Soil and Water Indicators of the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable

Abstract

The Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable (SRR) has explicitly included conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources as a criterion, a category of conditions or processes that can be assessed nationally to determine if the current level of rangeland management will ensure sustainability. Within the soil/water criterion, 10 indicators, 5 soil-based and 5 water-based, were developed through the expert opinions of rangeland scientists, rangeland management agency personnel, non-governmental organization representatives, practitioners, and other interested stakeholders. Out of these 10, 5 were judged by the soil/water criterion group members as being most expedient for a future national level U.S.A. report on rangeland sustainability. The soil and water indicators are not inclusive, but provide a suite of variables, that when complemented with indicators from the 4 other criteria of SRR, produce a viable system to monitor at the national level the biophysical, social, and economic characteristics indicating trends of sustainability on rangelands.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

Karl, M.G. Sherm; Pyke, D.A.; Tueller, P.T.; Schuman, G.E.; Shafer, R.W.; Borchard, S.J.; Booth, D.T.; Ypsilantis, W.G.; Barrett, R.H. Jr. 2006. Soil and Water Indicators of the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 121-131