Agency Accomplishments: Making a Difference on the Ground

Abstract

Government land management agencies are not often provided adequate opportunities to market their successes because workloads and priorities often restrict time and budgets. At the request of an enlightened agency field employee—Ryan Martin, Rangeland Management Specialist, Dillon Field Office, Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—the BLM Liaison to the SRM organized a special session in concert with the 2011 SRM Annual Meeting and Trade Show to do just that. The session promoted opportunities for the agencies to demonstrate the often unique and well-fought efforts to accomplish laudable partner-based goals. The goal was to provide presentations that reflected the successes of agency partnerships with researchers and ranchers, nongovernmental organizations, and others. The presenters were encouraged to focus on projects that were ecoregional in nature and that demonstrated the variety of avenues to success. Presenters were asked to address the primary problem (the concern), discuss the collaborative process that brought the partners together, and highlight current accomplishments. The long-term intent of the session was to foster improved communication with the goal of developing more opportunities for successful partnerships and enhance management of the nation’s natural resources.