Managing Invasive Species on Rangelands: Staying with a Wicked Problem

Breakout session Tuesday, February 11 at 9:00 a.m.

Invasive annual brome increase in Great Basin shrublands has altered historical fire regimes and shifted landscapes to annual grasslands. Reestablishing the values of these lands requires using available research and knowledge, but with an increased emphasis on 1) detailed long-term conservation planning with well-defined contingencies 2) flexible availability of technical and financial assistance for landscape-scale implementation and 3) integration of site-specific monitoring results.

Speaker: Joel Brown, USDA Southwest Climate Hub

1. Managing invasive species on rangelands: staying with a wicked problem Joel Brown, Senior Science Advisor Emile Elias, Paige Ramsey, Kay Strain NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION DISTRICTS SALTH LAKE CITY, UT 11 FEBRUARY 2025

2. WICKED PROBLEMS in CONSERVATION A Wicked Problem a problem whose complexity means that it has no determinable stopping point Wicked problems are often characterized by organized irresponsibility- Increased # actors x increased complexity blurs lines of authority and responsibility Wicked problems Every wicked problem is unique-details are hard to transfer-principles remain the same Staying with the Problem Haraway (2016) and Wilmer et al (2024 UNL Red Cedar Literacy Project USGS Public Doman Steve Archer

3. INVASIVE SPECIES on NONFEDERAL RANGELAND Herrick et al 2010. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment   (2010): 403-408. Twidwell et al 2021. Oklahoma Cooperative Extension E-1054. % land with exotic species Woody plant density National Resource Inventory 2011 to 2015, 25.8% - moderate, moderate-to extreme, or extreme-to-total departure from reference conditions for at least one of the three rangeland health attributes. This was a 7.5% increase over 2004 to 2010 (Spaeth et al 2024).

4. BUREAU of LAND MANAGEMENT RANGELAND Invasive species Bare Ground Karl, M.G. “Sherm,” E. Kachergis , and J.W. Karl. 2016. Bureau of Land Management Rangeland Resource Assessment—2011. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, National Operations Center, Denver, CO. 96 pp.

5. Conservation Planning to Solve Wicked Problems

6. USGS Public Doman Exotic Grass Invasions of Great Basin Sagebrush Ecosystems Working Lands for Wildlife Working Lands for Wildlife Introduced Mid-19 th Century Early 20 th Century concern Suite of exotic annuals Common across NA Interacts with fire

7. Mozelewski et al 2024 Doherty et al 2024 Rate of Change and Drivers

8. Williams et al 2016 Impacts on Soil-based Ecosystem Services-Hydrology

9. Maxwell et al 2024 Impacts on Soil-based Ecosystem Services-Carbon

10. Chambers et al 2023 Restoration Decision Support-Ecosystem Scale Chambers et al 2024

11. Green and Busby 2023 Restoration Decision Support-Field Scale

12. cool/moist mountain big sagebrush in northeastern California over time after fire …transition between stages varies by site. (Figure from Johnson and Miller 2006 in Chambers et al 2024). TIME IS NOT ON OUR SIDE

13. STAYING WITH THE INVASIVE SPECIES PROBLEM LONG HISTORY OF HIGH-QUALITY RESEARCH AND DECISION SUPPORT Defend the core/Grow the core Soil and Ecological Site Maps and Widely Accepted State-and-Transition Models GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICE IMPACTS Hydrology Soil Health Wildlife Habitat Economic and Trade-off Analysis LONG TERM COMMITMENT AND LEADERSHIP ON-THE-GROUND IS LACKING NACD Conservation Planning Partnership Requires a Change in Planning Horizons