Lynn Huntsinger

Professor Rangeland Ecology and Management, and Chair, Division of Society and Environment

Education

• Ph.D. Wildland Resource Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
• M.S. Rangeland Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1983
• B.A. Chinese Studies: Modern History University of California, San Diego, 1979

Research Interests

Rangeland conservation and management

Research Description

Whether the topic is Inner Mongolian herders or California ranchers, extensive livestock production on rangelands requires negotiation between demand for a relatively predictable flow of products and the inherent unpredictability of an arid rangeland environment. There are property and social relations, practices, and values that are widespread among pastoralists and ranchers that reflect adaptation to the disequilibrium dynamics of the resource base upon which they depend. My work seeks to understand these factors as part of socio-ecological systems, with the goal of learning how long-term, sustainable management of rangelands can be created, and of contributing to the growing body of literature and theory surrounding the concept of socio-ecological systems. This concept is not uncontroversial, but I find it appealing as rangeland ecologist and manager who must look at social relations in order to understand the structure and function of agro-ecosystems like rangelands used for livestock production.

Ongoing studies include research on oak woodland landowners and management in California and Spain, land fragmentation and conservation in oak woodlands, and participatory management strategies. I am a team leader for the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project, working with the Forest Service and state agencies to restore forest "health." I continue to pursue lines of inquiry and theory I have found useful to my work: ecological models for disequilibrium systems as tools to understand the linkages between human relationships and ecological change; work in political ecology founded in basic notions of who (or what) wins and who (or what) loses in struggles over access to natural resources; and adaptive management as arbitrator in landscape and resource management.

Current Projects

• Environmental Leadership Pathway
• Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Program
• California Landowner Survey
• BIE Rangeland Roundtable: Carbon and Rangelands
• NSF Emergent Wetlands in California Working Landscapes
• Working Landscapes:  Spanish Dehesas and California Ranches

Selected Publications

Huntsinger, L. and J. Oviedo. in revision. Ecosystem services may be better termed social ecological services in a traditional pastoral system: The case in California Mediterranean rangelands at multiple scales. Ecology and Society.

Huntsinger, L. 2013. California Mediterranean Rangelands and Ecosystem Conservation. Conference on Pastoralism and Ecosystem Conservation.  Proceedings of FAO-CIHEAM Mountain Pastures Network June 5-7 Trivero, Italy. pastoralism trivero.

Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). 2013. Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

de Dios Vargas, J., Huntsinger, L. and Starrs, P.F. 2013. Raising Livestock in Oak Woodlands. Chapter 10. In:Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

Huntsinger, L., Campos, P.,Starrs, P.F., Oviedo, J.L.,Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. 2013. Working Landscapes of the Spanish Dehesa and the California Oak Woodlands: An Introduction. Chapter 1. In: Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

Caparrós, A., Huntsinger, L.,  Oviedo, J.L., Plieninger, T., Campos, P. 2013. Economics of Ecosystem Services. Chapter 12. In: Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

Oviedo, J.L., Ovando, P.,  Forero, L., Huntsinger, L,,  Álvarez, A., Mesa, B., Campos, P. The Private Economy of Dehesas and Ranches: Case Studies. Chapter 13. In: Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

Starrs, P.F., Campos, P., Oviedo, J.L., Huntsinger, L., Díaz, Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. M. 2013. Whither Working Oak Woodlands? Chapter 15. In: Campos, P., Huntsinger, L., Oviedo, J.L., Starrs, P.F., Díaz, M., Standiford, R.B., Montero, G. (eds). Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes: Dehesas of Spain and Ranchlands of California. Landscape Series, Springer.

Brownsey, P., Oviedo, J., Huntsinger, L. and B. Allen-Diaz. in press. Historic forage productivity and cost of capital for cow-calf production in California. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 

Ferranto, S., Huntsinger, L., Getz, C., Lahiff, M., Stewart, W., Nakamura, G. and M. Kelly.  in press. Management without borders? A survey of landowner practices and attitudes towards cross-boundary cooperation. Society and Natural Resources.

Plieninger, T., M. Gaertner, C. Hui and L. Huntsinger. 2013. Does land abandonment decrease species richness and abundance of plants and animals in Mediterranean grasslands, arable lands and permanent croplands? Environmental Evidence 2:3.  doi:10.1186/2047-2382-2-3 ;  http://www.environmentalevidencejournal.org/content/2/1/3

Booker, K., Huntsinger, L, Bartolome, J.W., Sayre, N., Stewart, W. 2013. What can ecological science tell us about opportunities for carbon sequestration on rangelands?  Journal of Global Environmental Change 23:240-251. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378012001148 . http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.10.001

Navarro, F.B., Romero-Freire, A.,  Del Castillo, T., Foronda, A., Jiménez, M.N.,  Ripoll, M.A., Sánchez-Miranda, Á, Huntsinger, L., Fernández-Ondoño, E. 2012. Effects of thinning on litterfall were found after years in a Pinus halepensis afforestation area at tree and stand levels. Forest Ecology and Management  289: 354–362.

Sayre, N.F., Carlisle, L., Huntsinger, L., Fisher, G., and Shattuck, A. 2012. The role of rangelands in diversified farming systems: Innovations, obstacles, and opportunities. Ecology and Society 17(4):43. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=71

Huntsinger, L., Sayre, N.F., and J.D. Wulfhorst. 2012. Birds, beasts and bovines: Three cases of U.S. pastoralism and wildlife.  Pastoralism: Research, Policy, and Practice 2:12. http://www.pastoralismjournal.com/content/2/1/12

Standiford, R. and L. Huntsinger. 2012. Valuing forestland environmental services: a case study for California’s oak woodlands.  International Conference on Sustainable Forest Management, The 2nd Forest Science Forum. October 13- 16, 2012, Beijing, China.

