The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages approximately 245 million acres in the U.S., the majority of which are in the western half of the country. There have been several conflicts in Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Arizona, since 2010 that have resulted in a fatality, armed militias, several incarcerations, and lawsuits facing the federal government. Following a preliminary needs assessment conducted in Box Elder County, Utah, and a comprehensive review of the literature, further research was needed to understand BLM professional (BLM managers or BLM specialists) and rancher perceptions regarding BLM policies and procedures. The study specifically looked at attitudes, perception and knowledge concerning the implementation of range improvement projects to potentially address conflicts and relationship issues between ranchers and BLM professionals. A needs assessment model was used to frame the research. Two similar questionnaires, one for BLM professional and the other for permitees (ranchers) using federal land managed by the BLM, were developed by the researcher. The questionnaire was divided into four sections: participant characteristics; perceptions concerning BLM policies; knowledge questions related to BLM policies; and attitudes concerning federal land ownership and BLM policies. The rancher questionnaire was mailed to 182 ranchers and netted a 37.2% response rate. The BLM questionnaire was emailed to 15 BLM professionals in the Salt Lake Field office and netted an 84.6% response rate. Results were analyzed using descriptive and appropriate correlation statistics. Multiple relationships between rancher and BLM professionals’ perceptions and knowledge were identified. Rancher interventions should include (a) when to submit rangeland improvement projects, (b) what could result in a temporary reduction in AUMs on a grazing allotment, (c) where to access online NEPA documents, and (d) who makes final land management decisions for the BLM. BLM professionals’ interventions could include the steps required for planning a juniper removal project, and when to submit a new waterline or fenceline request. Ranchers’ background has minimal influence on their perception. Rancher age had a medium, positive relationship on ranchers’ attitude regarding the NEPA process working and needing no revisions. Finally, the majority of rancher respondents identified as somewhat agreeing, somewhat disagreeing, or strongly disagreeing with the federal government owning land.

abstract: ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes the discourse surrounding proposed solutions to the immigration phenomenon in the United States. I conducted two qualitative media analyses on the rhetoric and conceptual frames found in mass media newscasts reporting on the immigration debate. The first analysis covered the general immigration debate and the second covered the appearance of American southwest ranchers. Specifically the analyses contrasted the media's coverage of root economic causes to the immigration phenomenon in comparison to reactionary solutions as proposed by leading immigrant attrition organizations such as the immigration think tank, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and Republican linguist, Frank Luntz. The main argument of this thesis is based on an analysis of how the media has used southwestern ranchers as expert witnesses for reactionary solutions on a national level. An acute qualitative media analysis was used to compare the rhetoric found in the media coverage of southwestern ranchers versus the rhetoric found in 12 in-depth interviews I conducted with ranchers in the American southwest. This thesis contends that the media has successfully turned southwestern ranchers into spokespersons for border security rhetoric, furthering the binary debates on border security and immigration reform and thus obscuring the conditions which force migrants to leave their home countries. The grounding theoretical framework for this thesis is based on David Altheide's qualitative media analysis which identifies how certain frames and common narratives ultimately construct a way of discussing the problem or the kind of discourse that will follow. This was structured on Atheide's qualitative media analysis protocols to dissect mass media newscasts covering the immigration debate and more specifically the mass media's coverage of southwestern ranchers. The qualitative media analyses were employed to determine whether the discourse found in nightly newscasts falls in line with root causes of immigration or FAIR's concern with reactionary solutions. To further assess the media's ability to shape discourse, and ultimately policy, these qualitative analyses were compared with in-depth interviews of the ranchers. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2010

