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Archived Workshops/References

Grasslands Monitoring and Management

Description

Grasslands make up a very large percent of Calfornia's natural landscape and contain a large number of sensitive plant and animal species. Over the past 20 years, organizations have increasingly set aside these lands for conservation. As the acreage of protected grasslands grow, conservation lands managers face a daunting task of adopting adaptive management programs to maintain sensitive species with complex and often unknown requirements. Meanwhile, a new age of ranching is dawning on California with numerous ranchers looking to manage their lands more sustainably. Ranchers and conservation lands managers alike are looking for effective and affordable methods to manage and monitor grassland ecosystems. And yet, there are few resources and little agreement on an approach. The Coastal Training Program has embarked on an effort to provide answers for our grassland managers. This website provides some of that information. Our ongoing workshops and less formal discussions are working to provide a better understanding of grassland functions, expected outcomes of management decisions, creating realistic management goals, and choosing monitoring techniques that are appropriate.

Training Programs

Defining the Science of Monitoring Grasslands for Management Goals Sep 1, 2005
Focus Group: Grazing Management and Monitoring Toolbox - RDM Photomonitoring and a Novel Web Tool Apr 17, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - May 24 May 24, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - June 7 Jun 7, 2007
Monitoring grasslands for native perennial grasses - July 10 Jul 10, 2007

Documents and Publications

TITLE
DATE ADDED
AUTHOR
SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
WORKSHOP MATERIALS
Monitoring Native Perennial Grasses DRAFT Handbook
PDF, 90KB
Jun 08 07
Dr. Lawrence Ford
Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program
2007
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle, and global change
PDF, 3.6MB
Nov 30 05
Carla M. D'Antonio and Peter M. Vitousek
Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 23:63-87
1992
Cattle Grazing Impacts on Annual Forbs and Vegetation Composition of Mesic Grasslands in California.
PDF, 185KB
Jun 30 05
Hayes, G., and K. D. Holl
Conservation Biology 17:1694-1702
2003a
Invasive plants in wildland ecosystems: merging the study of invasion processes with management needs
PDF, 908KB
Nov 30 05
Carla M. D'Antonio Nelroy E. Jackson Carol C. Horvitz Rob Hedberg
Front Ecol Environ 2(10):513-521
2004
Site-specific responses of native and exotic species to disturbances in a mesic grassland community.
PDF, 237KB
Jun 30 05
Hayes, G., and K. D. Holl
Applied Vegetation Science 6: 235-244
2003b
The Measurement and Value of Plant Height in the Study of Herbaceous Vegetation
PDF, 358KB
Jul 12 07
Harold F. Heady
Ecology 38(2):313-320
April 1957
OTHER INFORMATION
CNPS % Cover Diagram
PDF, 1.8MB
Jul 28 05

Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program
Ecology and restoration of California grasslands with special emphasis on the influence of fire and grazing on native grassland species
PDF, 432KB
Sep 07 05
D’Antonio, C., Bainbridge, S., Kennedy, C., Bartolome, J., Reynolds, S.
Department of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley
2002
This 'white paper' reviews trends in California grasslands in response to grazing and fire.
Interpreting indicators of rangeland health, BLM
PDF, 5.4MB
Mike Pellant, Patrick Shaver, David A. Pyke, and Jeffrey E. Herrick
Bureau of Land Management
2000
A publication used by many federal land management and advisory agencies that includes standards, monitoring protocol, and data sheets for rangelands.
Management Goals, Workshop Scientific Panel on Grasslands Management
PDF, 18KB
Sep 02 05
Workshop Scientific Panel on Grasslands Management

September 1, 2005
This is the list of goals with suggested monitoring tools that we developed and discussed at the workshop
Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations
PDF, 5.1MB
Jul 12 07
Caryl L. Elzinga Ph.D., Daniel W. Salzer, and John W.Willoughby
Bureau of Land Management
1998
Northern Coastal Scrub and Coastal Prairie
PDF, 342KB
Jul 09 07
Lawrence D. Ford and Grey F. Hayes
UC Press: Terrestrial Vegetation of California
2007
Valley Grassland
PDF, 370KB
Jul 09 07
James Bartolome, James Barry, and Tom Griggs
UC Press: Terrestrial Vegetation of California
2007

Links

TITLE DATE ADDED
National Park Service Monitoring Resources
http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/monitor/index.cfm
Aug 09 06
Statistical tools
http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/people/doaklab/natconserv/index.html
Sep 02 05
USGS Statistics Software Tools
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/software.html
Sep 07 05