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“RETIREMENT OF DR. JAMES ALBERT YOUNG” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S962 on Feb. 13, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RETIREMENT OF DR. JAMES ALBERT YOUNG
Mr. REID. Madam President, today I want to recognize and honor an individual who has committed much of his life to the preservation of Western rangeland and its ecosystems. Dr. James Albert Young retired on January 3, 2008, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service after 33 years of dedicated work on issues important to the environmental health of the Great Basin.
The Great Basin is North America's largest desert, encompassing 135 million acres of land between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains in western North America. It includes parts of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and California. Land in the Great Basin is arid, receiving less than 12 inches of rain annually. Today, population growth, wildfires, and invasive species are reducing the quality of native rangelands at an accelerating rate. Recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and others predict that climate change could well be expected to accelerate these changes and associated impacts. Dr. Young's professional life was focused on understanding the specific challenges facing the Great Basin, finding ways to reverse the trends that threaten its environmental health, and educating people about the uniqueness of this beautiful land.
In 1965, Dr. Young started his career with USDA's Agricultural Research Service as a range scientist for the range and pasture unit in Reno, NV. He served as research leader of that unit from 1986 to 1998 and was known by many as the ``Encyclopedia of Western Rangelands.'' Over the years his expertise and commitment to rangeland issues was recognized through various awards, such as United States Department of Agriculture Scientist of the Year, Weed Science Society of America Award of Excellence, Society for Range Management W. R. Chapline Research Award, Outstanding Achievement Award, and Fellow Award, as well as the Society for Range Management Nevada Section Researcher of the Year Award.
The State of Nevada awarded Dr. Young with the very first Nevada Weed Management Award, which they named the ``James A. Young Award,'' for his tireless work on invasive weed management issues. Dr. Young has authored and co-authored over 700 scientific articles, including many books. His books have received national recognition, some of which include ``Collecting, Processing, and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants;'' ``Endless Tracks in the Woods''; ``Purshia: The Wild and Bitter Roses''; and ``Cattle in the Cold Desert.'' Dr. Young recently finished a book, ``Cheatgrass: Fire and Forage on the Range,'' which is an illustration of the breadth of knowledge that he has on the most popular weed in the Intermountain West. It is often stated that Dr. Young has probably forgotten more information on the ecology of Western rangelands that most people in resource management will ever learn.
Early in Dr. Young's career he developed the hypothesis that the nature and structure of a wildland plant community is largely controlled by the process that eliminated the previous plant community that occupied the site. Now known as the stand renewal process, this hypothesis is one of his ecological trademarks.
Dr. Young was also an outstanding educator. Over the years, he introduced dozens of high school and college students to the field of range science, some of whom became Area Directors for the Agricultural Research Service. His continued interest in educating natural resource specialists, as well as the general public, on science based management of Natural Resources has been a tremendous achievement over his career.
We owe a great debt to individuals like Dr. Young who, make their life's work protecting our natural world. Thank you, Dr. Young, for all you have done.
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