Photo by Hank Lohmeyer

Public lands managers met with grazing permittees at an Advanced Range Management School held at Bill Heddles Recreation Center.

Their operations convert a public resource into an economic benefit demanded and used by consumers in every part of the country.

And the public lands they steward provide their livelihood.

It's natural there would be a mutual advantage in grazing permittees working cooperatively with public lands managers whose own careers depend on a healthy and productive rangeland province.

Permittees from around the West Slope gathered for that purpose at Bill Heddles Recreation Center last week for the "Advanced Range Management School 501."

The school is a public/private partnership that aims at benefitting lands management agencies, consumers, and the general public. It provides an opportunity for lands managers to try and connect their science, research, and policies with real-world conditions and practices.

The public lands agencies benefit from on-the-ground knowledge they gain about conditions on the range.

Grazing permittees benefit by building relationships with lands managers and by getting one-on-one feedback from science professionals on range health issues.

Consumers benefit by getting a lower cost, natural food product produced from forage-fed livestock.

The public benefits when an economic recource is put to productive use. By working in concert, permitees and lands managers are able to better monitor ecological conditions on rangelands and respond to conditions that are changing.

The "Basic School 101" was held at Heddles in 2009. The sdvanced school provided additional follow up. Presenters went deep into the science of good range management.

Each of the more than 80 permittees got a thick binder filled with research, data, trends, and examples of the most recent findings and practices. The topics addressed at the session spanned the science of plant populations and ecosystems, bringing them to bear on issues of animal nutrition down even to the trace mineral components of local soils and plants.

Agency sponsors of the event were CSU Extension, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management. Representatives of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NRCS, and others participated.

Presenters were Robbie Baird LeValley, CSU Extension range and livestock specialist; Dave Bradford, USFS range management specialist; Chase Roeber, rancher, bachelor of science in range management; John Murray, NRCS retired; and Floyd Reed, USFS retired.