Social science rangelands research has advanced substantively in the last few decades as a multidisciplinary endeavor, and notably through increased capacity to integrate with ecologically centered approaches.

The diversity of social science-related contributions to rangelands research continues to expand with both breadth and depth of approaches, perspectives, and backgrounds of participating scholars.

The USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network advances a unique long-term and large-scale effort to incorporate social science research into a long-term “common experiment” across multiple sites within varied rangelands contexts of the United States.

Multi-jurisdictional rangeland “mega-fires” are becoming more common.

Using interview data, we examined cross-boundary collaboration after the Soda Fire that burned approximately 113,312 ha (280,000 acres) of southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon.

We found relationships established in other management contexts were activated by individuals within agencies to share funding and resources to rehabilitate the landscape after the Soda Fire.

The fire's spatial proximity to Boise, Idaho, and temporal proximity to important federal policy decisions were primary collaboration drivers.

Barriers to collaborative efforts still exist; however, interviewees highlighted the importance of individual agency (bottom-up) changes in lessening top-down constraints.

As “co-produced” research becomes more popular, there is a need to evaluate the processes and outcomes of successful cases.

The Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management project is a case of a ranch-scale, 10-year grazing experiment ongoing in Colorado. We used social science to evaluate group learning.

We describe the complex, challenging aspects of the collaborative process, and how those challenges helped inspire learning as the team grappled with new problems and knowledge.

Respect, trust, and shared understanding are essential to success.

Social science can help collaborative research teams better design and implement complex co-production methods to engage stakeholders.

Integrated social-ecological research is crucial for the development and assessment of sustainable agricultural production that supports health and well-being for producers, rural communities, and agroecosystems.

One challenge for integration is that commonly used concepts like ecosystem services do not represent all environmental processes that support or degrade health and well-being.

Social change processes also impact health and well-being. Here we focus on a core, and often underrepresented example—communal processes.

Communal processes include social interactions for a common interest or purpose, or for deliberation and decision-making about a shared locality.

Many (but not all) communal processes foster relationships that strengthen a community's capacity for collective action while helping individuals and families cope with environmental stressors.

Research on communal processes of health and well-being complements research on ecosystem services and agricultural production to better represent social-ecological interdependencies and strengthen interdisciplinary approaches to rangelands research.

The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network launched the LTAR Agricultural Performance Indicator Framework to evaluate how agricultural innovations perform relative to sustainable intensification goals in five domains: Environment, Productivity, Economic, Human Condition, and Social.

Here we describe our progress and plans for measuring the performance of agricultural innovations on rangelands.

We present a method for measuring outcomes of management innovations against site-specific benchmarks, which can be applied in grazinglands worldwide.

LTAR typically studies management on fine scales (ecological site, ranch); how to measure effects on broad scales (landscape, community) remains a persistent question.

LTAR's Agricultural Performance Indicator Framework will evolve with stakeholder engagement.

We explored private landowner perceptions about the invasive Kentucky bluegrass in the US northern Great Plains.

Landowner responses to a mail survey indicated little to no preventative action.

We also employed a scenario approach to assess landowner perceptions based on changes to ecosystem services.

Scenario results indicated that the early stage of invasion was considered slightly acceptable. At the late stage, when negative impacts are most severe for landowner livelihoods, bluegrass was rated as slightly unacceptable.

Cascading impacts will become more evident and incentivizing early action to prevent further invasion is key to maintaining these working landscapes.

Sense of place can play a significant role in landowner well-being; yet is subjective, complex, and difficult to quantify.

Through a regression tree analysis of mail survey responses from landowners in the US Edwards Plateau, Central Great Plains, and Flint Hills, we found landowners have diverse senses of place based on a variety of place meanings and differing levels of place attachment.

Despite social and ecological regional differences, sense of place was similarly diverse within each region rather than specific to region.

Personal experiences related to way of life, peace and quiet, personal legacy, autonomy, and inspiration may be fundamental meanings for place attachment and well-being on private lands.

The potential for landowners' place meanings and attachment to contribute to their well-being necessitate including sense of place in efforts toward socially and environmentally sustainable private lands management.

Agroecosystem research often focuses on biophysical processes and productivity without incorporating human dimensions research and/or stakeholder engagement.

Connecting individual and community well-being to agro-innovation research is required for agroecological transformation to sustainable intensification.

Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network sites have historically had varied degrees of human dimensions research within their research plan; however, LTAR's human dimensions capacity has grown.

To capitalize on this capacity, we propose a four-step framework for the LTAR Network to evolve a cohesive human dimensions strategy that brings together the social and ecological.

Continued institutional support is required to maintain and further pursue research that will support stakeholder co-developed science that facilitates agroecosystem transformations benefiting society.

Researchers have studied human dimensions of rangelands since the earliest days of US rangeland science, usually focusing only on white, male, English-speaking ranch owners.

To address questions of rural prosperity and collaborative management, social scientists and the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network must turn their attention to the perspectives, practices, and experiences of indigenous, non-Anglo, female, and “new rural” rangeland stakeholders as well.

Social science researchers can learn from scholars in related fields whose work is less often consulted in rangeland science, including those working internationally with pastoral communities and in the United States with rural youth.

Understanding these communities is likely to require broadening our conceptions of what constitutes “knowledge,” with a greater focus on seeking just outcomes for the full range of people who depend upon rangelands and rangeland communities for their lives and livelihoods.