A Note from Dave:
This summer, we are seeing great production in our flood meadows and rangeland – hopefully fire season is mild this year and livestock can stay on pastures and allotments throughout the summer and fall.
Some of the events that have kept us busy the last few months include hosting a tour of EOARC Burns for the State Board of Agriculture, helping sponsor the Eastern Oregon Economic Summit, hosting and providing lunch for the Ranch Tour held during the Harney County Migratory Bird Festival, hosting the Harney County 2nd Graders and Rural Schools Field Trip (always a fun day for both the kids and the faculty/staff at EOARC as we share how science impacts our lives and environment), the annual Science in the Sagebrush Steppe (College Range Camp) and the first year of a Rangeland Ecology and Management Field Course for Natural Resource professionals. We also had the second year of a Wildfires, Smoke, and Livestock Webinar Series, numerous extension/outreach talks with local, state, regional, and national audiences and had a meeting with U.S. Sen. Merkley prior to a Burns Town Hall. Also, we are excited to be starting the EOARC Ranching Academy, which is composed of eight modules combining lectures and hands on activities, throughout the year and is organized by Dr. Juliana Ranches. The objective is to privide the most up-to-date information on diverse topics related to beef cattle production.
Keep checking our website as we are in the process of renovating and improving it to make things easier to find while providing new and more updated information for our stakeholders, potential employees, and visitors.
As always, we are extremely proud to acknowledge when our faculty and staff receive awards. Katie Wollstein received the 2024 College of Agricultural Sciences Excellence in Extension Award. This was well deserved and we are extremely fortunate to have Katie as a colleague at EOARC. Also, I was acknowledged by OSU for being a faculty member for the past 25 years. Time sure flies when you are having fun!!!
In this edition, our Stakeholder Spotlight is Cheryl Shippentower who is a plant ecologist with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and an alumni of OSU and the College of Agriculture Sciences.
If you have any comments or suggestions about what you would like to see in future editions of the newsletter please feel free to contact Shellie Tiller (shellie.tiller@oregonstate.edu) and she will work with us to try get all requests addressed.
I hope you are all well!
David Bohnert
Director, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center (Burns and Union Stations)
Oregon State University
A Note from Chad:
Greetings from Burns. I hope your summer is going well. Field season is in full swing here at EOARC and our population has more than doubled with the arrival of summer field crews.
As David points out we have been keeping ourselves very busy with outreach activities. In addition to these activities we are becoming increasingly engaged in threat-based strategic planning for rangeland management and are collectively working in this regard with Malheur County, the Harney County Wildfire Collaborative, the Burns and Prineville Sage-grouse Local Implementation Teams, and the Tri-Corners Collaborative in Lake County.
In the last month or so the EOARC team wrapped-up three rangeland ecology and management workshops that I introduced in the last edition of the newsletter and wanted to highlight here. The first was Science in the Sagebrush Steppe. Initiated in 2014 this is a 4-day workshop taught by folks from EOARC along with local conservation and management partners. This year we had over 50 students from eight universities across the Pacific Northwest. The event culminated with group presentations of management plans to a panel of land management professionals; thanks to Tom Sharp (EOARC advisory committee and rancher), Randy Wiest (Oregon Department of State Lands), and Bill Dragt (BLM) for participating on the panel and a big shout-out to Ketcher Cattle Company for donating the tri-tip we enjoyed afterward. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the University advisors there noted the increasing importance of the event to the “in the field” education of students in an era when more and more educational activities are becoming online.
We also held a 2-day range ecology and management workshop for those currently working in the range/natural resources fields. This event had 47 attendees from an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies and non-government organizations. The curriculum for this continuing education opportunity was similar to Science in the Sagebrush Steppe but geared more toward working professionals. Coinciding with this workshop we also sponsored a 3-day “teach-the-teacher” workshop for 10 individuals from the Pacific Northwest. Participants showed up a day prior to the working professionals workshop and received instruction on materials and presentation techniques; they then helped us teach the working professionals workshop.
