GBI has entered into a third year of assessments of rangeland health with the Bureau of Land Management, providing resource managers with communicative tools to aid in addressing the increasingly problematic status of Sage-grouse.
Employing rangeland indicator protocols, teams gather data to determine the current status on habitat conditions. These data, along with considerations of spatial variability and landscape relationships, are used to provide documentation of early warnings of resource problems of upland range conditions. GBI biological technicians are trained to identify and record information on soil stability, hydrologic function and biotic integrity. Overall, these assessments, combined with indexes and trends, reflect how well ecological processes on a site are functioning. “Integrated monitoring support is an exciting development for the institute’s partnership with the BLM,” said Lynn Zimmerman, GBI Director of Research. Additional support for the assessment process are now with BLM Idaho’s Creators of the Moon National Monument and throughout the northern California districts. Those interested in the monitoring program should contact Devon Snyder, LHA Lead, at dsnyder@gbinstitute.org, or call 777.742.9349.
