Rangeland Ecology

The Rangeland Ecology and Management program at the Twin Falls Research and Extension Center is part of the UI Rangeland Center. This program collaborates with faculty in the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Science in the UI College of Natural Resources.

Research is conducted on the ecology, reclamation, restoration and management of rangelands, riparian areas and pasture land. Research is also conducted on grazing behavior of herbivores and range livestock management, fire ecology and prescribed burning and rangeland monitoring.

Continuing education programs are conducted in all aspects of rangeland and pasture use and management via workshops, short courses, range tours, demonstrations, distance education courses and publications.

Rangeland Monitoring Data Integration

Federal land management agencies have been collecting monitoring data for around a half a century. Within that time, the methods used to collect the data have changed several times and many methods have no statistically acceptable conversion to another method.

Today, federal land management agencies have data collected by multiple methods, yet cannot tell the story of what happened on their allotment over time. This research project seeks to help integrate historical data sets and help land managers account for changes in rangelands over time.

Rangeland Monitoring for Ranchers

This project is geared at providing ranchers the expertise, skills and equipment needed to conduct rangeland monitoring. This is done through workshops, on-site visits, seminars and field days.

Rangeland Apps

A team of University of Idaho students is assessing apps for tablets and phones that pertain to rangeland monitoring. The team is gathering information about current needs and assessing how those needs can be met with new apps.