The conservation planning process developed by the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service consists of nine steps divided into three phases: 1) collection and analysis, 2) decision support, and 3) implementation and evaluation of the plan.� A rangeland health assessment is a planning tool that is used during all phases of the planning process. Ecological sites are inventoried and assessed with the associated rangeland health reference sheet developed for each ecological site. The attribute ratings for soil/site stability, hydrologic function, and biotic integrity, are compared to the assessment level of the planning criteria for the specific plant or soil resource concerns that have been identified. The individual rangeland health indicators are used to identify which ecological sites may be approaching an ecological threshold. The individual indicator and attribute ratings are then used to select conservation practices that address the resource concerns identified in the inventory. Follow-up rangeland health assessments can be used to determine the effectiveness of the conservation plan and associated practices and to make additional adjustments to the conservation plan.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.