Cooperative Conservation Award Goes to the South Dakota Section of the Society for Range Management

Huron, S.D., Sept. 26, 2025 -The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) serving South Dakota (SD), led by State Conservationist Tony Sunseri, announced that the 2025 Excellence in Cooperative Conservation Award goes to the South Dakota Section of the Society for Range Management (SD SRM). Winners of the Cooperative Conservation Award are nominated by NRCS employees to recognize individuals or groups that have performed outstanding cooperation with NRCS regarding natural resources conservation. This award demonstrates the winner's ability to communicate, grow, and remain progressive in the pursuit of restoring and preserving the health of our state's natural resources.

Outgoing President of SD SRM, Krista Ehlert, with South Dakota State University (SDSU), elaborated on the makeup of the Society, "We are comprised of private ranchers and employees, educators, and retirees of various entities, including the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, SDSU, and NRCS." This dynamic group of natural resource professionals magnifies commitment to excellent stewardship of private and public land resources in South Dakota and beyond. "Many members engage at both the regional and national levels within and outside their normal scopes of work to further the science, and most importantly, the adoption of adaptive rangeland management," said Ehlert.

As both hosts and sponsors, SD SRM supports multiple youth-focused rangeland events, including the annual Rangeland and Soils Days held in June, which hosts hundreds of 8-18-year-old students, usually in 4-H and FFA, to advance their natural resources skillset. Top performers of the event move on to compete at the national land and range competitions held in Oklahoma each spring. In addition, SD SRM supports one teen from SD to attend the International Society for Range Management's High School Youth Forum (HSYF), which is a tailored experience for youth interested in rangelands. In 2024, Karlie Kammerer from Piedmont won the speech contest at Rangeland and Soils Days, and in 2025, she presented at the international meeting and won. Karlie will represent SD again at the 2026 international meeting in Monterey, CA, as the SRM High School Youth Forum moderator throughout the week's events. In addition, Katelyn Gebhart from Meadow won the contest at this year's Rangeland and Soils Days and will also represent SD at the 2026 international meeting as an HSYF delegate. Many of the students who interact with SD SRM's youth programming enter adulthood as ranchers, farmers, or natural resource professionals who manage the landscapes that we all care so deeply about.

Also hosted by SD SRM, the annual SD Range Management Workshop for Natural Resource Professionals, affectionally known as "Range Camp," which draws in agency and partner employees from NRCS, USFS, BLM, BIA, and partners such as The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Pheasants Forever, and the Mule Deer Foundation. Employees from NRCS, USFS, and SDSU come together to provide the workshop, which has a new theme every year. Themes have ranged from managing invasive species in the Black Hills to riparian restoration using beaver dam analogs. Several partners attend Range Camp every year, finding it to be a unique opportunity to brush up on their range management knowledge, learn something new, and network with like-minded individuals.

State Conservationist Tony Sunseri chose SRM for the 2025 Cooperative Conservation Award because he appreciates the members' tireless dedication to stewarding the land and their commitment to shepherding in the next generation of conservation professionals. To learn more about managing natural resources or discuss making a conservation plan tailored for your operation at no cost, contact your local USDA service center for more information.

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