Guest lecturer teaching rangeland ecology and management
This week UNU-LRT welcomed this year’s international guest lecturer, Dr Patrick Shaver. He gave a series of lectures on ecological processes and grazing management principles; land health, inventory and monitoring; and grazing management schemes and case studies. Dr Shaver also gave an open lecture at the National Museum of Iceland on the management history and condition of rangelands in USA and how rangeland condition today is historically tied to policy and actions in the past.
Dr Shaver has over 40 years of experience as a rangeland management specialist for USDA-Soil Conservation Service/Natural Resources Conservation Service. He has extensive experience in working with private landowners, and state and federal agencies in rangeland management planning, inventory and monitoring, grazing management and ecological site concept development, e.g. in USA, Argentina, Kenya, Mongolia and Russia. Dr Shaver is one of the authors of the 4th version of Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health which is widely applied by agencies to provide early warning of potential degradation, opportunities for recovery and to help design monitoring programs. He is a former President of the Society for Range Management and is currently an instructor in the Animal and Rangeland Science Department of Oregon State University and owner of Rangeland Management Service LLC, consulting.
The photo shows Dr Shaver and the UNU-LRT fellows in the field this week.