University of Nevada, Reno professor Tamzen Stringham was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Research/Academia award at the 63rd Society for Range Management and 50th Weed Science Society of America joint annual meeting in Denver last month.

Stringham’s work in riparian watersheds maps national ecological sites to study relationships between soil, water and plants and how they will respond to natural disturbance, so predictions can be made on whether the watersheds will improve or decline.

“Riparian watersheds make up only two percent of our landmass, but 98 percent of all wildlife spends time in these areas,” Stringham said. “Riparian areas are critical to our fish and wildlife.”

Stringham, who holds the Donna Anderson Endowed Professorship in the Department of Animal Biotechnology, was nominated for the award by Jack Alexander, first vice-president of the Society for Range Management.

“This is a well-deserved award,” Alexander said. “Stringham has written seminal articles for major publications on the development of state and transition modeling for uplands and riparian ecosystems, and how we look at ecological sites. She’s highly proficient in the field. Her work has allowed the esoterica of science to be applied to the practical matters land managers and agricultural leaders need to make day-to-day decisions.”

Stringham collaborates with the Bureau of Land Management and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The Natural Resource Conservation Service publishes her work in the National Range and Pasture Handbook as a guide for landowners and land managers to use in conservation, tactics and planning. These guidelines on developing ecological site design and management will become part of national land conservation management policy when published in fall 2010.University students attending the conference placed first in the university chapter display board competition, describing how Nevada fits into the working landscapes theme of the conference. The board is on display for public view on the second floor of the Fleischmann Agriculture Building on the University campus. In a separate competition, University student Garrett Noles placed third in the extemporaneous speaking contest during the conference.