted websites.
Rangelands West provides access to the global database
as well as specific “Hot Topics” with a focus on
Western U.S. rangelands. It also includes sections on
“Recruitment & Careers” and Teaching Tools that are
being developed by the Range Science and Education
Council.
From the Rangelands West home page, users can link to
state sites developed by multidisciplinary teams serving
local constituency information needs. An example is
the Arizona Rangelands website which provides access
to extensive resources and videos on vegetation
monitoring, a critical tool for making management
decisions based on data collected over time.
The site you will likely find most helpful to you is Arizona
Rangelands. While the site offers special features to introduce new programs, videos, and activities, it also
contains a Highlights section to give you quick links to related websites, a rotating Events section, and a
unique pages of Local Resources that covers such topics as “management and marketing”, “monitoring”, and
“weather and climate”.
Perhaps the most advanced tool on Arizona Rangelands (as
well as Rangelands West and Global Rangelands) is the
search box. From the search box you can type in any
keyword or phrase and you will retrieve a list of resources
on that subject. A Global Rangelands search covers the
entire database of 13,000 items. Rangelands West targets
resources relevant to the Western U.S., while Arizona
Rangelands focuses on Arizona-specific information. For
instance, if you search the Arizona Rangelands site for
“pinyon juniper control”, you retrieve 547 items about the
topic that also include the word “Arizona” in them.
However, by browsing the panel tools on the right side of
your computer screen, you can easily narrow your search
by other keywords, geographic areas, and document types,
and you can sort by title, author, or date. As an example
from the “pinyon juniper control” search, if you want to
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Volume 6, Issue 1
Rangeland Management at Your Finger Tips: Introducing three new websites ...continued
view only those resources related to “fire” you can click on
that term and your search results list will give you a list of
11 items.
Some of our newest projects involve developing videos on a
variety of subjects drawing on the expertise of familiar local
experts such as Dr. Lamar Smith and Dr. Mitch McClaran.
[http://www.youtube.com/user/GlobalRangelands/video]
The “Multimedia”
Highlight includes videos on these subjects, made available
through
YouTube playlists:
 Domestic and Wild Animals of Rangelands (5 videos)
 Economics Associated with Rangelands (2 videos)
 Invasive Species (4 videos)
 Planning and Collaboration (1 video)
 Uses of Range and Pasturelands (4 videos)
 Vegetation Management and Restoration (11 videos)
 Vegetation Monitoring (8 videos)
A particularly well-populated section is on Monitoring which includes 8 videos at this time. This includes
videos developed by others, as well as four (currently) that were filmed and prepared by Cody Sheehy for the
Partnership. In particular, Measuring Species Frequency and Estimating Ground Cover come from South
Dakota State University while Variability in Rangelands and Photo Monitoring on the Santa Rita Experiment
Range were filmed in Arizona.
We continue to work to improve the Arizona Rangelands website to be more useful to you. We welcome
your comments and suggestions for improvements and hope you will contact us to let us know what you
think of the new site. We are already preparing a list of Phase 2 enhancements and your feedback will help
ensure that we focus on tools and resources that are most useful to you.
George Ruyle – gruyle@cals.arizona.edu
Barb Hutchinson – barbarah@cals.arizona.edu
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The Rimrock Report
Introducing Christopher Bernau
I am the new Rangeland Research Specialist at the
University of Arizona’s V Bar V Ranch. I am
originally from Utah where I spent my youth
exploring the pygmy forests, the sagebrush steppe,
and the ponderosa savannas of the Colorado
Plateau. I was fascinated by the ecology of these
ecosystems and focused on that as I got a B.S. in
biology and a minor in chemistry from the
University of Utah. After graduation I spent the
next five years working various seasonal jobs such
as relocating sea turtle nests in North Carolina, studying exploding ants on the tropical island of Borneo,
taking scouts on 21 day backpacking treks at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, teaching English in
Japan, and running transects through Sonoran pronghorn habitat in southern Arizona. Despite the fun and
dynamic nature of the seasonal lifestyle, I eventually decided it was time to specialize. So I became a
masters student at the University of Idaho with Dr. Steve Bunting as my advisor. There I focused on
rangeland and fire ecology, specifically on the sagebrush steppe and juniper woodlands, and by the summer
of 2012 I graduated with a Masters in Rangeland Ecology and Management. Today I am excited to be
working at the V Bar V and to be living in Arizona. The state is beautiful and I can’t wait to explore as
much of it as possible.
Don’t forget to check out the Top Ten pictures for 2012
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Volume 6, Issue 1
2013 Arizona Section
Society for Range Management
Winter Meeting
Theme: "Old Problems and Better Solutions - Applied Wisdom"
Location: Prescott Resort
Dates: Wednesday January 25 to Friday January 25
Wednesday: Introduction to Rangeland Management
1:00 to 1:15
Opening remarks. Alvin Whitehair - Rangeland Mgmt
Specialist, BLM
1:15 to 1:45
Range Sites. Emilio Carrillo - Rangeland Mgmt Specialist,
NRCS
1:45 to 2:15
Plant Identification. John Kava - Rangeland Mgmt Specialist, NRCS
2:15 to 2:45
Range Monitoring. Jeff Schalau – Yavapai County Extension Director
2:45 to 3:00
Break
3:00 to 3:30
Grazing Utilization. Robert Adams – Range Technician, Hopi Office of Range Mgmt
3:30 to 4:00
Range Nutrition. Doug Tolleson – Range Specialist, AZ Cooperative Extension
4:00 to 4:30
Panel Discussion/Q&A


Wednesday evening: Membership meeting

Thursday morning: Technical session. Wild and feral horses on rangelands

Thursday afternoon: Technical session. Horses continued and research updates from U of AZ

