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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Rangeland Resources & Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379320
Research Project: Adaptive Grazing Management and Decision Support to Enhance Ecosystem Services in the Western Great Plains

Location: Rangeland Resources & Systems Research

Title: Embracing complexity and humility in rangeland science

Author
item Porensky, Lauren

Submitted to: Rangelands
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/19/2021
Publication Date: 7/11/2022
Citation: Porensky, L.M. 2022. Embracing complexity and humility in rangeland science. Rangelands. 43(4):142-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2021.03.007.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2021.03.007

Interpretive Summary: This is a printed version of the plenary presentation given by Dr. Porensky in 2020 at the Society for Range Management annual meeting. The talk summarized three transformations that the author experienced during her career in rangeland science. Key lessons learned include: 1) There’s untapped potential for win-wins between livestock production and conservation, but sometimes the tradeoffs are real. 2) Rangeland scientists need to spend more time embracing complexity and context-dependence. 3) We need to work to broaden our views in ways that reconcile multiple findings, or multiple truths. 4) When research is done in a way that focuses on really listening to and respecting multiple perspectives, more people can buy into and get behind the results.

Technical Abstract: • More often than not, there’s untapped potential for win-wins between livestock production and conservation. On the other hand, it’s impossible to achieve every objective everywhere, all the time. Sometimes the tradeoffs are real. • We need to spend less time searching for general rules and more time embracing the complexity and context-dependence within rangeland science. • Rather than writing off findings that don’t fit our current worldview, we should challenge ourselves to broaden our views in ways that reconcile multiple findings, or multiple truths. It’s possible we are all partly or mostly right, and we just need to figure out why, how, and in what contexts. • There’s value in doing research in a way that focuses on really listening to and respecting multiple perspectives so that the results we produce not only qualify as facts, but also as truths that many people can buy into and get behind.