What better way to close out the year than among the company of friends? We just wrapped up the second annual joint Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management and Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute retreat at Camp Allen in Navasota, and it was a truly successful meeting of passionate, like-minded folks dedicated to advancing our land-grant mission and serving our great state. The retreat brought together more than 100 individuals from12 states to build relationships, foster collaboration and define our vision as we collectively move forward.

While we are forever looking ahead, we also took the opportunity to look back on the past year's achievements. Within RWFM, we welcomed 10 new faculty members to assist us as we continue strengthening our programmatic areas in the research, teaching and extension fields. We have also made great strides in ensuring our students gain the critical, hands-on experience of working directly in the field. In addition to establishing the first Sentinel Landscape Partnership in Texas, NRI saw a record-breaking year in research, scientific productivity and grantsmanship. You can learn more details about these achievements and more below. 

I’ll sign off for now but would like to leave you with a point to ponder: The last few years have shown us that change is inevitable in both our personal and professional lives. Will you respond with fear or see these changes as an opportunity? From our perspective as a department and an institute, we look to be adaptable; we look to be resilient; we look for opportunities. In short, we define our own destiny.

As challenges facing conservation and land management evolve, so too must the tools and critical resources provided to land managers. Over the past two years, RWFM has strategically worked to do just that — developing and reinvigorating critical labs and subject area centers that will support domestic and international land stewardship.

The Center for Natural Resources Information Technology, CNRIT, and the Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management, CGRM, are at the epicenter of these efforts and have made considerable progress.

Bill Fox, Ph.D., rangeland ecologist and associate professor, was appointed director of CNRIT, and Doug Tolleson, Ph.D., AgriLife Research range management specialist, was named associate director to include oversight of CNRIT’s Grazingland Animal Nutrition Lab, GAN Lab, which relocated from Temple to the main Texas A&M University campus.

Tolleson explained the relocation of the GAN Lab will augment educational and training opportunities for students, provide greater lab services and better facilitate cross-discipline collaboration.

“We are also updating and revamping calibrations of the important tools used to conduct nutritional evaluations the GAN lab is known for globally,” Tolleson said.

The GAN Lab is known for its near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy technology, which rapidly assesses diet nutritional value of free-ranging livestock. In addition, CNRIT offers a number of other data-based decision support systems for land managers and livestock producers through its Rangeland Decision-Support Laboratory, RDSL. These include the livestock nutrition balance decision support system, NUTBAL; Forage Risk Assessment Management System, FRAMS; Burning Risk Assessment Support System, BRASS; Livestock Marketing Information System, LMIS; brush and weed management decisions for Texas and New Mexico, PestMan; as well as a decision support system for above-ground herb and shrub growth, forage consumption and hydrologic processes known as Phygrow.

Jeff Goodwin, Ph.D., joined the CGRM as director in October, bringing a wealth of experience and perspective to the center’s revitalization efforts.

CGRM is a Texas A&M University system-wide effort dedicated to safeguarding the ecologic and economic resiliency of grazingland resources and ranching operations.

Goodwin said the center’s efforts are concentrated on three focal areas: ranch-scale applied grazingland research, extension and outreach, as well as policy and industry relations.

CGRM is actively being fortified to deliver science-based solutions for Texas producers with proposed research initiatives focused on increased understanding of soil health and ecosystem services, innovative grazing management strategies and drought mitigation among others.

“CGRM will serve as a centralized hub for ranch management information where we bring together all of the tools that Texas A&M has to offer in one location while also engaging the industry on issues affecting grazingland operations,” Goodwin said.

Integral to the advancement of both centers is the Livestock and Ranching Steering Committee. The committee is comprised of members representing all areas of Texas, sizes and types of ranches and ranching’s critical infrastructure.

“The role of the committee is that of an external advisory board — to advocate for ranching and advise Texas A&M AgriLife as to the greatest needs faced by ranchers across our great state,” said Roel Lopez, Ph.D., head of the Texas A&M Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management.

A recently established internal Center Advisory Board, comprised of representatives across the Texas A&M University System, will guide and organize the two centers on an internal level to ensure system-wide engagement, coordination and communication. 

“We are stronger together than we are apart, and the Center Advisory Board will enable our success,” Lopez said. “We are excited about our ongoing growth as well as new opportunities to support Texas ranchers in improved and strategic ways.”

More than 100 RWFM and NRI faculty and staff members attended the second annual joint retreat held Nov. 30 – Dec. 2 at Camp Allen in Navasota. Over the three-day retreat, attendees celebrated accomplishments over the past year and discussed key projects in the year to come.

Looking ahead, RWFM plans to continue its forward momentum in producing the next generation of land stewards. Examples of these deliberate actions include:

• RWFM continues to strengthen and refine its core curriculum, including the successful establishment of an immersive, three-week field-based course located at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve. 
 
• Ten new faculty members joining RWFM bring a wealth of expertise to strengthen undergraduate and graduate research and experiences.

• In collaboration with the newly revitalized Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management, RWFM will develop the 2,762-acre La Copita Research and Demonstration Ranch, providing additional research and field-based experiences for students while also generating critical data and extension programming for Texas producers.

• The on-campus Ecology and Natural Resource Teaching Area, ENRTA, also known as the "range site," will undergo a series of updates to current infrastructure and land use to better serve other departments across the university.

• RWFM will continue to develop industry partnerships and augment student internship opportunities.

Select achievements over the previous year include:
 
• RWFM and NRI’s Leopold Live program, which evolved as a way to deliver land management education in response to COVID-19 restrictions, has produced 14 videos in partnership with the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve to demonstrate the original five creative methods conceptualized by Aldo Leopold to effectively manage wildlife populations and their habitats. The program was recognized by the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society with a media award, and methods of video production were published in The Wildlife Society Bulletin.

• Generation Next: Our Turn to Ranch, led by Megan Clayton, Ph.D., professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service range specialist, has reached roughly 500 landowners across Texas and beyond. Now entering its fifth year of programming, the course continues to empower new landowners, those who are inheriting land, or those who are looking to start a new agricultural operation on an existing ranch.

• Small Acreage – Big Opportunity, co-hosted by AgriLife Extension and Texas Wildlife Association, returned in 2022 to complete three sessions in different ecoregions of the state. The day-long program supports landowners of small properties in their efforts to manage for native Texas species.

• NRI, the Hill Country Alliance and roughly 40 other federal, state, local and private partners established the state’s first Sentinel Partner Landscape at Camp Bullis. Founded in 2013, The Sentinel Landscapes Partnership is a coalition of federal agencies, state and local governments, and non-governmental organizations that work with private landowners to advance sustainable land management practices around military installations and ranges. As the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape evolves, a diverse network of resources including programs for local landowners and water resources management initiatives will be implemented.

“During our first retreat in 2021, we talked about changes and trying to define our path moving forward as a new department,” said Dr. Roel Lopez. “We also aimed to maintain the good work of our institute and, more importantly, how we could better coordinate our activities and optimize the work that we do. I think we’ve been successful in advancing these goals.”