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Brian Fuchs

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Developing Effective Drought Monitoring Tools for Farmers and Ranchers in the South Central U.S.
The South Central U.S. is one of the main agricultural regions in North America: annual agricultural production is valued at more than $44 billion dollars. However, as climate conditions change, the region is experiencing more frequent and severe droughts, with significant impacts on agriculture and broader consequences for land management. For example, in 2011 drought caused an estimated $7.6 billion in agricultural losses in Texas and an additional $1.6 billion in Oklahoma. Although there are many drought monitoring tools available, most of these tools were developed without input from the stakeholders, such as farmers and ranchers, who are intended to use them. The goal of this project was to assess the information...
GrassCast SW: Implementing a Grassland Productivity Forecast Tool for the U.S. Southwest
We aim to create a user-friendly, online tool that will provide predictions about the upcoming year’s grassland and rangeland productivity for the southwestern U.S. This tool will allow land managers, policy makers, ranchers, scientists, and the general public to visualize and forecast grassland production for the upcoming season. The tool will integrate data from remote sensing, climate, and modeling techniques and, on a county-by-county scale, will provide updated forecasts every two weeks. This tool will have many uses, including for those who need to make decisions about wildlife, livestock, restoration, and fire.
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