A Western Rangelands Partnership is building this website as part of the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC). It is one of many belonging to a national effort to bring a broad range of agricultural information, resources, and tools to the web. The original AgNIC rangelands website was created in 1995 by the University of Arizona, but its focus was largely on local aspects. Based on interest expressed by attendees of the 2001 Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture Western Regional Joint Summer Meeting and from members of the Western Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching (CARET), a regional effort began in 2002 to expand the initial website to cover the entire Western U.S.

The first regional workshop, held in 2002, brought together range specialists and librarians from 12 Western land-grant universities. The workshop web page provides a summary of the event, a list of the participants, the agenda, and the working notes from various discussion groups. In addition, there is a link to templates developed for each state to begin building their own AgNIC rangelands home pages; each of which will be linked, when ready, from the regional map on the Rangelands West home page.

Although this website is a “work in progress,” we encourage you to browse through the sections and provide us with your feedback.