Location: Northwest Watershed Research Center
Project Number: 2052-13610-015-009-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2025
End Date: Jul 31, 2026
Objective:
Establish an adaptation capacity index for the northern Great Basin region to apply measures of perceived risk, responsive behavior, and incentivization for integrated analyses with ecological measures associated with invasive annual grasses in evolving physical/climate conditions.
Approach:
An integrated analyses of ranching operations and resource decision-making will be applied within the context of a landscape resistance and resilience (RR) matrix. Measurements of social processes and decision-making complexity will focus on four categories: 1) community capitals framework; 2) place attachment; 3) intergenerational connectivity; and 4) social risk perceptions. The community capitals framework enables a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and weaknesses system-level assets in terms of adapting to the complexity of factors affecting the system. Place attachment measures investigate how and why personal values, motives, and inclinations are affected by landscape geographies and experiences. Ranch owner and management succession remains one of the most challenging dilemmas for landscape and community continuity over time. Philosophical differences can challenge smooth transitions between generations. How ranch operators perceive risk management scenarios within their business, environment, and social worlds affects decision complexity and results. Decisions are further challenged in wake of ongoing extensive annual grass invasions on western rangelands that effectively degrade delivery of ecosystem services.
Data collection for the integrated analyses will involve a series of semi-structured human interviews conducted in the northern Great Basin. The experimental design will include a two-dimensional, inductive approach to catalyze inputs from individuals as well as group processes. First, an initial cluster sampling approach will identify rural community areas by category within the invasive annual grass region of the northern Great Basin. Use of secondary data will develop a profile of community areas for ongoing site and respondent selection. Two geographies within the overall region will be selected to represent RR matrix categories across invasive annual grass zones, likely aligning to elevation contexts. An estimated 25-30 interviews will be administered within each identified geography (50-60 total), concentrating on livestock producers, community leaders, conservation representatives, and agricultural industry stakeholders. The research team will implement standard approaches for interview formats using a semi-structured interview guide and in accordance with human assurances protocols. To advance group-scale input, the project will also design a focus group in each of the sub-geographies in Year 4 to evaluate preliminary interview results and advance a collective participatory mapping exercise to provide input on lag time and scale difference challenges. Interview and focus group discussion data will be digitally recorded, transcribed to text, de-identified, archived, and curated. Data outputs that can be fully summarized and anonymized will also be shared publicly through public or professional presentations, annual reporting, and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts; access to raw data files remains restricted to researchers with Certified Human Assurances training.