The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest designed a monitoring initiative during the 2015 season to re-read historic Parker 3-step monitoring sites. The purpose was to preserve the historical sites while looking at range condition and apparent trends on grazing allotments across all districts on the forest. Additional seasonal employees were hired to help with the monitoring efforts. The Forest chose to collect the data the same way it was historically collected with the idea that the data could be compared and analyzed directly. The majority of transects across the Forest were installed and read as Parker 3-step transects in the 1950's and 1960's. Some districts had transects installed as Vertical Photo Points (VPP's), which are a slight variation of the Parkers. Both types of transects provide the same information and gave a good baseline for what the range looked like at the time. Each district on the Forest was equipped with tools to locate and re-read the transects as originally done. Some transects had been re-read multiple times, while others had never been looked at since installation. Examples of each type of transect along with the apparent trend calls can be seen on this poster. Comparing the historic photos to current photos proved to be just as useful as the data itself. This data set will only become more useful as we move forward. Looking back in time at our rangelands helps us understand what condition they were in over 60 years ago, the changes that have taken place, and it will help us guide management for the future. We hope the monitoring effort will continue for more generations to come.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.