ARS | Publication request: Ecological sites: Organizational tool for outcome-based land management

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 2, 2010
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Managing for sustained ecosystem services from rangelands involves complex interactions among soils, plant communities, topography and the prevailing environmental conditions across different land forms from local patches to entire landscapes. This complexity has contributed to prior difficulties in organizing information (both experimental and experiential) on ecological processes at scales appropriate for implementation of management practices, monitoring, and reporting on the societal benefit regarding conservation effects. The contemporary adoption of ecological sites descriptions by land management agencies, and the associated information contained within these descriptions [physiographic and climatic features, soils, plant communities (state-and-transition models, composition, production, growth curves), animal communities, wildlife interpretations, hydrologic functions, and recreational uses] provides the foundation for an effective organizational tool that can be implemented for outcome-based land management. Use of the ecological site as an organizational tool permits efficient accountability of implemented land management practices for the desired outcome(s), permits the assessment via proper monitoring of the effectiveness of the management practice for the desired outcome(s), and provides the infrastructure for reporting on conservation efforts at the individual site level as well as the ability to scale to regional and national efforts.