Developing effective stewardship strategies depends on our understanding of the ecological systems and function of our rangelands. The development, function, and responses of plant associations and communities and how they respond over time to disturbances like prescribed fire and drought are foundational to management decisions. By developing large scale classification and characterization of our landscapes, we can define ‘land management units’ that serve as replicates in our experiments and make our entire operating footprint a robust living laboratory.