2024 Rangeland Stewardship and Rangeland Innovations Awards Nominations

Improving the health and resilience of rangelands are some of the most important goals we pursue in the BLM. The Directorate of Resources and Planning HQ200 requests nominations for the 2024 Rangeland Stewardship and Rangeland Innovations Awards to recognize valuable contributions from external Bureau of Land Management (BLM) partners to achieving these goals. The BLM seeks to celebrate rangeland stewards and innovators across all states and rangeland community types.

Two awards will be presented in each category. The categories are:

• Rangeland Stewardship – recognizing both an individual grazing permittee/lessee AND a collaborative external team.
• Rangeland Innovations­ - recognizing both an individual grazing permittee/lessee AND a collaborative external team.

We strongly encourage the submissions of nominations for each of these awards. Every day, BLM partners are conducting innovative, important, and effective conservation efforts; please help us in recognizing and celebrating these achievements. Nomination procedures and award details can be found in the attachment. The BLM awards are presented annually at the Public Lands Council’s Annual Meeting in recognition of outstanding contributions. Meeting location and dates of the meeting are typically announced each May, with the ceremony in late August to mid-September.

All nominations should include how the project or allotment management plan equivalent contributes to each of the following (Groups A-D of Attachment 1):

• The condition of public rangelands that demonstrates healthy, resilient landscapes.
• The use of beneficial or innovative management practices that restore, protect, or enhance rangeland resources.
• Efforts to collaborate and cooperate with other users of public lands.
• Communication of successful management outcomes with other land stewards.

Past recipients have demonstrated innovations in livestock management, vegetation and wildlife habitat management, drought resilience, and collaboration in working across boundaries to address complex landscape-level resource management challenges. If a nomination was submitted in the past and not selected, please consider resubmission if the groups are still met and you have project results to share.

Field Managers or delegated staff are encouraged to discuss this opportunity broadly and with partners and submit nominations to one or more award categories. Nominations should be submitted to their respective Deputy State Director for Resources (DSD) with a cc to your State Range Program Lead by May 01, 2024. State Offices will review Field Office nominations and send approved nominations by the DSD to Ruth Miller, Acting Division Chief, Division of Forestry, Rangeland, and Vegetation Resources (HQ-220) (ramiller@blm.gov) with a cc to Jessica Phillips (jmphillips@blm.gov) by May 15, 2024. In the subject line of each nomination, please clearly state the award category for which you are submitting a nomination.