Location: Range Management Research
2025 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Enable climate-smart decision-making by developing science-based, region-specific information, tools and technologies for agricultural and natural resource managers, and provide assistance where possible to enhance adoption and implementation of the same. The work will be conducted as the Southwest USDA Climate Change Hub and will be coordinated with NRCS, FS, and other USDA and non-USDA organizations in accordance with guidance found in the USDA Climate Change Hubs Charter, and Terms of Reference.
Objective 2: Expand and enhance each Hub’s research and communication capacity and ensure integration of ARS research outcomes from across the region into Hub outreach assets.
Objective #3: Provide capacity to expand and enhance the hub’s climate-science, social-science, and economic-science resources and tools via enhanced collaboration with ARS research teams and other research partners to ensure impactful integration of ARS research outcomes from across the region into Hub outreach assets.
Approach
The climate hubs relate directly to the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Research National Program (NP216) Action Plan (2018-2022), Component 3. Achieving Agroecosystem Potential and these problem statements: Problem Statement 3a. Sustaining Intensified Production; Problem Statement 3b. Enhancing ecosystem services; and Problem Statement 3c. Enabling decision support for sustainability.
Progress Report
Integrate and Share Science Advances: Science synthesis is one of the three core functions of all Climate Hubs and is essential for translating regional advances in weather, agriculture, and forestry into information that stakeholders can use. In FY 2024, the Southwest Climate Hub hired a dedicated science coordinator to strengthen this function. Through the first two quarters of FY 2025, the coordinator built relationships with ARS researchers across the region to increase the visibility and usability of ARS science for agricultural and natural resource stakeholders. This role also supports deeper collaboration between the Hub and the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network, helping to align long-term research with stakeholder needs and making science more accessible, relevant, and actionable. The Science Coordinator serves as a key liaison between the Climate Hub and two external partner funded projects at New Mexico State University, helping to align efforts around conservation readiness and the science support needs of water-focused stakeholders. This role ensures coordination, knowledge-sharing, and strategic collaboration across projects. Overall Southwest Climate Hub staff reached an estimated 4034 users during FY 2025 in multiple agricultural, forestry and water sectors with science synthesis information.
Decision Support Tools: The Southwest Climate Hub delivers science-based support for agricultural producers, land and water managers, and forest managers through decision-support tools. Although information and resources are widely available from many sources, the volume and variety can make it difficult for managers and decision-makers to pinpoint the tools most relevant to their specific needs. To address this, Hub staff have developed, refined, and shared eight decision-support tools and libraries over the past decade. These tools are actively maintained and updated to ensure continued relevance and usability for stakeholders across the region. In 2025, the Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas (WATA) team added 70 new case studies, bringing the total to 312. A two-person team continues to expand the atlas with locally grounded examples of water scarcity responses. Moving forward, WATA will serve as a resource for identifying promising solutions, understanding their tradeoffs, and supporting decision-making around water and community resilience.
Sustainable Southwest Beef Project: Key partners include the Southwest and Southern Plains Climate Hubs, New Mexico State University, and Utah State University. Over the past six years, this project brought together research, extension, and education to support more sustainable beef production across the Southwest. It focused on three key strategies (heritage cattle genetics, precision ranching, and range-finishing) to help producers improve efficiency, profitability, and environmental outcomes. The team evaluated the performance and trade-offs of these strategies through field trials, systems modeling, and stakeholder engagement. The project also developed decision-support tools and K–12 educational materials. Over the course of the project, the USDA Southwest Climate Hub team developed and shared precision ranching resources, hosted on-ranch demonstrations, and updated tools for the beef industry, including a library of more than 580 livestock-related decision support tools. In FY 2025, Southwest Climate Hub staff have led outreach and stakeholder engagement on precision ranching and produced Spanish translations of extension materials, produced videos explaining the new Precision Ranching Dashboard, and represented the project at the annual meeting of the Society for Range Management.
Adaptation Workshops: The Southwest Climate Hub brings strong facilitation skills and expertise in working with partners to support the application of adaptation science. While there is a wealth of research on adaptation in forests, rangelands, and grasslands, practitioners often face limited time and competing priorities, making it difficult to interpret and apply that science to their specific context. We help bridge this gap by creating space for collaborative learning and tailored, place-based decision-making. In FY 2025, three workshops were held to support outreach on adaptive silviculture practices.
