Carbon County Extension office has new range specialist

Abby Perry began her new position as the range specialist at the University of Wyoming Carbon County Extension Office Feb. 16.

Although her office is in Rawlins, the area she is responsible if far beyond Carbon County. She works with a group that serves Goshen County, Platte County, Albany County, Laramie County and Carbon County.

With just a little over one month on the job, Perry has been busy meeting people. The position, which was vacated by Mae Smith last year, has been vacant for nearly a year. People have been coming in and introducing themselves, which is making her adjustment to Carbon County easier.

Perry is no stranger to Wyoming, she grew up in Cody, Wyo., and attended school at the University of Wyoming. She interned at the Albany County Extension Office.

Perry has already met the Saratoga Community Garden Board and is looking forward to getting to know more people in Carbon County.

Her responsibilities include working with ranchers and small acreage landowners. While she is not totally immersed yet, she knows that she will be working on ranch assessments, monitoring vegetation, testing water and identifying weeds.

"Basically we help with anything people want assistance with in the range system," Perry said.

Perry's predecessor developed relationships with people at the Carbon County Weed and Pest and the Platte Valley Mule Deer Habitat and Perry hopes to continue growing those relationships.

Recently, she helped with weed and pest licensor training through Carbon County Weed and Pest. "I believe there has been a good relationship with the conservation districts in the county," Perry said. She looks forward to working with all three - the Saratoga-Encampment-Rawlins Conservation District (SERCD), Little Snake River Valley Conservation District and the Medicine Bow Conservation District.

She is also looking forward to working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

"Extension doesn't work very well if there is not cooperation," Perry said. "We are the go between for the University (of Wyoming), with their research, and the agencies and landowners. We really get to work with everyone."

Perry's expertise includes range education, but for her master's she worked in agricultural and applied economics along with reclamation and reclamation costs.

She also has book knowledge and hand-on experience with horticulture. Abby plans to hold horticulture classes in the future.

Perry's predecessor sent emails to her contacts in the region to introduce Perry to the people Smith had worked with in the past. "That has helped," Perry said. "People started calling me. That is how I got introduced to the Saratoga Community Garden."

Specialists with UW have been working with ranchers in the area and when they come to Carbon County they introduce Perry so she is familiar with the project and the people involved.

She has introduced herself to the Carbon County Fair Board and plans to introduce herself at a Carbon County Commissioner meeting.

Perry said she feels lucky because a lot of people have reached out to her in the month she has been in the position.

Perry was first introduced to agriculture in a range class in high school. Her parents do not work in the agriculture industry. When she attended UW she dabbled in art and botany, but she found her home in the range field.

She received her undergraduate degree in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management. While attending UW, one of the required classes was agriculture economics. In that class, it all clicked for her. "In that class I said 'Oh my goodness, economics answers all these different questions.' That is when I really got into the economic side of things."

When people hear economics, they think money, Perry said. But the economics covers all of the costs and all of the benefits.

In agriculture economics when a rancher takes time from one project to work on another, there is a cost and she assists them in deciding whether it is economically sound.

Economics also include vegetation monitoring and especially long term data. For example, if a rancher is spraying some sort of herbicide and he sees a 20 percent reduction in a specific weed, as an economist, Perry can take that information and help the rancher determine if that was the best decision. It is on a case-by-case basis, Perry said.

Society wants to play a bigger role in the decisions in agriculture, Perry said. "That is where monitoring is really important. You can show people exactly what you are doing and the land is still thriving."

Rangeland management is also on a case-by-case basis, Perry said. When working with a rancher, she needs to determine several factors, like what type of animal production or crop production, what wildlife is accessing the land and the niche of the ranch, i.e. the size of the cattle, whether they are grass fed or organic.

For example, if a cattle producer is considering going from a grass fed operation to an organic production, Perry can work with the rancher on the economic side to see if it is feasible.

"The first thing I would want to know is, 'are people already doing this?' Because if that niche is already taken up by your neighbor, you are going to have a harder time making it successful," Perry said.

In the Extension office there are five different initiatives - 4-H, rangeland management, nutrition, community and economic development, and agriculture and horticulture.

In Platte County, there is another range person, so she will be able to split some of her duties with that person.

Coming from a non-agriculture background, Perry said she is still learning. She said she thinks that fact makes her more approachable, because she is willing to discuss alternatives, rather than force an idea she was raised with. Perry said it helps to have the experts from UW resources. Her husband grew up on a ranch and sometimes dinner conversation is an education in itself for her.

Perry said she is seeing a shift where people like her grew up in an agricultural state, but don't have the agricultural background. They are buying small acreages and wanting to do things with them. She can advise them how many cattle they can have, if any at all.

"Sometimes ranchers or landowners have been running an operation for many years and really have things figured out on their own land, but have an interest in public land issues around the state regarding things like sage grouse, wild horses, mule deer habitat, etc.," Perry said. "It is part of my job to help them navigate those topics or get them in contact with the people/agencies involved with those topics."

Perry said she loves receiving calls and she believes it is really important to make connections with the communities. She invites people to contact her at (307) 326-2642 or emailing her at [email protected].