Rangelands within the Great Basin are responsible for the provision of multiple resources that humans depend on for a variety of reasons. Ranchers in this region are dependent on public lands to remain economically viable in their cattle operations. As a majority of land in this region is publically owned, there are varying interests at play in what should and could be the focus of management. Ranchers are charged with implementing strategies aimed at conserving these landscapes and their motivations for what to manage may significantly influence resource provision from Intermountain West ecosystem. In this study, I sought to understand what resources ranchers manage and why ranchers manage for certain resources. I also sought to understand operational characteristics which allow or inhibit them from managing for a suite of resources. My study population was ranchers throughout the Intermountain West who depend on public lands to graze their cattle. I utilized interviews as well as mail-in surveys to broadly understand what ranchers value about rangelands. From both qualitative and quantitative data, I found that ranchers make management decisions to encourage productivity, maintain a ranching legacy and remain autonomous in their operation. Managing to encourage these three ideals could ensure that their operations remain viable for their family in the future. I also found that based on size of operation, how active ranchers are on their operation, and how income dependent they are on their operation contribute to managing for more and a certain type of resource. Overall, this research was designed to encourage management for a suite of resources on rangeland landscapes. Ranchers seem to manage most highly for resources directly beneficial to their operation. By educating and incentivizing ranchers to manage more broadly for resources that benefit a broader public on public lands which we all hold claim to, resilience of both human communities as well as the ecosystem itself will be enhanced.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES), or conservation incentives, are an increasingly popular approach to encouraging natural resources conservation on private lands. The goal of PES approaches is to motivate conservation by private landowners that would not otherwise take place by providing an economic incentive. To achieve this goal, incentive programs must be available to landowners who can provide the desired services; supportive policy structures must be in place; landowners must be willing to participate as sellers of ecosystem services; and the program itself must have an institutional structure that effectively regulates the production, sale, and maintenance of targeted ecosystem services. This dissertation uses a combination of case study and comparative research methods to develop new knowledge and tools for assessing each of these necessary conditions for success. The potential development of an incentive program to conserve habitat for endangered jaguars in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico is used as a case study to understand the attitudes of ranchers toward participation in PES programs and related policies and regulations. Results show that ranchers have strong intrinsic conservation motivations unrelated to economic incentives, coupled with significant concerns about the impacts of government regulations that could accompany participation in a PES program. Comparative research of the institutional structures of existing PES programs is carried out using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. Focusing on water quality trading, one of the most common types of PES program, a classification system for PES program institutional arrangements is developed and the utility of the classification system for analyzing institutional diversity is demonstrated. Together, the case study and comparative research provide a means of linking empirical assessment of PES governance models with the preferences of targeted participants, increasing the likelihood of successful conservation outcomes.

A Campanha, no Rio Grande do Sul, tem como principais características a predominância de produção pastoril e grande concentração fundiária. Em 1998 o IBGE identificou um grupo numeroso de pequenos produtores que se dedicam à bovinocultura de corte e com características de agricultores familiares, os quais foram identificados como pecuaristas familiares. A literatura que aborda esta categoria social considera que este grupo tem, na sua origem, diferentes trajetórias e que estes processos se desenvolveram no período inicial do século XX, ou seja, o pecuarista familiar é originário do século XX. No entanto as pesquisas históricas recentes mostram que pequenos criadores de gado estavam presentes na Campanha desde, pelo menos, o início do século XIX. O presente trabalho busca avaliar a natureza da relação histórica entre os pequenos criadores de gado do século XIX e os pecuaristas familiares da região da Campanha hoje. O estudo focaliza principalmente o município de Santana do Livramento, visto que além de ter uma tradição na produção pecuária extensiva também se mostra um município com uma significante presença de pecuaristas familiares na atualidade. O estudo utiliza o conceito de sistemas agrários e se baseia principalmente em dados extraídos de entrevistas com os pecuaristas familiares do município e fontes documentais primárias: censo, processos crimes e cíveis e inventários post-mortem. Esta pesquisa permite identificar como principais resultados a existência de estabelecimentos agrícolas que desenvolviam a pecuária em uma complexidade de tipos, que variavam quanto à dimensão do estabelecimento, modo de acesso à terra e o estatuto social da mão de obra. Ressalta-se neste trabalho a identificação de um grupo de criadores existentes no século XIX que possuíam pequenos rebanhos de gado e utilizavam principalmente a mão de obra familiar, sendo que muitos deles não possuíam a propriedade da terra. Este grupo demonstra a persistência dos pecuaristas familiares como uma categoria social na Campanha desde o período do século XIX. / The principal characteristics of the Campanha region of Rio Grande do Sul are the predominance of livestock production and concentrated landholdings. In 1998, the IBGE (Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute) identified a large group of small