Sagebrush Research Team
The Sagebrush Research Team I was a part of was funded by the a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship funded doctoral students Amanda Bently Brymer, Joe Holbrook, Ryan Niemeyer, Alex Suazo with the help of their UI faculty advisors J.D. Wulfhorst (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader) (team leader), Tim Link, Beth Newingham, Janet Rachlow, and Kerri Vierling. Our team took significant strides in developing an interdisciplinary framework to assess social-ecological impacts in the context of public land management. The team both developed a framework that has potential to be applied to federal land management across the nation. The framework was implemented in the context of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 1.5 million acre sage-grouse habitat project in southwestern Idaho. This implemented framework provided a formalized social impact assessment for the project as well as informed managers how to minimize social impacts of their land management actions. Finally, through their collaboration with a broad range of stakeholder groups, the sagebrush team helped organize the televised McClure Forum on Science and Public Policy in September of 2014 titled: “Building Trust in Science: Is Idaho Getting it Right with Sage-Grouse?”
figure caption: Sagebrush team after first stakeholder workshop in Boise, Idaho. Left to Right: J.D., Alex, Amanda, Ryan, Joe