In our ARS employee spotlight we are highlighting Stephanie Falck. Stephanie plays a number of important roles here at EOARC including being in charge of operations for the wet lab; chairing the EOARC Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Committee; running all aspects of the ARS safety program; and she plays a key role in documenting outreach activities and maintaining our presence on social media. Thank you for all you do Steph!
Thanks also to Shellie for all of your work in getting the newsletter together, and as always, please feel free to reach out to me any time we can be of help.
Chad Boyd
Research Leader, Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, Burns
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
A Note from Cameron:
After a slow start, summer has finally arrived in eastern Oregon. The long days make for plenty of time available for fieldwork, and our crew has been taking full advantage! In addition to long stints in southern Oregon and eastern Nevada monitoring carbon coating seed technology demonstrations (with plenty of technical assistance from Mormon crickets), the crew has been hard at work on several new endeavors.
While weather is king when determining the success of restoration seedings and weed control, the techniques and nuances used to craft best use-case guidelines are a close second. That is why we recently aided a multi-agency team (including OSU Extension) in collecting 4th-year data on a collaborative project that attempts to operationalize science-backed findings about how best to optimize herbicide control of medusahead. Research from the EOARC has suggested that burning highly invaded sites prior to herbicide application can sometimes improve herbicide, and this project aims to test this method at moderately large scales (70+ acres). This project also compared imazapic to rejuvra in pre-burned areas, with a drill-seeding treatment applied a year after herbicide. The project is located near Juntura and was burned and sprayed in 2020 and seeded in 2021. With this year's data, the team hopes to learn how the herbicides differ in their effects on the target (invasive annual grasses) and non-target (several dozen native species found in the area) vegetation, and how well the different strategies can lead to reductions in medusahead and/or improvements in seeding success.
Corinne and India recently spent several days assisting in restoration of Wocus (Nuphar polysepala) at TNC’s Klamath preserve. This yellow water lily is a familiar sight in shallow waterways throughout the Pacific Northwest, serving as a key tribal resource and provisioning habitat for endangered species such as the Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose (Chasmistes brevirostris) suckers. Though this plant is abundant throughout its range, it is conspicuously rare in the Upper Klamath Basin due to agricultural conversion and wetland draining. Following dyke removal, and restoration of historic wetlands, cattails, grasses, rushes, and sedges were quick to recover while the wocus has lagged behind. It has low rates of seed germination and relies on vegetative reproduction from a large, heavy rhizome, meaning that the plant struggles to recolonize new areas. Restoration planting involves harvesting wocus rhizomes and stapling to the lakebed in new areas, providing a nucleus for future expansion. This project has been ongoing for over a decade, and has resulted in insights on the most successful and cost-effective methods to restore this species at scale, relying on natural expansion following local recolonization. As I sit writing this in my warm office, I’m wondering why we don’t work on aquatic plant restoration more often…
As always, please reach out to cameron.duquette@tnc.org if there’s anything I can do for you!
Cameron Duquette
Rangeland Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
A Note from Bryan:
Greetings from Union. Summer is here and it has been a busy time for faculty, staff and students at the Union Experiment Station. In between wrapping up spring fieldwork, haying, and turning out cattle at Hall Ranch and Starkey Experimental Forest and Range, we have been busy with several research, outreach and experiential learning efforts. This summer is particularly busy as we host seven undergraduate student technicians at the Union Station who will assist ongoing research efforts while gaining valuable research experience.
For this newsletter, I want to highlight our ongoing partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) focused on the ecology, management, and restoration of culturally significant rangeland plant species. First Foods have sustained tribal people since time immemorial and the relationship between First Foods and the Tribes is essential to the ongoing culture of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). The First Foods serve a fundamental role in the health, well-being and cultural identity of the Tribes, and constitute the minimum ecological products necessary to sustain CTUIR subsistence and cultural needs. The First Foods include water, salmon, big game, roots, and berries.
Since 2015, Station researchers have collaborated with the CTUIR Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on research projects to monitor the status of key root species found in rangeland ecosystems across the region and to evaluate how disturbances (e.g., fire, invasive species) and management (herbicide treatments for annual grasses, fuels treatments) impact the health and abundance of roots. This work has recently expanded to also focus on plant propagation and ecological restoration of First Foods. These efforts address a critical need of CTUIR, since First Foods, particularly Roots and Berries, have not generally been incorporated or included in research, stewardship or restoration by universities or agencies.
