Integrated upland monitoring in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area, 2008–2009 (non-sensitive version)

Witwicki, Dana

The goal of the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) integrated upland monitoring effort 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 pilot monitoring in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (BLCA) and Curecanti National Recreation Area (CURE) during 2008 and 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. Upland monitoring was initiated at BLCA and CURE in 2008. Based on discussions with park resource staff, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, Gambel oak/mixed montane shrub, and aspen were selected for monitoring. Sagebrush was additionally stratified by two dominant ecological sites and by grazing status, for a total of four vegetation types monitored in sagebrush. Only four plots will be monitored in aspen due to the small spatial extent of this vegetation type in BLCA and CURE. For all other vegetation types, seven or eight plots will be monitored for three consecutive years to gain understanding of variability. Assessment of these data will guide development of an operational sampling design. In 2008, thirty-seven monitoring plots were established and monitored. In 2009, an additional 15 plots were established and monitored, and the first 37 plots were revisited. One of the sagebrush plots was excluded from monitoring summaries because it was partially underwater in 2009. In this report, measures were summarized for each vegetation type by year. The only statistical assessment performed was an ordination of species cover. Results of this ordination indicated a high degree of overlap between the four sagebrush site types and good separation between the other vegetation types. Early monitoring data describe status of vegetation types. Interpretation will be limited until additional data are acquired and more rigorously analyzed. Future monitoring activities include (1) re-measuring the 51 existing upland plots in 2010 and (2) formulating an operational survey design for each vegetation type, using variance measures in conjunction with desired levels of minimum detectable change, as derived from the three years of pilot monitoring data. The full monitoring design will be implemented in 2011.

Integrated upland monitoring in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area, 2008–2009 (non-sensitive version)

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