producers dedicated to raising beef cattle, with the characteristics of family farmers, who have been identified as family ranchers. The literature on this social category affirms that this group emerged from different trajectories and that these processes began in the early twentieth century. In other words, the family rancher is a product of the twentieth century. However, recent historical research shows that small-scale cattle ranchers were present in the Campanha since at least the beginning of the nineteenth century. This master’s thesis attempts to evaluate the nature of historical relations between small ranchers of the nineteenth century and the family ranchers of the Campanha region today. The study focuses principally on the municipality of Santana do Livramento, which in addition to having a tradition of land extensive livestock production also has a significant number of family ranchers today. The study uses the concept of agrarian systems and is based principally on data extracted from interviews with family ranchers in the municipality and from primary documentary sources: a census, criminal and civil court records, and probate records. This research allows identification of several types of livestock raising establishments, which varied in size, in forms of access to land and in the social and legal status of their workers. This work highlights the existence of a category of ranchers in the nineteenth century that had small herds of cattle and used primarily family labor, many of whom were not landowners. This group demonstrates the persistence of family ranchers as a social category in the Campanha since the nineteenth century.

A Campanha, no Rio Grande do Sul, tem como principais características a predominância de produção pastoril e grande concentração fundiária. Em 1998 o IBGE identificou um grupo numeroso de pequenos produtores que se dedicam à bovinocultura de corte e com características de agricultores familiares, os quais foram identificados como pecuaristas familiares. A literatura que aborda esta categoria social considera que este grupo tem, na sua origem, diferentes trajetórias e que estes processos se desenvolveram no período inicial do século XX, ou seja, o pecuarista familiar é originário do século XX. No entanto as pesquisas históricas recentes mostram que pequenos criadores de gado estavam presentes na Campanha desde, pelo menos, o início do século XIX. O presente trabalho busca avaliar a natureza da relação histórica entre os pequenos criadores de gado do século XIX e os pecuaristas familiares da região da Campanha hoje. O estudo focaliza principalmente o município de Santana do Livramento, visto que além de ter uma tradição na produção pecuária extensiva também se mostra um município com uma significante presença de pecuaristas familiares na atualidade. O estudo utiliza o conceito de sistemas agrários e se baseia principalmente em dados extraídos de entrevistas com os pecuaristas familiares do município e fontes documentais primárias: censo, processos crimes e cíveis e inventários post-mortem. Esta pesquisa permite identificar como principais resultados a existência de estabelecimentos agrícolas que desenvolviam a pecuária em uma complexidade de tipos, que variavam quanto à dimensão do estabelecimento, modo de acesso à terra e o estatuto social da mão de obra. Ressalta-se neste trabalho a identificação de um grupo de criadores existentes no século XIX que possuíam pequenos rebanhos de gado e utilizavam principalmente a mão de obra familiar, sendo que muitos deles não possuíam a propriedade da terra. Este grupo demonstra a persistência dos pecuaristas familiares como uma categoria social na Campanha desde o período do século XIX. / The principal characteristics of the Campanha region of Rio Grande do Sul are the predominance of livestock production and concentrated landholdings. In 1998, the IBGE (Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute) identified a large group of small producers dedicated to raising beef cattle, with the characteristics of family farmers, who have been identified as family ranchers. The literature on this social category affirms that this group emerged from different trajectories and that these processes began in the early twentieth century. In other words, the family rancher is a product of the twentieth century. However, recent historical research shows that small-scale cattle ranchers were present in the Campanha since at least the beginning of the nineteenth century. This master’s thesis attempts to evaluate the nature of historical relations between small ranchers of the nineteenth century and the family ranchers of the Campanha region today. The study focuses principally on the municipality of Santana do Livramento, which in addition to having a tradition of land extensive livestock production also has a significant number of family ranchers today. The study uses the concept of agrarian systems and is based principally on data extracted from interviews with family ranchers in the municipality and from primary documentary sources: a census, criminal and civil court records, and probate records. This research allows identification of several types of livestock raising establishments, which varied in size, in forms of access to land and in the social and legal status of their workers. This work highlights the existence of a category of ranchers in the nineteenth century that had small herds of cattle and used primarily family labor, many of whom were not landowners. This group demonstrates the persistence of family ranchers as a social category in the Campanha since the nineteenth century.

