Collaborative Adaptive Management

About Collaborative Adaptive Management

Collaborative adaptive management (CAM) is an approach with aims of addressing key uncertainties related to grassland management. CAM is unique in that it focuses on evaluating stakeholder-designed experiments to improve rangeland conditions. However, it also provides additional continuity as stakeholders in agriculture, land management and natural resource science collaborate in the landscape in real time. 

Although CAM seems straightforward, some confusion remains about what CAM is. This stems from the belief that CAM is what management has always been: trial-and-error attempts to improve practices. However, unlike a trial-and-error approach, CAM emphasizes the careful description of objectives, possible reasons for causation, alternative management approaches, data collection and analysis, and a way to update management as learning occurs. 

The relevancy of this process to rangeland systems helped usher in the formation of the CAM Project at Barta Brothers Ranch in 2020. This collaboration allows for high-risk management experiments, the monitoring of ecosystem services and disservices, and economic analysis of the various activities at the ranch. In the spring of 2022, the first phase of implementation began with a 150-acre prescribed burn in an experimental pasture. Data collection and monitoring of livestock, forage quality and availability, soil health, erosion, and plant and animal diversity will continue throughout the growing season to help stakeholders evaluate the treatment's effectiveness.  

CAM, for its part, allows researchers and stakeholders to continue managing the landscape while exploring the resilience of rangeland systems. A principal outcome of CAM is to reduce future uncertainty while increasing the understanding of the landscape.