Ecological Site Descriptions Workshops and Presenetations - 2005 to 2010 : USDA ARS

Skip to main content

ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Docs » Ecological Site Descriptions Workshops and Presenetations - 2005 to 2010

Ecological Site Descriptions Workshops and Presenetations - 2005 to 2010

headline bar

November 16-18, 2010	Rangeland Interagency ESD Pilot Workshop	Las Cruces, NM
Link to Rangelands website with ESD meeting information and agendas - http://www. rangelands.org/ESD/ Tuesday - Workshop Day 1 - Target Audience: WO Leadership, Regional and State Technical Leadership, Point-of-contact Field-Level Employees Agency Leadership - Significance of the Workshop NRCS - Michael Hubbs, Director of Ecological Sciences Division USFS - James Pe?a, Associate Deputy Chief (video link) BLM - Mike Pool, Deputy Director (video link) A Collaborative Approach: The Value, Use and Applicability of ESDs to the Agency Mission BLM - Bill Merhege, DSD Resources, NMSO USFS - Janette Kaiser, Director, Rangeland Management, WO NRCS - Micheal Golden, Director, Soil Survey Division, WO Agency Implementation and Needs - Rangeland Interagency Ecological Site Manual - policy overview (Dennis Thompson, NRCS) Science and Technology Needs/Challenges (Pat Shaver, NRCS; Jeff Rose, BLM) Role of ARS in Science Needs (Mark Weltz, ARS) Correlation With/Cross-walk to Existing Data Collection Systems; Relationship to Other Land Unit Classification Systems (Jeff DiBenedetto, USFS; Sherm Karl, BLM) Ecosystem Site Description Funding - Opportunities for Research, Education, and Extension Support (Jim Dobrowolski, USDA) What is an Ecological Site Description? Historical Development and Emerging Science (Brandon Bestelmeyer, ARS, NM) The Science behind Ecological Sites. How can the current research and science contribute to the development of ecological sites and what are some emerging trends? The intent is to respond to morning presentations (above) by agency leaders Hydrology (Fred Pierson, ARS, ID) Modeling State Attributes (Mark Weltz, ARS, NV) Vegetation Dynamics (Justin Derner, ARS, WY) Invasive Species (Roger Sheley, ARS, OR) Opportunities for developing an interagency hierarchical approach to defining ESD's and addressing cross-scale interactions (Dave Cleland, USFS, WO) Wednesday - Workshop Day 2 - Target Audience: Regional and State Technical Leadership, Point-of-contact Field-Level Employees Principles of ES Development (broad overview of principles and approaches) - developing ESD concepts at the regional scale, grouping soil properties into functional units, developing State and Transition Models, testing, refining and correlating Ecological Sites (Brandon Bestelmeyer, ARS and Pat Shaver, NRCS) Delivering the information - Case Examples of Success in the Field - Using Case examples........identify utility and success of ESDs Speakers: Leticia Lister, BLM, NM; Judith Dyess, USFS, NM; Kenneth Alcon, NRCS, NM
February 2010	Climate Change and Potential Natural Vegetation - at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Range Management	Denver, CO
Land managers, federal agencies, and international aid organizations often recognize management targets and degradation based on ecological potential, historical range of variation, or potential natural vegetation. This relationship has been codified in U.S. rangeland management via ecological site descriptions (ESDs). Climate change may dramatically alter potential natural vegetation in many rangelands. Unless ESDs can be developed to anticipate and accommodate climate change effects, they could rapidly become obsolete. On the other hand, ESDs could serve as valuable tools for understanding how climate change effects are mediated by soil-geomorphic properties and existing vegetation condition. Climate change and potential natural vegetation - Peter Adler Regional climate variability in the Western U.S.: What can be said about the observed variability vs. anticipated 'Climate Change' in the next century? - Klaus Wolter Ecological forecasts from the past: applying ecological history to vegetation management in a time of environmental change - Stephen T. Jackson Preparing for the future by looking at the past - Rick Miller Grassland ecosystems and climate change: Insights from experiments - Alan Knapp Climate change effects on rangeland resources: using the past to predict the future with population models - Harmony Dalgleish, Peter Adler Climate-soil interactions: Global change, local properties, and ecological sites - Michael Duniway, Brandon Bestelmeyer Degraded states, novel ecosystems, or reconfigured landscapes: How should we view ecosystem change in a changing world? - Brandon Bestelmeyer, Joel Brown
January 28, 2008	State-and-Transition Models: Triggers, Feedbacks and Thresholds	Louisville, KY