A key partner in this work is Cheryl Shippentower (see stakeholder spotlight below), a plant ecologist with CTUIR DNR, whose main responsibility is the protection, enhancement, and ecological restoration of First Foods, specifically women’s food (i.e. roots and berries). We partner with Cheryl and many of her incredible colleagues to design research, restoration, and outreach projects that generate key data and information to support the Tribes First Food Mission. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with CTUIR on these projects and look forward to many more years of collaboration!
Please do not hesitate to reach out at any time,
Bryan Endress
Assistant Director EOARC - Union
Stakeholder Spotlight - Cheryl Shippentower
I work for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Department of Natural Resources, Range Ag and Forestry Program as the Tribes Plant Ecologist. CTUIR Department of Natural Resources has implemented a unique strategy for sustainable natural systems by organizing its functions and responsibilities focused on traditionally gathered resources identified by the Tribal community as “First Foods.” As the plant ecologist, my primary responsibility is the protection, enhancement, and ecological restoration of First Foods, specifically women’s food (i.e. roots and berries).
CTUIR collaborated with EOARC to develop and implement a protocol for monitoring the abundance of culturally significant plant resources found in shrubland, grassland and open forests on reservation, private and public lands. This protocol will help address the knowledge gaps in the status, trends and health of forbs and how invasive species and land management affect celery and roots abundance and availability.
Invasive species management is a major component of my work due to negative invasive species on ecosystems that support First Foods. Annual Grasses have invaded rangelands reducing forage productivity and threatening First Foods. Prior to utilizing Rejurva to control annual grasses on reservation rangelands, CTUIR is collaborating with EOARC on the native plant community response to Rejuvra application. This work will evaluate the effects on species richness and diversity of forbs, including celery and roots.
Our partnership with EOARC has provided many great opportunities for moving the Tribes First Food mission from concept to project implementation. First Food focused projects provide a direct and culturally appropriate way of monitoring and reporting results to the tribal community. CTUIR looks forward to continuing work with EOARC to inform First Food management by bringing attention to plant species and ecological processes that may be largely unrecognized and sometimes devalued outside of the CTUIR.
AWARDS - C0NGRATULATIONS!
Dr. Dave Ganskopp - 2024 Diamond Pioneer Award
Dave Ganskopp's career spans a distinguished service in the U.S. Navy, followed by impactful contributions to rangeland research. He earned a Ph.D. in Rangeland Resources from Oregon State University, and joined the USDA Agricultural Research Service in 1982, where he conducted groundbreaking research at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center until his retirement in 2008.
His work focused on the interaction between ungulates and vegetation, pioneering the use of GPS and GIS technology to study grazing behavior. His research significantly advanced understanding of cattle landscape use and habitat management, resulting in numerous publications and international recognition. Dave's commitment to his profession is reflected in awards such as the Society for Range Management's Outstanding Achievement and Fellow Awards.
Beyond research, he served as President of the Oregon Hunter Education Instructors Association and actively mentored faculty, emphasizing service and community engagement. He also gives presentations at local elementary schools, leads youth on fly fishing expeditions, and teaches them outdoor skills, giving back by devoting his time to the next generation.
Dr. Katie Wollstein - CAS Excellence in Extension Education
As the Southeastern Oregon Regional Rangeland Fire Specialist, Katie is a leader in educational teaching methods and has made remarkable contributions to the field. Katie’s program involves responding to needs through outreach and non-credit public education on rangeland and fire science, as well as applied research on rangeland and wildfire governance models for social and ecological fire resilience. Leveraging her social science background, she demonstrates leadership in employing diverse and effective teaching methods to enhance rangeland fire resilience, reaching nearly 12,000 clients with 82 non-credit courses in just over three years. As a Rangeland Fire Specialist covering 13 million acres, Katie addresses knowledge gaps through applied research and extension programming. She has developed innovative programming on rangeland fuel conditions, risk mitigation, and fire ecology, which include field tours, hands-on workshops, and interactive tools like polling, 360° imagery, videos, and word clouds. This programming has led to an increase in ranchers seeking information to implement pre-fire practices that improve post-fire outcomes. Her inclusive approach ensures all learners feel comfortable and engaged. Katie’s work also addresses the threats of invasive annual grasses and rangeland wildfire to the sagebrush biome. She played a key role in developing the Threat-Based Strategic Conservation program, which is currently being implemented by groups covering over 20 million acres in eastern Oregon. Katie’s program exemplifies Excellence in Extension Education and is positively impacting the rangelands of southeast Oregon as well as landowners and natural resource professionals across the West.
