Rangeland Inventory & Monitoring

1. Rangeland Inventory & Monitoring

2. CURRENT FUTURE Rangeland Management is: • The use and stewardship of rangeland resources to meet goals and desires of humans. • You cannot make good management decisions if you do not know the effect of past management actions.

3. Information for Management • Inventory = record of resources at one point in time: • Land area & pasture sizes • Roads & trails • Water • Vegetation types • Corrals, building, fences • ? • ?

4. Information for Management • Maps for management = resources references geospatially: • Vegetation map • Range map • Watershed map • Land ownership

5. Information for Management • Assessment = evaluation of condition at one point in time: • Riparian Proper Functioning Condition • Rangeland Health • Ecosystem Integrity • Usually involve protocols based on “qualitative” attributes (rather than “quantitative” measures).

6. Monitoring • The word "monitor" is rooted in a term meaning "to warn." • Enable managers to take appropriate actions and change course if needed.

7. Monitoring • After a wildfire, a land manager of this sagebrush steppe area in Southern Idaho may implement a monitoring program to determine if and when the burned area recovers a plant community similar to an unburned area. 

8. Monitoring A rancher may implement a monitoring protocol to determine if a new grazing system is affecting establishment of sedges or willows along a stream improving the stability of stream banks. 

9. Monitoring A leafy spurge patch such as this could be monitored to determine if the weed management plans are effective. 

10. Monitoring: The Main Steps • Complete inventory – know resources available • Develop objectives • Design and implement management • Design the monitoring methodology • Evaluate management actions.

11. One Example of a Planning Model

12. Revise Inventory Main Steps in RangelandManagement What needs to change? What do you have? Evaluate Set Goals How is it going? What do you want to have? Implement Plan Just do it! How will you get there?

13. Monitoring: The Main Steps • What do I need to know to make good management decisions? • What/how can I realistically monitor? Set SMART Objectives

14. SMART Objectives: • Specific – Objectives should specifically state what you want to achieve on the land you are managing. • Measurable – It must be possible to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not. • Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable in your current setting? Consider environmental constraints, societal expectations, economic parameters, legal requirements, and technological limitations. • Realistic – Set objectives that you can realistically achieve given the natural and management context of your situation. • Time – Set a time horizon for management objective.

15. SMART Objectives: To set SMART objectives must know: • What resources you have: • Land • Human capital • Economic • What you and your land of: • Ecological site • Climate • Condition • What you are capable of: • Skills • Abilities • Knowledge

16. Examine Trend Trend = upward or downward based on conditions measured at least 2 points in time: • Used to evaluate management actions • Measures change over time • Best if done frequently Apparent Trend = attributes measured at one time point in time to infer trend • Often misleading

17. Trend vs Current Status Ecological Status Time

18. Factors influencing trend • Weather • Grazing/Browsing • Insects • Recreation • Fire • Trampling • Rodents All of these can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on circumstances.

19. Fifty Years of Change in a Shadscale Stand in Idaho Lee A. Sharp, Ken Sanders & Neil Rimbey http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range/Projects/Shadscale/

20. Background of Photos • The following rangeland photo journal charts the changes that have occurred in a shadscale (Atriplexconfertifolia) stand in southern Idaho starting in1951. • Photos of the site have been taken annually since 1955, but the selected photos show the dynamic nature of the site.

21. L.A. Sharp Experimental Area –Malta Idaho

22. 1951

23. 1955

24. 1958

25. 1959

26. 1960

27. 1961

28. 1963

29. 1964

30. Scale Insect

31. 2005 8.0 15.4

32. Interpretation of data • Determine if management objectives have been achieved • if not, why? • Determine if management objectives need redefining • are they realistic? • have your goals changed? • Determine needed management action

33. “Pictures are worth a thousand words” • But only if you know the true story of what happened over time. • Photos are used by critics, but they seldom make the correct interpretation. • The permittee is the person most likely to know the true story.