Thursday evening: Auction, awards, banquet

Fri morning: Technical session. Arizona rangeland collaborations
SRM members can login and register online:
Go to http://rangelands.org/index.shtml
If you are NOT a member, you can sign up here: http://www.ranelands.org/membership.shtml
Login as a member, bottom of “Quick Links”, left of screen
Click “Sections”, left side of screen
Click “Arizona Section Meeting”, below “Sections”
Scroll down to see links for program schedule and if you prefer, a mail in registration form
Choose options for registration, click “Add to cart”
Once all options are to your satisfaction, click “Checkout”
If your address is correct, click “Continue”
Put your CC information and click “Approve Payment”
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The Rimrock Report
Plant of the “week” by Guest Writer Ashley Shepherd, U of A Research Specialist
Bursera microphylla (Elephant tree) isn’t a typical range plant, it is commonly
found in Mexico between 1,000 and 2,500 feet with small pockets populations
creeping up into Arizona. Going to college and spending most of my time in
the desert near Tucson I wasn’t introduced to this plant until I started my
Master’s program working in the Mohawk Mountains on Barry M. Goldwater
Range but after my first encounter with B. microphylla it soon became one of
my favorite plants. Peeling bark, fragrant leaves, and stems that spit sap at you
are just a few of the reasons this plant makes my top 10 list.
This tree is a member of the Torchwood Family (Burseraceae) or the
frankincense and myrrh family that grows up to 6 meters tall usually on rocky
slopes and upper bajadas of mountains. The green pinntately compound leaves
(up to 2” long) with a shorter terminal leaflet squirt out a fragrant sap when
http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/
bursmicr.pdf
peeled back from stems. It gets its name from the tapered shape of the
branches and trunk of the tree that resembles the trunk of an elephant. The
bark of older branches and trunk are beige to white that is very papery and easy to peel, while stems with new
growth are nimble with a brownish to deep burgundy color. Usually flowering in June to July, its tiny (1/4”)
star shaped blooms are long white to cream color with bright yellow stamens. Following the flowers are
small three-angled purple to brown drupelike fruit that are also very aromatic.
Native American found a range of uses for B. microphylla. The bark contains tannin that was gathered in
Sonora and sold for export. A resin, known as copal by Native Americans, can be extracted and used as
cement or varnish. Resin was also used to make incense that when burned has a smell similar to myrrh.
http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?
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Phone: 928-554-8991
Fax: 928-554-8996
Cell: 928-821-3222
E-mail: dougt@cals.arizona.edu
Web: http://cals.arizona.edu/aes/vbarv/
Note: Please email me if you would like to be added to the
“mailing” list for this newsletter.
The University of Arizona
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
V Bar V Ranch
2830 N. Commonwealth Drive Suite 103
Camp Verde, AZ 86322
Just me talking...
Five years. In some ways it seems like yesterday; in others it seems like I have been here forever.
But it was five years ago today (Jan 2) that we rolled into Cottonwood and I started to work for the
University of Arizona. I remember going to extension meetings and talking about what I had done
in previous jobs and what I planned to do here. It was frustrating. I looked forward to the day when
I could show results of what we were doing here in Arizona at the V Bar V. Time wore on, work was done and the
results started to accumulate. Building a program has been challenging and rewarding. Now, five years, 250 Range
Rocks! students, 75 extension presentations, 10 journal articles, 25 “other” articles, 25 abstracts, 20 Rimrock
Reports, dozens of collaborative range monitoring days and ~ $1M in contracts and grants later we have a few
things to show for our efforts. Notice I said “we”. This has been a team accomplishment. I am not going to try and
list the names of all the people who have been involved in the range extension and research program here. The list
is long and I would forget somebody. So let me just say Thanks to all of you; you know who you are. And if I
have not said thanks to you in person by now, putting your name on a list wouldn’t mean much anyway. It has been
a pretty good ride so far. I have been bucked off a time or two (literally,if you count Honda’s) and pulled more than
a few wet saddle blankets off the ol’ pickup but I wouldn’t trade the experience.
So, enough about the past. 2013 should get into full swing here pretty quick with the always informative Arizona
Section Winter Meeting in Prescott January 23-25. Mike Hemovich and his crew have put together a strong
program. The auction should be a highlight and our dinner speaker is the current president of the American Society
of Animal Science, Dr Jim Sartin from Auburn University. The national SRM meeting in OK City is right after that
in early February. Our new research specialist here at the V Bar V, Chris Bernau, and the research specialist team
from the Arizona Collaborative Monitoring Project (UA and BLM) will be conducting a monitoring techniques
workshop for the High School Youth Forum at the national meeting. This will be a chance to interact with 25-30
students interested in range from across the western US and Canada. We will get to show them how things are done
“the U of A way”. We conducted our first workshop on the revitalized Rim Grass Range Group project in
November. Should have another one in March. Right before Christmas we found out that Range Rocks! had been
selected for funding on the state extension signature program initiative. We should be able to kick that off again
this spring with some field days on the ranch with local high school students. Several Tierra Seca club members
from UA spent a few days in December processing mule deer pellets and running the NIRS machine to make
money for their trip to OK City. They are scheduled to compete in the URME contest at the national SRM. Good
luck to all of them and “Bear Down”. Speaking of which... did ya’ll see the UA football team in the NM Bowl
come back to win by 1 point over Nevada and then later that night, the men’s basketball team do the same thing to
Florida? Pretty good day for the Wildcats. And did you know that you can get little Christmas tree ornaments that
look like the Heisman Trophy? Don’t forget to check out the top pictures from the V Bar V Range Program for
2012, there were some good ones again this year.
Till next time,
Doug
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