Integrated upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park: annual report 2011 (non-sensitive version)
Witwicki D. 2013. Integrated upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park: annual report 2011 (non-sensitive version). Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2013/679.N. Fort Collins, Colorado
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 provide early warning of resource degradation and determine natural variability of upland resources. This report summarizes NCPN upland monitoring in Capitol Reef National Park (NP) during 2011. 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 2011, NCPN completed its fifth year of monitoring at Capitol Reef NP, which was the second year of monitoring under the long-term operational sampling design. Forty-eight plots were monitored, including 16 deep grassland plots in the retired Cathedral and Rock Springs allotments, and 16 deep grassland plots and 16 rocky grassland plots in the Hartnet allotment, which is still actively grazed by livestock. Twenty-six of these plots were newly established. In this report, measures from 2011 were summarized for each ecological site type by allotment. Early monitoring data describe status of ecological site types, and interpretation is limited until additional data is acquired and more rigorously analyzed after at least five years of monitoring are complete.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Witwicki, Dana
- Date of Issue
- 2013-01
- Units
- CARE , NCPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Monitoring, NCPN Uplands Monitoring, Plant Studies, Upland, Uplands