ARS Employee Spotlight - Stephanie Falck
Stephanie was born and raised in Wheeling, WV. She received her BS from the University of Kentucky majoring in Animal Science. While there she worked at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, UK’s thoroughbred and beef farms, and in the nutrition lab. She then attended Texas A&M University and got her Masters in Nutrition, working on projects relating to neonatal survival in ruminants. She met David Bohnert while at Kentucky, and moved to Burns in 2000 after their wedding. She has worked for EOARC since 2001 as the lab manager, and is also the Collateral Duty Safety Officer. Stephanie’s role as a safety liaison is crucial for maintaining a safe working environment.
During Covid, Stephanie undertook the daunting task of organizing our photo collection. She meticulously tagged each photo with relevant themes, making it easier to search through them. These photos serve multiple purposes: they’re used on our website, promote outreach activities, and contribute to EOARC’s historical archive.
She and David have a 14 year old daughter, Allison. Stephanie is currently a 4-H baking leader, President of the Harney County 4-H Association, and on the board of the Harney County Youth Livestock Auction and Show Committee. In her free time she likes visiting National Parks, photography, and raising registered Boer goats with her family.
Science of wildfire, provided by OSU Extension, influences art exhibition
Last fall, Extension Regional Fire Specialists, Katie Wollstein and Ariel Cowan, spent several days with an artist cohort at PLAYA at Summer Lake focused on telling stories of water and wildfire. The purpose of the Wildfire + Water: Artists and Scientists Collaborating for Change artist residency program was for artists to spend time with scientists and learn about and reflect on the roles water and wildfire in Lake County. Ariel and Katie engaged nine artists on topics related with fire ecology, its drivers, and management challenges and, in collaboration with Lakeview BLM and the Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council, led a field tour in the Chewaucan Watershed, which has burned in several major wildfires in the last decade. They have been providing ongoing support to the artist cohort by attending check-in calls and providing feedback as they prepare to exhibit their work at the end of April.
The artists from the PLAYA residency will exhibit work they created from their experiences with scientists. The goal of the exhibition is “…that the art will deepen the audiences’ understanding of local environmental issues and further suggest ways to become active advocates for and partners in addressing them.” Local middle- and highschoolers and educators, media, donors, and the public will be invited to the exhibit and symposium. Beyond nine artists better understanding the wildfire in the region, the art in the exhibition will reach new audiences, communicate about fire in new ways, and offer new visions for living with fire.
OSU Employee Spotlight - Hla Naing
Hla Naing is a new PhD student of Rangeland Ecology and Management under the guidance of Dr. Bryan Endress, Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences of Oregon State University at Eastern Oregon University, La Grande. Originally from Burma/Myanmar, Hla is dedicated to tiger conservation. He is a father to two children, La Yaung and Wira, who are studying in grades nine and three in Burma and live with their mother named Zin. The family is eagerly looking forward to visiting the US this summer.
Hla’s journey in environmental conservation is a testament to his unwavering commitment to protecting wildlife and natural habitats. He began his academic journey with a BS in Forestry Sciences from the University of Forestry in Yezin, Burma, in 2000, which laid the foundation for his career in conservation. He furthered his education with an MS in Environmental Conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) in 2015, and during this time, he was awarded a Fulbright Graduate Fellowship, allowing him to study at both the University of Arizona-Tucson and UMA from 2012 to 2014. These academic pursuits equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of conservation challenges and strategies.
