Society of the Quarter: The Society for Range Management (http://rangelands.org)

Seventy years ago, on the heels of the Great Depression and a second World War, a number of range scientists and concerned citizens came together to form a professional society devoted to conserving and managing rangelands. Such an organization had never existed before, yet the need for it had been amplified through the ecological catastrophe of the Dust Bowl of America and Canada. The founding members hoped this new organization could serve as a platform for science-based learning and collaboration, as well as a means for promoting effective management of rangelands on local and national levels. In January 1948, 192 participants from across the United States officially gathered for that purpose in Salt Lake City, Utah, creating what is known today as the Society for Range Management, SRM (Howery, 2015).