9/25/15

Rancher Mental Models For Adaptive

Management: The Case of Lonesome
Pines Land and Cattle
Hailey Wilmer- Colorado State University
Maria Fernandez-Gimenez- Colorado State University
Jim Sturrock- Lonesome Pines Land and Cattle

Research Objectives
To use grounded-theory to examination rancher
decision-making

1) What factors in
ranching systems
do family
operated cattle
ranchers respond
to and how do
they respond?

2) What ways
knowing do
ranchers use to
make decisions?

Mental
Models

3) Over what temporal

scales do decisionmaking processes
take place?

A case study of adaptive decisionmaking

How do ranchers in CO,
NM and AZ make
decisions within
complex and dynamic
climate, market, and
social contexts?

Family

Ranch

Business

Fig. 1: Panell and Vanclays

(2011).

Participants and Data Analysis

Semi-Structured Interviews: with commercial cow-calf
or yearling ranchers dependent on native rangelands
grazing during the growing season in Colorado, New
Mexico and Arizona.
25 interviews with 38 ranchers (11-CO; 10-NM, 5-AZ)
Snow-ball sampling
Ten weeks of participant observation
Grounded theory: Iterative data collection, analysis and
theory building

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Parallel system
dynamics
Family
Infrastructure
Livestock
Range/Forage
Finances
Community

Parallel system
dynamics all
addressed through 3
temporal patterns of
decision-making.

Short-Term

Findings

Parallel
system
dynamics all
understood
through many
ways of
knowing

1: Location
2: Genetics
3: Forage
4: Time
Cycles: Cattle, Weather, Economic;
Past, present, future

Ways of Knowing
Lessons of the Past
Identity Statements
Personal Experience
Benchmarks
Reading
Family discussion
Community Discussion
Schooling and Seminars

Anim
il
So

The different ways of

knowing are all used in
different patterns of
decision-making.

Patterns of Decision Making

Medium-Term

als

5: The Unexpected

disasters, blizzard, tornado,

earthquake, political, ESA, EPA,
pandemic, health, bank closing,
war, unrest.

Long-Term

Principles of a Rancher

Dimensions of a Ranching Business

Pla
nts

n Produce

safe and wholesome beef that will

provide an enjoyable eating experience coming
from cattle that have been properly protected
and cared for from conception to consumption.

n Being

socially responsible with environmental

stewardship of all natural resources.

n Wildlife

and plant community biodiversity is

maintained and enhanced through appropriate
grazing management.

n Protect

the human and his rights of usage on the

property through due diligence.

n Being

economically viable.

Through the passage of time.

9/25/15

Lonesome Pines Land and Cattle

Principles of a Rancher
n Produce

safe and wholesome beef that will

provide an enjoyable eating experience coming
from cattle that have been properly protected
and cared for from conception to consumption.

n Being

socially responsible with environmental

stewardship of all natural resources.

n Wildlife

and plant community biodiversity is

maintained and enhanced through appropriate
grazing management.

In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from

conqueror of the land-community to plain member and
citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and
also respect for the community as such.

n Protect

the human and his rights of usage on the

property through due diligence.

n Being

economically viable.

Through the passage of time.

Dimensions of a Ranching Business

1: Ranch/Location
2: Genetics
3: Forage
Anim
il
So

Dimension 1: Ranch/Location
Soil, History

als
Pla
nts

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until
progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question
whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things
natural, wild and free.-Aldo Leopold

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Dimension 2: Animals

Dimension 3: Plant community

Dimension 3: Plant community

Adapt and Overcome

n Forage
n Soils-

Diverse

n Manage

for Native
Rangeland

n Drought

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Dimensions of a Ranching Business

1: Soil
2: Animals
3: Plants
4: Time
Cycles: Cattle, Weather, Economic;
Past, present, future

il
So

Their Food

als
Pla
nts

Anim

Our food, Their Food

Wildlife

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Wildlife

Their Food
nWhich

species
contribute to
the nutrient
cycling for
soil health?

Wildlife

Dimension 5: Outside Forces

9/25/15

Dimensions of a Ranching Business

1: Location
2: Genetics
3: Forage
4: Time
Cycles: Cattle, Weather, Economic;
Past, present, future

il
So

n Produce

safe and wholesome beef that will

provide an enjoyable eating experience coming
from cattle that have been properly protected
and cared for from conception to consumption.

You
Are
Here

als
Pla
nts

Anim

Principles of a Rancher

n Being

socially responsible with environmental

stewardship of all natural resources.

n Wildlife

5: The Unexpected

disasters, blizzard, tornado,

earthquake, political, ESA, EPA,
pandemic, health, bank closing,
war, unrest.

and plant community biodiversity is

maintained and enhanced through appropriate
grazing management.

n Protect

the human and his rights of usage on the

property through due diligence.

n Being

economically viable.

Through the passage of time.

Questions?

Jim:
jimsturrock11@wigginstel.com
Hailey:
Hailey.wilmer@colostate.edu
USDA AFRI award2009-04442; USDA ARFI award
2012-38415-20328; and Colorado Agricultural
Experiment Station project COLO0698.