Knowledge is not in our heads but arises out of our relations with the environment we inhabit. This implies cognitive diversity in our knowledge systems.

Expertise is not enough for solving the major problems of the third millennium and difference (another way of thinking) is just as important.

Transdisciplinarity is achieved through collaborative and participatory research processes that cogenerate insights by communities of social practice working in tandem with communities of enquiry.

Time is a unique experience that reflects relationality and flexibility in its sociocultural context.

This framework may assist with climate change adaptation at the local level.

More often than not, there is untapped potential for win-wins between livestock production and conservation. On the other hand, it is impossible to achieve every objective everywhere, all the time. Sometimes the tradeoffs are real.

We need to spend less time searching for general rules and more time embracing the complexity and context-dependence within rangeland science.

Rather than writing off findings that do not fit our current worldview, we should challenge ourselves to broaden our views in ways that reconcile multiple findings or multiple truths. It is possible we are all partly or mostly right, and we just need to figure out why, how, and in what contexts.

There is value in doing research in a way that focuses on really listening to and respecting multiple perspectives so that the results we produce not only qualify as facts, but also as truths that many people can buy into and get behind.

Rangeland food systems around the world are increasingly facing complex and wicked problems with changing climate, environmental, and socioeconomic conditions. We must find socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable ways to optimize production of high-quality, accessible food to feed the world's growing population. Further, we need to do this in the face of multiple threats, including climate change, land-use change, and emerging invasive species, pests, and diseases.

The “human dimensions” are central to solving critical challenges for working rangelands. We must actively build collaborative partnerships that span disciplines, knowledge areas, and backgrounds. Diverse perspectives as well as greater integration of the natural and social sciences will foster critically needed transformative rangeland science, learning, and management.

A central component of transformative change is training the next generation of scientists, resource users, land managers, and policymakers to work beyond institutional, land ownership, and political boundaries to build broad-scale partnerships and solutions.

The Society for Range Management and the profession of rangeland ecology were founded about 80 years ago to bring scientific information to the management of rangelands. Sustaining a strong connection between science and management set the foundation for the rangeland profession, though this connection has been challenging to sustain.

An era of collaborative research and conservation has fueled projects that include a diversity of individuals and organizations and confirm the importance of information from both experimentation and experience.

Successfully addressing contemporary challenges to rangelands will depend on old-fashioned actions like conversation, a commitment to rangelands communities and landscapes, and engaging a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to find solutions.

The 2020 SRM Annual Meeting piloted “Campfire Conversation,” round-table discussions styled after the World Café approach.

The event attracted 280 attendees and enabled multidirectional knowledge exchange (i.e., “cuss and discuss”), rather than one-way “chalk-and-talk.” Attendees participated in three 20-minute facilitated round-table discussions around three topics they selected from a menu of 13 timely rangeland issues.

Change was a common theme for many Campfire Conversations, including social, climatic, ecological, management, and policy changes.

Participants highlighted a desire for SRM to grow as an organization by enhancing members' opportunities and resources for multidirectional knowledge exchange among students, scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers; cross-generational mentorship; cross-disciplinary training; diverse ways of knowing; and greater inclusivity and connection to the SRM.

A post-event analysis of the Campfire Conversation event revealed valuable lessons for organizing successful World Café-style sessions at future SRM meetings, including virtual meetings.