SPARKS, NEVADA – Dr. Jeanne Chambers received the Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award at the Society for Range Management’s 77th Annual Meeting in Sparks, Nevada last week. The Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by the Society for Range Management to members for long-term contributions to the art and science of range management and to the Society for Range Management (SRM).
The statistics of Dr. Chamber’s career are staggering – over 200 manuscripts, more than $25 million in grant funding, 21 graduate students, 44 years of sustained, active SRM membership, and 15 special conference sessions – yet, these numbers barely scratch the surface of the impact of her career. Between the lines of these lists is a tireless researcher who has been committed to the conservation and restoration of rangeland ecosystems, a dedicated colleague and mentor who has shared the stage and given credit to colleagues and students for shared accomplishments, a woman who created a place for future women in range ecology and management, and a scientist who has excelled at the highest level in the federal system while remaining committed to boots on the ground partnerships.
Dr. Chambers’ descriptions of resistance and resilience have framed contemporary range research and management. Because of her contributions, we better understand what is possible on a site, given abiotic and biotic composition. Both broad scale spatial products designed to put the right treatment in the right place at the right time and field handbooks designed for site managers rely on this fundamental framework. Her work gave us a common language for evaluating a site’s productivity, ability to withstand invasion, and potential for recovery or restoration following disturbance.
A colleague recently described that he was so glad that Dr. Chambers ‘broke into the old guy’s club and tolerated their nonsense 30 years ago.’ She was in the first class of women to receive a graduate degree from the Range Science program at Utah State University in 1979, and the face of range is different today because female scientists like Dr. Chambers made a prominent place for women.
For the tremendous contributions to the science and management of rangeland ecosystems she has made, it is with great honor the Society of Range Management recognized Dr. Jeanne Chambers with the Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award.