Plieninger, T, Ferranto, S., Huntsinger, L., C. Getz and M. Kelly. 2012.  Demand, use, and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in California landscapes.  Environmental Management  97(1): 131-140. DOI 10.1007/s00267-012-9900-z

Sulak, A. and L. Huntsinger. 2012. Perceptions of forest health among stakeholders in an adaptive management project in the Sierra Nevada of California.  Journal of Forestry. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/jof/2012/00000110/00000006/art00006

Oviedo, J. L., Huntsinger, L., Campos, P. and Caparrós, A. 2012. The income value of private amenities in California oak woodlands.  California Agriculture 66(3):91-96. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/868459nk

Stewart, W., Ferranto, S., Nakamura, G., Getz, C., Huntsinger, L. and Kelly, M. 2012. Subdivide or silviculture: choices facing family forest owners in the redwood region. In: Standiford, R.B., Weller, T.J., Piirto, D.D., Stuart, J.D. (tech coords). 2012. Proceedings of coast redwood forests in a changing California: A symposium for scientists and managers. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-238. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 675 p.

Ferranto, S., L. Huntsinger, B. Stewart, C. Getz, G. Nakamura and M. Kelly. 2012. Consider the source: The impact of media and authority in outreach to California’s forest and rangeland owners. Journal of Environmental Management 97: 131-140. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22266415

Huntsinger, Lynn, & Li, Wenjun. 2012. Grasslands. In Sarah Fredericks, Lei Shen,Shirley Thompson, & Daniel Vasey (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol. 4. Natural Resources and Sustainability, pp. 192-197. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.

Huntsinger, Lynn, & Bartolome, James W. 2012. Succession. In Robin Kundis Craig, Bruce Pardy, John Copeland Nagle, Oswald Schmitz, & William Smith (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol. 5. Ecosystem Management and Sustainability (pp. 380-384). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.

Starrs, Paul F., & Huntsinger, Lynn. 2012. Ranching. In Sarah Fredericks, Lei Shen, Shirley Thompson, & Daniel Vasey (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol. 4. Natural Resources and Sustainability, pp. 398-392. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing.

Ferranto, S., L. Huntsinger, C. Getz, G. Nakamura, W. Stewart, S. Drill, Y. Valachovic, M. DeLasaux and M. Kelly. 2011. Forest and rangeland owners value land for natural amenities and as financial investment. California Agriculture 65(4):184-191. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2c21d7s1

Li, W. and L. Huntsinger. 2011. China's Grassland Contract Policy and its Impacts on Herder Ability to Benefit in Inner Mongolia: Tragic Feedbacks . Ecology and Society 16 (2): 1. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss2/art1/

D.D. Briske, Nathan F. Sayre, L. Huntsinger, M. Fernandez-Gimenez, B. Budd, and J. D. Derner. 2011. Origin, persistence, and resolution of the rotational grazing debate: integrating human dimensions into rangeland research. Rangeland Ecology and Management 64(4): 325-335.

Huntsinger, L. and L. Diekmann. 2011. The virtual reservation: Land distribution, natural resource access, and equity on the Yurok Forest. Natural Resources Journal 50(2):341-370. http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/huntsingerlab/Culture_and_Resource_Management_files/huntsinger%20and%20diekmann.pdf

Huntsinger, L., Forero, L. and Sulak A. 2010. Transhumance and pastoralist resilience in the western United States, Pastoralism: Research, Policy, and Practice 1:1-15. http://nature.berkeley.edu/huntsingerlab/Culture_and_Resource_Management_files/transhumance%20in%20western%20US.pdf ; http://practicalaction.org/docs/publishing/Transhumance_and_pastoralist_resilience_in_the_Western_United_States.pdf

Huntsinger, L., Johnson, M., Stafford, M. and J. Fried. 2010. California Hardwood Rangeland Landowners 1985 to 2004: Ecosystem services, production, and permanence. Rangeland Ecology and Management 63:325-334.

Lynn Huntsinger. 2009. Into the wild: vegetation, alien Plants, and familiar fire at the exurban frontier. Chapter 8. The Planner’s Guide to Natural Resource Conservation: The Science of Land Development Beyond the Metropolitan Fringe. Esparza A. and McPherson, G. (eds). Springer.

Campos, P., Oviedo, J, Caparrós, A., Huntsinger, L., and I Coelho. 2009. Contingent valuation of woodland owners private amenities in Spain, Portugal and California. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 62 (3):240-252

 

Honors and Awards

• Li Ka Shing Research Grant for Women in Science - 2012
• Range Manager of the Year - Society for Range Management, California Section - 2007
• 2005 Exceptional Service Award - College of Natural Resources - 2005
• Distinguished Teaching Award - College of Natural Resources - 2003
• Distinguished Paper (with Richard L. Standiford) - World Forestry Congress - 2003
• Exceptional Contribution - Society for Range Management, California Section - 2002
• Fellow, 1990-1, 1991-2 & 1997-8 - Center for American Cultures, UC Berkeley - 1997
• Fellow - Society for Women Geographers - 1986

Recent Teaching

• C11 - Americans and the Global Forest Course site
• 186 - Management and Conservation of Rangeland Ecosystems Course site
• 279 - Seminar on Pastoralism
• 280 - Seminar in Range Ecosystem Planning and Policy: Management models for public lands
• H196 - Honors research

Professional Certifications

Research Interests Tags & Keywords: rangeland conservation  rangeland management