_______________________________________ The 11 papers in this document address issues and needs in the development and stewardship of Central Asia rangelands, and identify directions for future work. With its vast rangelands and numerous pastoral populations, Central Asia is a region of increasing importance to rangeland scientists, managers, and pastoral development specialists. Five of the pa...

Overexploitation and climate change accelerate the degradation of Jordan's arid rangelands. Uncovered crusted soils increase runoff erosion hinder emergence native vegetation. Micro water harvesting combined with shrub-seedling plantation have been widely applied to reverse land trends. However, consequential soil vegetation dynamics rarely assessed, which constrains further out-scaling rehabil...

The pastoral nomads of Iran, who had been able to achieve a “sustainable balance” between their environment and their economy throughout their history, are being held responsible for the degradation of the rangelands by the experts and state officials. The government of Iran has placed considerable resources into provision of advice and services to improve the natural resource status of Iranian...

The potential for high severity fires to affect changes in rangelands is considerable, and for this reason, assessing fire severity is critical. We explored fire severity modeling in rangelands by applying post-fire field observations to Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre 5 (SPOT 5) imagery using Classification Tree Analysis (CTA) techniques at two 2005 burns. The results of these analyse...

Low profitability of hardwood rangeland manage­ ment, and oak tree harvesting for firewood markets and forage enhancement has led to concern about the long-term sustainability of the oak resource on rangelands. New markets for recreational hunting may give value to oaks for the habitat they provide for game species, and broaden the economic base for managers. A ranch level optimal control model...