Building Outreach Capacity in Hawai’i: The Southwest Climate Hub region includes Hawai'i and the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands. Through partnership with the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and the U.S. Forest Service, we hired a coordinator located in Hawai'i. During FY 2025, the coordinator has expanded drought and natural disaster outreach in Hawai’i and has engaged with stakeholders on how agroforestry can support ecological and nutritional diversity. The coordinator is also building relationships with Forest Service partners to expand research on wildfire modeling in Hawai‘i and strengthen extension efforts across the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, while actively leveraging existing funding opportunities to support and sustain this work.
Drought Learning Network: The Southwest Drought Learning Network was formed in response to the exceptional drought of 2018, which is the highest classification of drought in the United States Drought Monitor. The network continues to grow, with more than 120 participants. During FY 2025, network partners hosted drought briefings, published case studies, and hosted an annual meeting focused on building peer-to-peer connections with resource managers. The network is collectively managed by the Southwest Climate Hub and the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Forest Resources Inventory: In FY 2022, the Southwest Climate Hub, in partnership with the Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers, launched a collaborative effort to develop a forest management toolshed to support climate adaptation planning. This effort resulted in the Forest Resource Index for Decisions in Adaptation (FRIDA). FRIDA was shared widely in FY 2024, with outreach continuing in the first quarter of FY 2025. As of April 2025, the platform is fully developed and now only requires maintenance as needed. The tool supports the design of actions that reduce drought, flooding, and fire-related risks and improve adaptive capacity across a range of ecosystems, locations, and management objectives, including vegetation management, recreation, and infrastructure projects.
Climate Mitigation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service: In FY 2025, the Southwest Climate Hub supported a postdoctoral research associate at New Mexico State University to start work on a project funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The focus of this project is to evaluate outcomes consistent with NRCS priorities including wildfire mitigation, soil health, improved forage quality and quantity, water conservation, and wildlife habitat.
Accomplishments
1. Increased producer knowledge of precision ranching tools. Precision ranching tools can help producers adapt to drought by providing more flexibility in grazing management and vital information about remote pastures. However, there is limited information available about these technologies. ARS researchers in Las Cruces, New Mexico and the Southwest Climate Hub organized on-ranch demonstrations, translated the outreach materials into Spanish, and published two instructional videos on how to use the Precision Ranching Dashboard, a tool developed by New Mexico State University’s precision ranching research team. To date, the videos have been viewed 40 times and online factsheets have been accessed 987 times by 609 users.
2. Sharing water scarcity solutions to build resilience to future drought. For decades, scientists, extension, Tribes, government agencies, and individuals have sought solutions to water scarcity in the southwest. Yet there is no central location for archiving these efforts and making the information more accessible. ARS researchers in Las Cruces, New Mexico and the Southwest Climate Hub developed a Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas (WATA) which shares information about responses to Southwestern water scarcity. WATA now contains 312 examples of water adaptation. New efforts aim to increase application of water scarcity solutions and identify pathways to improve their use by landowners and conservation professionals. As a consequence, thousands of users now access the WATA tool and use information in decision making.
3. Addressing forest manager information needs in the Southwest. Southwestern forestland managers need science-based guidance to develop effective resilience strategies in the face of drought and intensifying wildfires. Until recently, this information was scattered across numerous sources, making it difficult to access in one place. The Southwest Climate Hub and the Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers launched a collaborative program to build a forest management toolshed to support decision-making. The Forest Resource Index for Decisions in Adaptation (FRIDA) is a searchable library of forest management resources, that contains 550 resources organized by topic, region, platform and vegetation type. In FY2025, FRIDA was shared with ~100 forest managers at three in-person meetings and promoted through our website. FRIDA was accessed over 380 times by nearly 200 unique users.
Review Publications
Parker, L.E., Zhang, N., Kisekka, I., Abatzoglou, J.T., Elias, E.H., Steele, C.M., Ostoja, S.M. 2025. Climate change exposure of agriculture within regulated groundwater basins of the southwestern United States. Climate. 13(2). Article 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli13020042.
Silber-Coats, N., Elias, E.H., Fernald, K., Gagliardi, M. 2025. Evaluating alternative crops as a solution to water stress in the U.S. Southwest. Agricultural Water Management. 312. Article 109439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109439.
Frazier, A., Lustig, A.R., Chang, M., Elias, E.H., Mcpherson, R.A., Keener, V.W., Grecni, Z.N., Huntington, H.P., Mecray, E.L., Wood, K.M., Dello, K.D., Chardon-Maldonado, P., White, D.D. 2025. Reflections on preparing Regional Chapters for NCA5. Climatic Change. 178. Article 72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-03874-y.