U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Landscape Monitoring Great Basin Pilot Carol Schuler Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science.

U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

Integrated Landscape MonitoringIntegrated Landscape MonitoringGreat Basin PilotGreat Basin PilotCarol SchulerForest and RangelandEcosystem Science Center

June 2007

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• To inform about the Great Basin Integrated Landscape Monitoring Project (GBILM)

• To gain understanding of NPS landscape monitoring activities and needs in the Great Basin

• To discuss how to make GBILM useful for the NPS

- Project approach and direction

- Ecosystem drivers

- Management and monitoring questions

- Example projects

- Complement ongoing NPS activities

Purpose and Desired OutcomesPurpose and Desired Outcomes

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USGS Science ThrustUSGS Science Thrust

• Pilot new concepts or promote new program areas

• Integrated landscape monitoring

- Reconcile site-specific actions/events with landscape-scale processes and functions

• 4 pilots

- Lower Mississippi Valley

- Prairie Potholes

- Puget Sound

- Great Basin

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Integrated Landscape MonitoringIntegrated Landscape Monitoring

• Goal:

- Reconcile site-specific actions/events with landscape-scale processes and functions

- Address priority natural resource management and policy issues at the landscape scale

• Integrated: among government agencies, stakeholders, scientific disciplines; and across political and jurisdictional boundaries

• Landscape: spatial and temporal scales

• Monitoring: collection and analysis of repeated observations to evaluate change

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Great Basin ILM GoalGreat Basin ILM Goal

• Develop and test integrated landscape-level monitoring that addresses priority management issues and provides capabilities to detect and predict landscape change.

−Understand cumulative effects of local actions/events

−Understand change at landscape scale

−Develop predictive capability of landscape change

−Develop or refine monitoring strategies

−Prioritize actions such as mitigation and restoration

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The Great BasinThe Great Basin

• Over 111 million acres

• Five western states

• 78% public lands

• N-S Mountain ranges

• Varied elevational gradients

• Water drains inland

Blue boundary – GB boundaryOrange boundary – GB with 50 m buffer

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Why Focus on The Great Basin?Why Focus on The Great Basin?

• Species of concern (e.g., sage-grouse, pygmy rabbit, Brewer’s sparrow, Virgin River chub)

• 54% of remaining sagebrush

• Diverse & accelerating stressors

- Urban expansion

- Limited water supply

- Spread of invasive species

- Altered fire cycle

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• Test approach to understanding change at the landscape scale

• Established interdisciplinary team

−USGS, NPS (Marie Denn, Angie Evenden, Debra Hughson), BLM, FWS, and EPA

• Develop project scope

– Limited resources

– Mine, evaluate, and analyze existing data

• Website (myUSGS.gov)

GBILM - Phased ApproachGBILM - Phased Approach

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Phased ApproachPhased Approach

• Develop conceptual models

• Identify and prioritize ecosystem drivers

• Develop and prioritize management questions

• Develop pilot projects to address management questions

• Mine, compile, and analyze existing data

• Develop tools to analyze data

at multiple scales

• Identify data gaps

• Predict and monitor changes

10 Integration & Application Network

Conceptual Models: Tools for UnderstandingConceptual Models: Tools for Understanding

• Describes key ecological components and relationships between them

• Used for planning, communicating, and prioritizing

• GBILM Models:

−Characterize landscape function

−Identify ecological processes

−Develop/prioritize management issues

−Inform monitoring strategy development

−Identify gaps in understanding of ecosystem

function

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Framework ModelFramework Model SystemsSystems Model: Model: Dry SystemDry System

Control Model: Control Model: Sagebrush steppe Sagebrush steppe Stressor Model: Stressor Model: Fire/Invasives InteractionsFire/Invasives Interactions

HistoricHistoric

Invasives:Introduced annuals

and Rabbitbrush

Invasives:Introduced annuals

and Rabbitbrush

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Ecosystem DriversEcosystem Drivers

“Ecosystem drivers are any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in an ecosystem.”

Carpenter et al., 2006

Invasive speciesInvasive species

AgricultureAgriculture

Altered Flow Regime

Erosion

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Drivers of ChangeDrivers of Change

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Three Priority DriversThree Priority Drivers

• Water Extraction (Wet System)

• Fire and Invasive Species Interaction (Dry System)

• Land Treatments (Dry System)

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Management QuestionsManagement Questions

• Why develop management questions?Why develop management questions?

- Foundation for landscape monitoring program

- Reflect real-life needs of management partners

- Bring focus and relevance to our work

- Provide basis for evaluating interactions among management actions, environmental factors, and landscape change

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Project DevelopmentProject Development

• Develop focused projects to address questions

• Data mining and evaluation

• Identify data gaps

• Data analysis to assess status and trends, and predict change

• Identify and communicate how results can inform management

• Identify research needs

• Develop or refine monitoring strategies

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Example 1: Water Extraction ProjectExample 1: Water Extraction Project

Management QuestionsManagement Questions • How will increased water extraction impact phreatophytes?

• Can phreatophytic communities act as indicators of impacted groundwater systems?

Pilot ProjectPilot Project• Identify locations of phreatophytic communities and correlate with

aquifer flow system conditions. • Identify areas at risk from increased water withdrawals.