Professionally, Hla has held various roles, including Range Officer of Wildlife and National Parks at Burma Forest Department, positions at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and as a part-time consultant for WWF Myanmar. His work ranges from assessing and monitoring tiger populations in the Northern Myanmar Forest Complex to leading the development of a participatory action plan for managing human-crocodile coexistence in the Southern Irrawaddy Delta. He has led projects funded by GEF, KFW, USFWS, Cat Canada, WildCRU, Arcus, Robertson, and Segre Foundation to address human-tiger conflicts, study endangered species such as Tiger, Clouded leopard, Sun bear, Eastern Hoolock Gibbon, Popa Langur, assess national threatened species and ecosystems, engage indigenous and local communities in natural resource management, and identify new Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs).
Outreach, Educational Activities & More
Roadside Cleanup - At EOARC, we believe that being a good environmental steward is everyone’s business. So on April 9th, EOARC employees conducted our annual roadside cleanup on Hwy 205 from Hotchkiss Lane to Greenhouse Lane. A total of 16 bags of garbage was collected. Our employees are doing their part!
Bird Festival Ranch Tour - April 11th, EOARC worked with the Harney County Cattlewomen to help host the annual Harney County Migratory Bird Festival Ranch Tour and provide lunch for the participants. It was a great opportunity to talk to a different set of stakeholders than we normally interact with while sharing EOARC Programs and activities than benefit natural resource and livestock management.
This field trip provides kids with the opportunity to learn about what science is, how science interacts with agriculture and natural resources management, and career opportunities in science. After a half day of instruction, the students enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds of EOARC before being taken back to their normal classes. In the afternoon, we hosted 34 elementary students from Harney County’s rural school with participants from Double O, Drewsey, Frenchglen, Suntex, and Silvies Charter School.
Recent Publications
First Record of Tricolored Blackbirds in Idaho
Olsoy, Peter J., K.J. Sorenson
https://doi.org/10.21199/WB55.1.3
Facilitating Comparable Research in Seedling Functional Ecology
Winkler, Daniel E., M. Garbowski, K. Kožić, E. Ladouceur, J.E. Larson, S. Martin, C. Rosche, C. Roscher, M.L. Slate, L. Korell
https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14288
SeedArc, A Global Archive of Primary Seed Germination Data
Fernández-Pascual, Eduardo, A. Carta, S. Rosbakh, L. Guja, S.S. Phartyal, F.A.O. Silveira, S. Chen, J.E. Larson, B. Jiménez-Alfaro
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19143
Photosynthetic Resilience of Elymus elymoides and Pseudoroegneria spicata Seedlings Following Acute Water Stress
O’Connor, Rory C., V.G. Fox, E.P. Hamerlynck
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.03.012
What’s in a Name? Standardizing Terminology for the Enhancement of Research, Extension, and Industry Applications of Virtual Fence Use on Grazing Livestock
Ehlert, Krista A., J. Brennan, J. Beard, R. Reuter, H. Menendez, L. Vandermark, M. Stephenson, D. Hoag, P. Meiman, R.C. O'Connor, S. Noelle
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.03.004
Sagebrush Ecosystems are More Than Artemisia: The Complex Issue of Degraded Understories in the Great Basin
Copeland, Stella M., K.W. Davies, C.S. Boyd
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.03.007
Cross-scale Analysis Reveals Interacting Predictors of Annual and Perennial Cover in Northern Great Basin Rangelands
Case, Madelon F., K.W. Davies, C.S. Boyd, L. Aoyama, J. Merson, C. Penkauskas, L.M. Hallett
https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2953
Repeated Clearing as a Mechanism for Savanna Recovery Following Bush Encroachment
Wedel, Emily R., J.B. Nippert, R.C. O’Connor, P. Nkuna, A.M. Swemmer
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14666
A Brief History of Sagebrush Management in the Great Basin: From Removal to Reduction and Beyond
Harris, Tyler, D.D. Johnson, R.C. O’Connor
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2024.01.002
Spotlight
It’s always good to be thinking about preparing for wildfire. Check out the Extension Fire Program’s webinars, readiness checklists, and other resources related to wildfire preparedness here.
Social Media:
sagehabitatteam & thecattlecorner
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