Rector receives Society for Range Management Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award

Barron Rector, Ph.D., received a Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd annual Society for Range Management meeting, Technical Training and Tradeshow in Denver recently.

Rector is a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service range specialist in the Texas A&M University Department of Range, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, College Station.

The Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by the Society to members for long-term contributions to the art and science of range management and to the Society for Range Management, SRM.

Rector promotes range management to youth and adults alike in his AgriLife Extension role. He is recognized by both professionals and lay people as a leading authority on plant identification.

SRM has no more enthusiastic promoter of range management than Barron Rector, according to a Society news release. He has an ability to inspire youth and adults to learn.

Rector has been a coordinator or co-coordinator of the Texas Section Youth Range Workshop for 35 years. His long-term contributions to the science of range management and SRM are most evident in his involvement and leadership with the Society’s High School Youth Forum. The youth forum began in 1966, and Rector joined the forum subcommittee in 1982.

He has spent the last 39 year helping educate over 900 youth across the U.S. and Canada through the forum, the Society release said. As co-director, he organizes and prepares for the forum by working with section youth contacts, subcommittees, SRM board and staff, range professionals and high school students.

His selfless, tireless and never-ending dedication to SRM’s High School Youth Forum, range education promotion and research is the best example of Sustained Lifetime Achievement, SRM said.

Rector said his No. 1 passion is training youth and adult audiences to “see” the land.

“Often negative and positive changes in the rangeland are noted through changes in the plant community,” he said. “If you look at a plant and cannot name it, then it is just green, yellow, red, black or brown. And, until you can name it, you cannot look it up by its name to find out the value of the plant on the landscape. If you cannot name the plant, then you will have to learn about it through experiencing it.”