California Rancher Sustainability Assessment
RANCHING SUSTAINABILITY SELF-ASSESSMENT (RSA)
The Ranching Sustainability Self-Analysis Assessment (RSA) was created by and for local ranchers. It's a tool, that was developed to record land use practices for your own historical purposes. We hope that it also is a gauge to look at your own practices and a reminder of sustainable practices that you may have been putting on the backburner. The idea for this project came about, in some respects, from other farming practices that use self-assessment as a tool for their own record keeping. We would like to thank the Central Coast Vineyard Team for sharing the SIP Certification procedures with ranchers. The Ranching Sustainability Self-Assessment does not include any kind of "Certification" nor are we collecting or sharing any rancher’s information. The RSA manual is from our site, and you may use it as you wish for your own records. Click on the link to download if for free.
For more information,contact Royce Larsen: 805.434.4106 relarsen@ucanr.edu or
Bill Tietje: 805.781.5938 tietje@berkeley.edu
Updated California Rancher Sustainability Assessment Project
The CRSA is an updated version of the RSA and is now online. To support a broader group of California ranchers, our project team has updated and digitized the RSA into what we now call the California Rancher Sustainability Assessment (CRSA). Like the original RSA, the CRSA is intended to provide a simple method of self-evaluation, but with a few updates to ensure broad applicability. The CRSA is also paired with science-based digital resources to support adoption or continuation of best practices.
The CRSA currently offers an Assessment in five modules covering forage management, soil health, wildlife management, drought management, and generational succession. These topics incorporate ecological, social, and economic components of modern ranching and connect each module to the bigger picture of ranch sustainability. Within the modules, each question also links to one or more resources in the library. The library is a repository of free digital resources such as UC ANR publications, YouTube videos, and articles from other Extension universities as relevant (Fig. 2). Although the Library can be accessed without taking any Assessment modules, we recommend that users access Library resources through a module first. That way, the user is directly linked to specific resources that might be relevant to their questions and interests.
This assessment can be found at: California Rancher Sustainability Assessment (berkeley.edu)
https://crsa.cnr.berkeley.edu/
For more information, contact Royce Larsen:805.434.4106 relarsen@ucanr.edu or
Bill Tietje: 805.781.5938 tietje@berkeley.edu