Version 5 of “Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health” (IIRH), Technical Reference 1734-6, is the third published edition of this protocol. Version 5 reflects protocol updates and clarifications identified through 15 years of teaching and applying the IIRH protocol using Version 4 (Pellant et al. 2005). Changes in Version 5 further improve the ease of protocol use and consistency in its application. In Version 5, some of the indicator names are slightly modified, and the protocol to
assess functional/structural groups (indicator 12) improves user application.
A key clarification in Version 5 is that the indicator narratives described in the reference sheet1 (Appendix 1a) should describe the natural range of variability within the reference state, a concept that was implied in Version 4. Advances in the understanding of reference states for ecological sites and their variability in space and time now enable better descriptions of the natural range of variability for each indicator.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, National Operations Center, Denver, CO.
Articles, citations, reports, websites, and multimedia resources focused on rangeland ecology, management, restoration, and other issues on American rangelands.