The 2008 Joint Meeting of the Society for Range Management and the American Forage and Grassland Council Current Status of the State-and-Transition Framework - Tamzen Stringham, David D. Briske, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Pat L. Shaver Variation in Ecological Resilience: A Fundamental Concept for Rangeland Ecology - Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, David D. Briske, Joel Brown, Kris M. Havstad, Rhonda K. Skaggs Resilience-Based Application of State-and-Transition Models - David D. Briske, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Tamzen K. Stringham, Pat L. Shaver Soils, Resilience, and State and Transition Models - Jeffrey E. Herrick, Skye Wills, Debra Peters, Arlene Tugel, Brandon Bestelmeyer Rangeland Health Indicators: Can they provide early warning signals? - David A. Pyke Resilience, Triggers, Feedbacks and Thresholds: A Western Juniper Model - Steven L. Petersen, Tamzen K. Stringham Winterfat in the Catlow Valley: Ecological Resilience and State-and-Transition Modeling - Casey A. Matney Vulnerability and Triggers in Threshold Development: Models from the Chihuahuan Desert - Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Caiti M. Steele Plant Community Dynamics in the Northern Great Plains - Recognizing the Impacts of Invasive Species - Jeffrey L. Printz, Stan Boltz Resilience and Feedbacks within A Deep Sand Savannah Ecological Site - Pat L. Shaver
August 14-16, 2007	Riparian Ecological Site Description Workshop	Albuquerque, NM
Geomorphic Stream Classification - W. Barry Southerland, Fluvial Geomorphologist, NRCS Riparian Workshop I, Geomorphic Components of Riparian Ecosystems - W. Barry Southerland Riparian Workshop II, Stream Classification Level II and Departure Analysis - W. Barry Southerland Riparian Workshop III, Departure and Potential - W. Barry Southerland Soils in the Riparian Complex, Incorporating Soil Dynamics into Ecological Site Descriptions - Kenneth F. Scheffe, NRCS Riparian Complex and Vegetation - Tamzen Stringham, OSU Channel Succession Riparian Plant Community Dynamics - Tamzen Stringham Vegetation Succession and Geomorphic Thresholds - Tamzen Stringham Ecological Sites in Riparian Areas - Bob Leinard, NRCS, Retired Issues With Riparian Ecological Site Descriptions - Brandon Bestelmeyer, ARS Jornada Experimental Range Selected Key Terms, Stream Geomorphology - by W. Barry Southerland, Fluvial Geomorphologist Part 654 - Stream Restoration Design - USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service
October 23-25, 2007	Understanding and Improving Applications for Wildlife Habitat Management in Sagebrush Ecosystems	Park City, UT
Following the workshop, there were many requests for opportunities to view the high quality presentations provided at the workshop. As a result, speaker presentations are now availbable at: http://rangelands.org/esd_presentations.shtml We thank the speakers for their efforts at the workshop and their willingness to share their informative presentations. Workshop organizers have also produced a "Synthesis of the Comments From the Breakout Sessions". This document can be viewed at: http://www.rangelands.org/pdf/esd_summary_recommendation.pdf
August 28-30, 2006	State and Transition Monitoring Workshop	Corvallis, OR
Threshold and State Concepts Used in ESDs: Needs and Applications - Brandon Bestelmeyer Ecological Thresholds: Bridging Theory and Application - D.D. Briske, F.E. Smeins, F.D. Fuhlendorf Evaluating S&T Models and ESDs - Fuhlendorf Considerations When Applying Thresholds to Management - Jeff Herrick NRCS Efforts in Developing and Utilizing State and Transition Models - Shaver State and Transition Modeling History & Current Concepts - Tamzen K. Stringham
September 26-27, 2006	Integrating Soil Properties and Ecological Site Descriptions	Las Cruces, NM
Ecological Sites and Soil Survey (Part 1) - Arlene Tugel, NRCS and the NRCS Soils-ESD Advisory Group Site Descriptions-History, Concepts and Emerging Issues - Joel Brown, NRCS-Jornada Experimental Range A Framework for Soil and Vegetation Dynamics (Part 2) - Arlene Tugel, NRCS and the NRCS Soils-ESD Advisory Group This was a meeting of the Interagency Ecological Site Manual Team and included participants from Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, ARS-Jornada Experimental Range, National Park Service, and Natural Resources Conservation Service. This meeting was hosted by Agricultural Research Service-Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
November 15-18, 2005	Ecological Site Description Development Workshop	Jornada Experimental Range, NMSU, Las Cruces, NM
Introduction to ESD Development Workshop - Brandon Bestelmeyer Overview, Organization, Components of ESDs - George Peacock, Dan Caudle - ESD: Contents and Data Requirements and Interagency Ecological Site Description Manual Steps in Producing ESDs: A Perspective from Arizona - Dan Robinett Step 1: Climate, Geomorphology, and Soil Development in Landscapes - Curtis Monger Paleoclimate - Curtis Monger Step 2: Integrated Map Unit Design: Defining MLRAs, LRUs/CRAs, Soil Map Units, and Ecological Site Development - Arlene Tugel - Ag Handbook 296 Land Resource Regions and Major Land Resource Areas of the US and Soil Survey and Ecological Sites: Integrated Map Unit Design and Interpretation The Relationship of Ecological Site Descriptions to the Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory (TEUI) of the Forest Service - Wayne Robbie Step 3: Vegetation Dynamics In State and Transition Models (STMs): History, Concepts and Examples - Joel Brown Beyond Plants: Indicators and Soil Surface Properties in STMs - Arlene Tugel Measurements, Calculations, and Database Storage and Retrieval - Laura Burkett, Brandon Bestelmeyer Vegetation and Soil Sampling for STM Development - Brandon Bestelmeyer, Dan Robinett Mock State-And-Transition Model Workshop: How to Probe Their Minds - George Chavez, Homer Sanchez, Brandon Bestelmeyer Developing and Using Ecological Reference Sheets Based on Rangeland Health Indicators - Arlene Tugel, Phil Smith, Homer Sanchez Resources and Strategies for ESD Development - Brandon Bestelmeyer