A Campanha, no Rio Grande do Sul, tem como principais características a predominância de produção pastoril e grande concentração fundiária. Em 1998 o IBGE identificou um grupo numeroso de pequenos produtores que se dedicam à bovinocultura de corte e com características de agricultores familiares, os quais foram identificados como pecuaristas familiares. A literatura que aborda esta categoria social considera que este grupo tem, na sua origem, diferentes trajetórias e que estes processos se desenvolveram no período inicial do século XX, ou seja, o pecuarista familiar é originário do século XX. No entanto as pesquisas históricas recentes mostram que pequenos criadores de gado estavam presentes na Campanha desde, pelo menos, o início do século XIX. O presente trabalho busca avaliar a natureza da relação histórica entre os pequenos criadores de gado do século XIX e os pecuaristas familiares da região da Campanha hoje. O estudo focaliza principalmente o município de Santana do Livramento, visto que além de ter uma tradição na produção pecuária extensiva também se mostra um município com uma significante presença de pecuaristas familiares na atualidade. O estudo utiliza o conceito de sistemas agrários e se baseia principalmente em dados extraídos de entrevistas com os pecuaristas familiares do município e fontes documentais primárias: censo, processos crimes e cíveis e inventários post-mortem. Esta pesquisa permite identificar como principais resultados a existência de estabelecimentos agrícolas que desenvolviam a pecuária em uma complexidade de tipos, que variavam quanto à dimensão do estabelecimento, modo de acesso à terra e o estatuto social da mão de obra. Ressalta-se neste trabalho a identificação de um grupo de criadores existentes no século XIX que possuíam pequenos rebanhos de gado e utilizavam principalmente a mão de obra familiar, sendo que muitos deles não possuíam a propriedade da terra. Este grupo demonstra a persistência dos pecuaristas familiares como uma categoria social na Campanha desde o período do século XIX. / The principal characteristics of the Campanha region of Rio Grande do Sul are the predominance of livestock production and concentrated landholdings. In 1998, the IBGE (Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute) identified a large group of small producers dedicated to raising beef cattle, with the characteristics of family farmers, who have been identified as family ranchers. The literature on this social category affirms that this group emerged from different trajectories and that these processes began in the early twentieth century. In other words, the family rancher is a product of the twentieth century. However, recent historical research shows that small-scale cattle ranchers were present in the Campanha since at least the beginning of the nineteenth century. This master’s thesis attempts to evaluate the nature of historical relations between small ranchers of the nineteenth century and the family ranchers of the Campanha region today. The study focuses principally on the municipality of Santana do Livramento, which in addition to having a tradition of land extensive livestock production also has a significant number of family ranchers today. The study uses the concept of agrarian systems and is based principally on data extracted from interviews with family ranchers in the municipality and from primary documentary sources: a census, criminal and civil court records, and probate records. This research allows identification of several types of livestock raising establishments, which varied in size, in forms of access to land and in the social and legal status of their workers. This work highlights the existence of a category of ranchers in the nineteenth century that had small herds of cattle and used primarily family labor, many of whom were not landowners. This group demonstrates the persistence of family ranchers as a social category in the Campanha since the nineteenth century.

As IT platforms grow larger and more complex, so does the underlying infrastructure. Virtualization is an essential factor for more efficient resource allocation, improving both the management and environmental impact. It allows more robust solutions and facilitates the use of IaC (infrastructure ascode). Many systems developed today consist of containerized microservices. Considered the standard of container orchestration, Kubernetes is the natural next step for many companies. But how do we move on from previous solutions to a Kubernetes cluster? We found that there are not a lot of detailed enough guidelines available, and set out to gain more knowledge by diving into the subject - implementing prototypes that would act as a foundation for a resulting guideline of how it can be done.