Welcome to Agriculture & Rangeland Management

Do you like to work outside? Are you seeking a hands-on career with animal and plant life? In the High Plains region, and all over the world, there’s a growing demand for people like you. The Rangeland Management program at Chadron State College can help you get there.

North American rangelands occupy about half the continent; ranging from desert grassland systems to mountain meadows. Likewise, rangelands comprise almost half of Nebraska. From these rangelands emerge a variety of products and industries that range from traditional domestic livestock production to water, wildlife and timber management, and recreation.

Often viewed as the original sustainable agriculture, rangeland management is based on a wide variety of sciences, such as animal science, ecology, wildlife management, economics, soils, forestry and watershed science. The managers of these rangeland resources face many challenges today and in the future. The Rangeland Management program has developed a unique program of study that allows students to tailor their educational paths to meet these challenges.

Rangeland Alumni: Rick Arnold

Rick ArnoldRick Arnold is a Wildlife Biologist II with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in Crawford, Nebraska.

What advice do you have for undergraduate students?

Take a different summer job in your career-related field every summer. The more experience you have turning out at graduation, the more valuable you are to employers. Take every volunteer experience you can as well as putting 110 percent forward during those opportunities because the field is small and highly competitive in the range and wildlife management job market.

Who or what impacted you the most during your time at CSC?

Teresa Frink, Chuck Butterfield and Anthony Perlinski have all been instrumental to my success in my career. They taught me valuable skills and put me in front of contacts from various different agencies, with many volunteer experiences available.

Rangeland Management is for students who may be interested in…

  • Working outdoors
  • Ranch management
  • Wildlife
  • Habitat Management
  • Hunting and fishing
  • Plants
  • Wildland Fire
  • Prescribed Fire
  • Working with others
  • Working with animals
  • Range, soils, and land judging
  • Soils
  • Technology
  • Forests

Student Learning Outcomes

Students in this program will develop the knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes so they will be able to:

  • Develop and defend a management plan which describes and assess the rangeland resources of soil, vegetation, livestock and wildlife.
  • Describe and compare range ecosystems throughout North America and the principles used to manage the resources within them.
  • Synthesize and communicate, both written and orally, acquired knowledge from scholarly research on rangeland, livestock and wildlife management using appropriate peer-reviewed literature.

Experiential / Hands-On Learning

Life is not a spectator sport, nor is learning! Most of our classes include in the field activities, allowing for experiential learning and real-life application of concepts learned in the classroom.

Chadron State College’s 3+1 program Agriculture Education program with University of Nebraska Lincoln

To learn more about this program please contact Dr. Tony Perlinski (aperlinski@lkgear.com).

-Press Release from UNL: http://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/strategic-investments-facilitating-unl-chadron-state-partnership/

Students on prairie