Empowering diversity: envisioning, designing, and developing range management science

Abstract

The fragmented, weak identity of range science has been disadvantageous to the institutions and individuals involved with it. This paper addresses a complex, interrelated group of issues related to range science, the Journal of Range Management, and the Society for Range Management. Beginning with the long-standing conception of the art of range management, it presents a concept of range management science that has multiple implications for the Society for Range Management and its flagship publication, the Journal of Range Management. The paper presents a strategically designed identity for range management science as a synthetic science, i.e., a science of synthesis, and examines the elements of diversity, synthesis, and communication that are the essence of that identity. It encourages a diverse, inclusive, synergistic character for, and offers many suggestions related to the philosophy and conduct of, the science, the Journal, and the Society. The harmonious vision of range management science that it presents is designed to give the science a strong, coherent, marketable identity. The vision is dynamic in that it can readily accommodate evolving changes. That vision is designed to make the diversity of the science and the Society work for us, rather than against us, by establishing a philosophical environment where the kind of scientific, institutional, informational, and professional synergies we need can flourish.