The SRM website provides access to their Journal of Range Management, Rangelands magazine, plus a discussion site, where the latest research and applied range management information can be obtained. The address for the website is SRM . In February, the annual meeting for SRM was held in Omaha, Nebraska with over 1500 people in attendance. Major topics of discussion included alternative grazing management strategies, riparian zone management and monitoring, rangeland monitoring, range ecology and ecotourism opportunities on rangelands. From a forester's perspective, one interesting presentation focused on fragmentation of the prairie ecosystem and corresponding negative impact on grassland birds.
Most people view fragmentation as a result of cutting trees down.
On the prairie, the planting of trees can have the same effect. The benefits of prescribed burning in prairie ecosystems is well documented, but successfully managing prescribed fire in forested ecosystems is still a skeptical proposition. A forester at the meeting reported on a silvopastoral system in the Pine Ridge of Nebraska where timber harvesting and thinning was used to reduce potential fire hazard in Ponderosa pine timber stands while at the same time, increasing forage production for livestock grazing. This situation is an excellent example where forest management and range management are producing economic benefits from the same land, plus improving its ecological condition. Cows and trees can be managed together.