Get to Know Your Rangelands

The public knows the oceans, they understand a forest, but are they even aware of rangelands?

In a Perfect World, What Should They Know?

As range professionals we need a public that understands the need to support rangeland research and management

A Trailer for Rangelands Instead of Space?

Great Music, Great Voice, and Great imagery

Perhaps our opening salvo could be a similar video that speaks on deep levels and changes the tone of how people think about rangelands

• 50% or more of world land area
• Pastoralists, ranchers, and land owners are important piece of management
• Critical part of carbon sequestration solutions
• Great diversity and abundance of wildlife
• Source of clean water for many cities and towns
• Multiple uses by the public including hunting and recreation
• Rich historical heritage
• Beautiful

• A place of exploration, or adventure, from which we came and where we want to call home again
• We have our own hero's, our own history to draw upon
• If done right, the connections are deeper, better and somehow more true than making the case for space

Contrasted with Perceptions of Forests

Remember, this trailer is just one part of a larger outreach campaign, but defining this concept will help us shape the whole outreach effort.

With the Interstellar Trailer, it's success in provoking a deep sense of wonder and stirring a restless desire to learn more and see more was not just an accident born of good writing. They had a famous voice, a great score, and awesome imagery.

But we can too.

All feedback on approach and content is welcome and encouraged!

• Mysterious, majestic
• Green, lush
• Mother nature
• Logging, industry
• Diversity and life
• Protection and shelter
• Dark
• Meadows and streams
• Fairy tales

csheehy@email.arizona.edu

80% of Americans live in cities

Most people might drive through a rangeland ecosystem and not even recognize it as a unique place.

Today, let's just focus on one aspect: A Video Trailer

What About the imagery?

Negative Descriptions

• Barren, unusuable, harsh
• The empty land between towns and cities, between forests and mountains
• Weeds and dirt

Interstellar had a wonderful and successful viral marketing campaign that started 1 year out from the movie. It started with a single video, that connected with a lot of deep elements of human psyche . . . BUT, what they were really doing was making a pitch for SPACE. This is a place, with the historical context of astronauts and all the rest.

Positive Descriptions

• Cowboys, cattle country, grazing animals
• Historic, homesteads
• Grass, buffalo
• Hunting
• Open space

Sorry I Can't Be There in Person

Who Am I?

Stunning shot of rangeland

"We’ve always defined ourselves as a species that built our civilization on the plains"

A series of shots from transhumance cultures around the world, Mongolia, South American, old time cowboy, etc.

"And we count these rural deserts"

More mind blowing imagery

"These remote rangelands where we raise our food. Regulate our climate. Clean our water"

Show where water comes from. Clouds, grass. Rivers and lakes. Wildlife.

"As the cradle of civilization"

Cities in the distance

"Understanding these ecosystems, with science, is one of our proudest achievements

It fired the imagination of a generation"

Range scientist working with students. Young cowboy in a rodeo. Urban couple raising own food.

"Perhaps we have just forgotten, that we still depend on these systems"

More stunning imagery of rangelands

"That our rangelands cannot be just the distant past or place separated from us"

Historic video of the old west, dust bowl

"That our futures lie entwined before us"

People returning to be stewards of rangelands. Recreational use. Camping, hiking.

I'm the Video Coordinator at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona. I have a masters in Range Ecology from Oregon State University. I grew up on a ranch in Eastern Oregon and I have traveled Mongolian, Australian, and North American rangelands to conduct filming and research.

A Campaign to Introduce Rangelands

In the modern world, what would a campaign look like that introduces rangelands to the public? In other words, how would Hollywood do it?

Let's Break Down the Script

Interstellar

Rangelands

• Multiple approaches
• Real world and digital strategies
• Social media
• Teaser and spoiler trailers
• Prominent spokesperson interviews
• Artful, creative, and inspiring
• Coordinated

We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible.

And we count these moments

(The first to fly faster than sound)

These moments when we dared to aim higher. To break barriers. To reach for the stars

(Astronaut noise.)

To make the unknown known.

(Astronaut noise.)

We count these moments as our proudest achievements

Having fired the imagination of a generation

Perhaps we have just forgotten, that we are still pioneers.

That we’ve barely begun and that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us.

That our destiny lies above us.

We’ve always defined ourselves as a species that built our civilization on the plains

And we count these rural deserts

These remote rangelands where we raise our food. Regulate our climate. Clean our water

As the cradle of civilization

Understanding these ecosystems, with science, is one of our proudest achievements

It fired the imagination of a generation

Perhaps we have just forgotten, that we still depend on these systems

That our rangelands cannot be just the distant past or place separated from us

That our futures lie entwined before us