KUNA, Idaho — University of Idaho students are training to spend their summer surveying Idaho's vast rangelands, which cover more than 50% of the state, to monitor environmental health and gather critical data.
"A lot of people know what rangelands are, but they don't know exactly why they're so important," said Riley Chapin, a recent graduate from the University of Idaho.
Idaho's rangelands make up 55% of the state and are crucial for livestock grazing, natural habitats, energy production, and recreation — which is why students are surveying them.
"This data is really important," Chapin said. "We're essentially kind of getting like a health checkup on the rangeland. So, vegetation health, plant height, community composition, factors like, are we seeing the sagebrush here, are we not?"
The University of Idaho partners with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to conduct the annual National Resources Inventory, collecting data about rangeland health that will be sent to federal and state agencies to help them make better informed decisions on conservation projects, soil health, and the status of grazing lands.
"Without these vital signs, we're not gonna know how things change, " said Eric Winford, Assistant Professor of Rangeland Ecology and Management at the University of Idaho. "If there's a big drought, or if there is a new invasive species that comes in, we need to understand what's happening across all of Idaho and the west in order to be able to effectively choose what to do about that, how do we manage?"
He says hands-on field experience like this prepares his students for jobs in the world of natural resources.
"This is a huge part of their education, these are juniors and seniors at the college of natural resources, and they're spending their summer learning plants, ID skills, learning about soils, learning monitoring techniques, as well as learning how to work in a team," Winford said.
This summer, you may spot Chapin and his fellow surveyors as they make their way across Idaho's rangelands over the next three months, documenting plant species and collecting soil samples.
"We love getting questions when people ask us what are we doing out here, and we get to explain it. We go out there, we have our little backpack and your partner, and you go out there, set up and take your data collection," Chapin said.
