TBLMT receives an Outstanding Achievement Award News March 11, 2020March 10, 20200 Submitted photos L -R: 2020 SRM Outstanding Achievement Award for Stewardship recipients, Oregon TBLMT members Tony Svejcar, Vanessa Schroeder, Dustin Johnson, and Chad Boyd with SRM President (2019) Dr. Clayton Marlow. Team members L-R: Dustin Johnson, OSU Rangeland Outreach Specialist; Jay Kerby, TNC Southeast Oregon Project Manager; Dr. Chad Boyd, USDA-ARS Range Scientist and Research Leader; Angela Sitz, US FWS Wildlife Biologist-Rangeland Health Specialist; Vanessa Schroeder, OSU Faculty Research Assistant; Lee Foster, OR DFW Wildlife Biologist; Jackie Cupples, US FWS Wildlife Biologist. Not pictured: Dr. Tony Svejcar, OSU-Burns Range Scientist; Matt Cahill, TNC Sage-steppe Conservation Specialist. The Oregon Threat-Based Land Management Team (TBLMT) received an Outstanding Achievement Award for Land Stewardship at the Society for Range Management’s (SRM) 73rd annual Meeting, Technical Training, and Trade Show in Denver, Colo., Feb. 16-20. The Outstanding Achievement Award is presented by the Society for Range Management for outstanding achievement to members and other qualified individuals and groups working with rangelands. Over a five-year period, the Oregon Threat-Based Land Management Team worked with a diverse constituency, including livestock producers and regulatory and management agency personnel, to construct threat-based state and transition models (TBSTMs) to inform management on rangelands threated by annual grasses, expanding conifer, or both. The TBLMT worked with a private contractor to develop a system for mapping TBSTM states at large-scales using satellite imagery. This process has resulted in TBSTM states being mapped across an area of more than 10 million acres. These models were initially developed as the basis of a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for greater sage-grouse that now involves upwards of 1.5 million acres of state and private land throughout eastern Oregon, and is widely considered the most successful program of its kind in the western US. This program has been mentioned as a contributing factor in the 2015 decision not to list the greater sage-grouse under provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is using TBSTMs to help guide management on over 5 million acres of public lands in Oregon. Because the models are of simplified construction, they are often used to great effect by BLM as a communication tool in development of administrative assessments of management impact (e.g., NEPA documentation). Additionally, the TBSTM models form the basis of the State of Oregon Sage-Grouse Habitat Mitigation Plan as a means to calculating the uplift burden necessary to offset development projects in sage-grouse habitat. For their many accomplishments and dedication to range, the Society for Range Management is proud to recognize the Oregon Threat-Based Land Management Team with a 2020 Outstanding Achievement Award for Land Stewardship.