O'Rourke heading to China for rangeland congress

O’Rourke is president of the congress, a job he knew would be demanding when he was elected five years ago and China was chosen as the site of the next conference. But his duties have become even more challenging than he had anticipated because of recent developments such as the human rights dispute between China and Tibet and the May 12 earthquake that killed thousands in central China.

“I’ve been working on the conference at least three full days a week for a couple of years, either by sending and answering e-mails or by telephone,” O’Rourke said. “It’s been something else. A big problem has been obtaining visas. More than 1,500 had registered for the conference as of June 1, but all of them may not get there.”

About 125 of those who have registered are from the United States. Also making the trip from Chadron is Leslie Stewart-Phelps, a range technician for the Pine Ridge District of the Nebraska National Forest. At least a third of the participants will be Chinese academicians, he added.

O’Rourke said that in order to obtain a visa, the applicants have to receive an invitation from the Chinese government. Following the problems with Tibet and the earthquake responses from the government have been extremely slow, he said.

Once the conference participants arrive in China, O’Rourke believes things will go well. The conference opens June 28 and will run through July 5. Four preconference tours also are scheduled, including those on the Silk Road, up to the Tibetan Plateau and into Mongolia, an independent nation that borders China on the south and Russia on the north.

O’Rourke has signed up to participate in a couple of the tours.

O’Rourke headed the range management program at Chadron State College for 14 years before retiring in 2002 so he could devote full-time to national and international range management matters such as the International Rangeland Congress. Before assuming the presidency of the IRC, O’Rourke was president of the Nebraska Section of the Society of Range Management in 1994 and was president of the national organization in 2001-02.

He has already visited Inner Mongolia five times in the last five years to help plan the conference. He said the topography around Hothot is similar to much of it in the Great Plains.

“In some of the rural areas there, you could swear that you were standing on the Nebraska-South Dakota border north of Chadron in terms of plant species,” he said. “They primarily raise sheep and goats, but also have a lot of cattle. They also have some camels and yaks. Crested wheat grass, which we have planted in western Nebraska and South Dakota, is native to that area.”

O’Rourke said the conference will feature speakers who are involved in range management around the world.

“Every one will be discussing the issues in their regions and telling what they’re doing with them,” O’Rourke said. “Everybody will have a story to tell. There will be 24 sessions with three speakers at each session. No one can attend all the sessions, so the proceedings that are printed afterwards are extremely important and interesting.”

Because those attending the conference will be from many countries, numerous translators will be needed. O’Rourke said the papers will be presented in both English and Chinese, but published only in English.

The International Rangeland Congress was founded in 1978, when a group of range managers split off from the International Grassland Congress because they didn’t think enough emphasis was being given to their area of interest. This will be O’Rourke’s sixth International Rangeland Congress.

O’Rourke presented a paper that involved his doctoral dissertation at the newly formed organization’s first conference, which was in Denver in 1978. While working as a range management specialist in Africa in the 1980s, O’Rourke missed IGC conferences in India and France. But he has attended those in Salt Lake City, two in Australia and one in South Africa since returning to the United States.

Because he had served an eight-year term on the board of directors when he went to the conference in South Africa in 2003, he anticipated his obligations with the IRC would end. However, during the business meeting, the rules were suspended and he was elected president after being asked to serve another term on the board.

The next IRC conference will be in Argentina in 2011. O’Rourke went there in May to help with the initial planning.