Integrated upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park: annual report 2009 (non-sensitive version)

Witwicki, Dana

The goal of Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) integrated upland monitoring is to provide park managers with status and trend information on vegetation and soil attributes. This information is intended to determine natural variability of upland resources and provide early warning of resource degradation.This report summarizes NCPN upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park during 2009. It outlines goals and objectives of NCPN upland monitoring, methods of the upland monitoring protocol, and procedures for defining and mapping target populations for monitoring, and describes the results of this year’s efforts and plans for future monitoring. In previous discussions with park resource staff, it was determined that monitoring grazed and ungrazed grassland systems in the northern portion of the park was the highest priority. Four dominant ecological sites corresponding to herbaceous systems were selected for monitoring in the retired Cathedral and Rock Springs allotments and in the actively grazed Hartnet allotment.To gain understanding of variability, 10 monitoring plots per ecological site (except for one) were monitored for three consecutive years. In 2007, a total of 19 monitoring plots were established and sampled. In 2008, 42 additional plots were established and sampled, and the initial 19 plots were re-sampled. Of those 61 total plots, 21 are in the Cathedral and Rock Springs allotments and 40 are in the Hartnet allotment. In this report, measures were summarized for each ecological site type by allotment. The only statistical assessment performed was an ordination of vegetation cover. Results of this ordination indicated little separation of plots between the different ecological sites, probably due to low live percent cover when monitoring plots were sampled. Early monitoring data describe status of ecological site types; interpretation is limited until additional data are acquired and more rigorously analyzed. Future monitoring activities include implementing the full monitoring design in 2010. An operational revisit design will be created for each ecological site type, using variance measures in conjunction with desired minimum detectable change levels derived from the three years of pilot monitoring data.

Integrated upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park: annual report 2009 (non-sensitive version)

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