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MISSING LINKS AND FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES IN ASSESSING RANGELAND HEALTH.
Author
Pyke, David A.
Karl, Jason W.
Herrick, Jeffrey
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2017
Body

Rangeland health assessments, whether quantitative monitoring or qualitative assessments, may be conducted at several scales. As with any monitoring technique, rangeland health monitoring and assessment techniques require appropriate training and regular quality control and assurances among people collecting data. Core indicators for rangeland health monitoring may address most objectives and they may relate equally well across multiple scales provided criteria relating to stratification and randomization are applied. However, additional indicators that were unforeseen when monitoring began may be added to address potential management concerns assuming they meet the same criteria. Regional evaluations of the effectiveness of management treatments are rarely conducted, but periodic evaluations of multiple treatments conducted in a similar manner may provide managers useful information for adaptive management to improve the effectiveness of treatments in achieving rangeland health goals. Monitoring objectives of indicators for rangeland health are most often addressed at the site scale, but some resource management objectives, for example Greater Sage-grouse habitat, and their associated monitoring may require indicators that are meaningful at broader scales and may require remote-sensing platforms to track over scales that are meaningful for the organism. Sharing or combining data among different land ownerships or across administrative boundaries creates another barrier for managing rangeland health issues. Common protocols for collecting data, including the selected variables and how they are sampled among the different land ownerships may ease or restrict the ability to provide meaningful monitoring results. We will suggest a set of procedures to aid the evaluation of current protocols and a collaborative decision process for implementing future protocols. Tools such as structured decision making may aid in this process by providing documentation on how diverse groups make choices for complex decisions requiring a collaborative approach.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM St. George, UT
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts