Derner Honored by Society for Range Management with W.R. Chapline Award

Dr. Justin D. Derner received the W.R. Chapline Research Award at the Society for Range Management’s 75th Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico earlier this February. This is the highest honored bestowed to a research scientist by the Society. The award is presented in recognition of his major research accomplishments in the areas of grazing management and grazing systems, stakeholder engagement in collaborative rangeland research, and long-term climate impacts on forage and livestock production in the Great Plains.

His peers consider his research to be exemplary in both quantity and quality, and to continually challenge traditional rangeland management paradigms with innovative experimental approaches to strengthen the scientific basis for rangeland management. Among Dr. Derner’s greatest research accomplishments is the design and implementation of the Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management project that addresses multiple management objectives in collaboration with diverse regional stakeholders. This accomplishment is founded on the recognition that scientific evidence, in the absence of relevant stakeholder engagement, is often insufficient to produce effective solutions to rangeland management challenges.

Dr. Derner is the Research Leader for the Rangeland Resources and Systems Research Unit in the Center for Agricultural Resources Research at Fort Collins, CO. He directs a multi-disciplinary research program that focuses on sustainable management of social-ecological systems in semiarid rangelands through enhancing decision-making by land managers using monitoring-informed adaptive management to improve resiliency and reduce risk in a changing climate.

For the tremendous contributions to the science and management of rangeland ecosystems he has made, it is with great honor the Society of Range Management recognized Dr. Derner with the W.R. Chapline Research Award.

–Society of Range Management