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Water Extraction ProjectWater Extraction Project

Pilot Project TasksPilot Project Tasks1. Map phreatophytic land cover by categorizing evapotranspiration as a

function of critical characteristics: Geomorphology, vegetation species composition, elevation, hydrology

2. Map groundwater change over time

3. Evaluate change over time to phreatophytic land cover

Applicability to Management QuestionsApplicability to Management Questions• Provides assessment of status and trends of groundwater

• Establishes dataset of phreatophyte coverage across Great Basin

• Identifies environmental areas of concern or sensitivity

• Addresses utility of phreatophytes as indicators of impacts to groundwater system

• Develop tools that help to predict and manage for the effects of groundwater extraction across the Great Basin

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Potential Phreatophytic Land CoverPotential Phreatophytic Land Cover

Potential phreatophytic land cover

Waterbodies

Agricultural land cover

Map scale is 1:1,500,000

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Example 2: Fire and Invasive SpeciesExample 2: Fire and Invasive Species

Management QuestionsManagement Questions

• How should managers prioritize efforts to manage fire cycles with the goal of retaining and restoring desired plant communities?

Pilot ProjectPilot Project• Use spatial patterns of fire and landscape characteristics to evaluate

how invasive plants have altered fire regimes

• Create models and a sampling design to monitor and assess changes in fire regimes and vegetation over time

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Fire and Invasive SpeciesFire and Invasive SpeciesPilot Project TasksPilot Project Tasks

1. Create maps of fire distributions over time in the Great Basin

2. Evaluate hypotheses on how invasive plants have altered fire regimes and how these relationships may change in the future

3. Create models and a sampling design to monitor and assess changes in fire regimes and vegetation over time

Applicability to Management QuestionsApplicability to Management Questions

• Develop tools to monitor and predict fire regimes among major vegetation types

• Evaluates and predicts trends for altered fire regimes among major vegetation types

• Assesses vegetation types at risk to altered fire regimes due to invasive species, landscape characteristics, and climate change scenarios

• Prioritizes major vegetation types for suppression and mitigation actions designed to prevent the establishment of grass/fire cycles

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Fire and Invasive SpeciesFire and Invasive Species

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Example 3: Land TreatmentsExample 3: Land Treatments

Management QuestionsManagement Questions

• How are different land treatments influencing vegetation and wildlife habitats?

• How and where can land managers use land treatments to achieve multiple objectives, including maintaining and restoring wildlife habitat?

Pilot ProjectPilot Project

• Synthesis of monitoring efforts in the Great Basin

• Assess and predict effects of land treatments at various scales on wildlife habitat

• Initial focus on areas in Utah and the tri-states targeted for HLI funding

• Eventually expand to rest of Great Basin

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Pilot Project TasksPilot Project Tasks1. Create relational database of treatment information (1950 to present)

Treatment description, monitoring information, spatial data, reference photos, etc.

2. Develop predictive models on effects of treatments on wildlife habitats

3. Evaluate which land treatments can be used to improve habitat connectivity and where they can be placed (in a landscape context)

Management ApplicationManagement Application• Establishes a common database and maps of land treatments

across Great Basin

• Provides predictive models that estimate effects of land treatments on wildlife habitats, particularly sage grouse and other high profile species

• Provides information on treatment effectiveness

Land TreatmentsLand Treatments

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Land Treatments DatabaseLand Treatments Database

Source: Five Mile Mountain Sagebrush Restoration Project EA

Post-fire ESR 4/28/2003 Yes CaDReduce soil erosion within 2 years Yes Yes Yes

Wildlife Habitat Sage Grouse 6/1/1999 Yes JaD

(1) Reduce invasive grasses, (2) Reduce shrub cover to 20% No Yes Yes

SubTreatmentTreatment Objectives NEPAMapTreatment

Data?Monitoring

Data?Ecological Site

DescriptionDate

Biological Chemical Mechanical Fire Site Prep Seed Mix Planting

No No No No No YesRangeland

Drill

Goats NoBrush beater No No No No

TREATMENT DESCRIPTION

Dates # Plots Permanent? MethodData

Storage Source

5/1/2004 3 NoLine Intercept,

Daubenmire FrameDigital

Database

Shoshone Field Office

BLM

5/15/2000, 5/20/2005 3 Yes

Line Intercept, Daubenmire Frame

Paper Field Forms

Grand Staircase-Escalante

NM

MONITORING

26 Krissy BushKrissy Bush

Long-term ValueLong-term Value

• Builds understanding of ecosystem processes

• Identifies priority management issues and ensures research is relevant

• Can address additional management questions and drivers

• Fill data gaps and identify new research needs

• Informs management issues and practices at landscape scales

• Develops or refines long-term monitoring strategies

• Ultimately, provides a predictive capability of landscape change

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• What are the collaboration opportunities between NPS and USGS?

• Focusing on most appropriate management questions?

• Addressing high priority monitoring needs?

• Making results more accessible and useful?

• Who should we communicate with to build buy-in and obtain input?

Discussion Topics – Seeking Your AdviceDiscussion Topics – Seeking Your Advice

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