Idaho Rangeland Conservation Partnership 2022 Annual Meeting by Brenda Richards, IRCP Coordinator 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.
Brenda Richards & Dustin Miller
www.IdahoRCP.org
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
22 MAY/JUNE 2022
The Progressive Rancher
www.progressiverancher.com
