Location: Range Management Research
Project Number: 3050-21600-001-127-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2026
End Date: Mar 31, 2030
Objective:
1) Determine current land potential and ecological states and provide decision support for restoration actions on Freeport Minerals Company (FCX) land holdings in the Playas Valley; 2) systematize a rangeland restoration decision workflow using a combination of digital tools, including state mapping, the Rangeland Analysis Platform, rapid inventory, and standardized monitoring to guide spatially explicit management/restoration decisions, track outcomes, and adaptively manage land health; and 3) co-develop approaches and tools for reporting land health outcomes and offsetting to the public.
Approach:
1. Collaborate with FCX team to identify land management and monitoring objectives for New Mexico land holdings.
2. Update existing methodology for ecological site and state mapping using digital approaches to create state maps that are gridded rather than polygons.
3. Conduct rapid field inventory to support state mapping (i.e. state mapping traverse). Revise state and transition models (STMs) based on local conditions/application.
4. Create state map.
5. Conduct a trend analysis to understand recent changes (RAP cover/production).
6. Combine state map, trend analysis, and STMs to create management interpretation map.
7. Implement standardized monitoring baseline and establish benchmarks.
8. Advise on restoration plan with agencies and restoration specialists. Design small scale experiments.
9. Train and calibrate monitoring contractors as needed.
10. Store and serve monitoring data in access-restricted area of Landscape Data Commons.
11. Assist FCX staff with adapting results to sustainability reporting and work with FCX staff to develop metrics of habitat quality compatible with existing general measurement frameworks to use in disturbance offsets.
12. Assist with evaluating treatment outcomes at different time scales.