AoR 122: Happy New Year -- What's in Store for AoR?

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>> Welcome to the Art of Range, a podcast focused on rangelands and the people who manage them. I'm your host, Tim Hudson, range and livestock specialist with Washington State University Extension. The goal of this podcast is education and conservation through conversation. Find us online at artofrange.com.

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Happy New Year! It is now 2024. And somehow, I'm more optimistic about the turning of the calendar than I usually am. I see encouraging trends in rangeland management, in ranching, and in positive public perception of rangelands, and the people who care for them. I'm going to take a few minutes here, in a short episode, to give an overview of where we're going with the podcast in the coming year, and ask you to engage with the podcast in a couple of ways I haven't tried to mess with until now. We will soon finish up the Ranch Financial Resiliency series, with a little more discussion of integrated ranch management and the necessity of profitable ranching, to land conservation. And then shift into more public facing content, telling stories about the importance of rangelands to people, all people, and how ranchers and range professionals are important to the world. The podcast is beginning a partnership with the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission, a great group of people who have been doing good storytelling for some time now. Topics will include wildfire risks, to human economic, ecological risks, working around wolves, rethinking animal distribution with virtual fence systems, management to optimize carbon cycling, carbon sequestration and storage. And the goal is to get these stories out to the people in the grocery store, not just the people who grow the groceries. And for those scientific-minded folks, who think we just need to report clean research results, and that this constitutes effective science communication, I would push back and say that it's pretty well-established that people are captivated by stories. Even though we want to think that if I just give someone the same facts I have, they'll make the same decision about them, they don't. As the great philosopher Yogi Berra famously said, "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is." We can tell the truth, and tell it through the medium of story. And this is not a compromise of scientific integrity. This is good for influencing land managers. And I feel like I'm repeating myself, it's good for bringing public attention to the importance of rangelands and the people who use them. That's one of the main objectives of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, namely, to make awareness of rangelands and pastoralists less limited to the margins of society, and maybe to demarginalize these people, which include you, dear listener. So please stay tuned, and invite a friend, or maybe an enemy to listen to the art of range as well. I'm attempting to make use of social media to help get the message out about new episodes, but I don't really know what I'm doing. If you don't use social media, don't start the habit. Just say no. If you do, I'm told you need to like the Art of Range podcast on Facebook. I will at least make a post for every episode release. And if I can stick to my New Year's resolution, I'll get something posted weekly instead of every other week. Resolution number two is managing an e-mail list for listeners. So if you've already given me your e-mail through the podcast website, thank you. And I'm sorry, I haven't sent you much. Expect to see some communication soon by e-mail. And if you have not given me your e-mail, please do. Because one of the chief difficulties of a podcast is that there's no way to connect with listeners except to stay -- say stuff like this in the audio of the episode. But I would like to be able to notify you of episode releases, and remind you of historical content that is still valuable. Because nearly all of these episodes are intentionally timeless. In other words, it's not usually an event plug. So thank you for listening, and I sincerely hope that this finds you well, and that you will enjoy the Art of Range through 2024. Thank you for listening to the Art of Range podcast. You can subscribe to and review the show through iTunes, or your favorite podcasting app, so you never miss an episode. Just search for "Art of Range". If you have questions or comments for us to address in a future episode, send an e-mail to showatartofrange.com. For articles and links to resources mentioned in the podcast, please see the show notes at artofrange.com. Listener feedback is important to the success of our mission, empowering rangeland managers. Please take a moment to fill out a brief survey at artofrange.com. This podcast is produced by CAHNRS Communications in the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. The project is supported by the University of Arizona, and funded by the Western Center for Risk Management Education through the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own, and does not imply Washington State University's endorsement.