ABSTRACT
This book represents the first attempt by the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable (SRR) to conduct a national assessment of rangeland sustainability; this document is the culmination of a 20-year journey. When the SRR was originally formed in 2001 as an open, inclusive partnership process, integrated rangeland assessment at a national scale was a key goal identified by the group. A crucial precursor to conducting such an assessment was the identification and adoption of criteria and indicators that could be used to assess rangeland systems, and the natural and human communities dependent upon them. As that process evolved, preliminary evaluations of data to populate indicators, including availability and usefulness, were conducted by SRR participants. Participants also created conceptual diagrams to illustrate the utility of an integrated social, ecological, and economic indicators framework to address emergent issues and explore transformational ideas.
