Sagebrush steppe vegetation monitoring in Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area: 2014 annual report
Esposito D and Rodhouse T. 2015. Sagebrush steppe vegetation monitoring in Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area: 2014 annual report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/UCBN/NRDS—2015/803. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO) is within the Upper Columbia Basin Inventory and Monitoring Network (UCBN) and is partly comprised of sagebrush steppe. Five monitoring sites within Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area were sampled in early June 2014 following methodologies described in Yeo et al. (2009). Three of the 5 sites are grazed by cattle annually in spring and in fall, and 1 site contains the Spring Canyon campground and boat launch. Cover of exposed soil, and principle native and non-native plant species were estimated in randomly-located 1-m² plots. Spring (March-June) weather for 2014 was slightly wetter then the long-term average. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), a non-native, invasive annual grass, was ubiquitous across the study area, and was the most frequently encountered plant at all 5 sites. Bulbous bluegrass (Poa bulbosa), another non-native, invasive annual grass, was occasionally abundant. Invasive forb species were present but rarely abundant. Sandberg’s bluegrass (Poa secunda) and needlegrasses (Achnatherum spp.) were the most abundant native perennial grasses. Two other native perennial grasses, bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) and Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), occurred in isolated patches. Comparisons of the sampling data from 2011 and 2014 revealed slightly higher occurrence of cheatgrass in 2011. The difference in frequency between the 2 sample years may be due to the wet, mild spring weather 2011 (Yeo and Rodhouse 2012). Some variation also exists in the individual, non-native species recorded for both years, with species which were recorded in 2011 not appearing in the 2014 data.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Esposito, Dan; Rodhouse, Tom
- Date of Issue
- 2015-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- LARO , NRSS , UCBN
- Keywords
- Adaptive management, bunchgrasses, Invasive Plant Inventory, Invasive Plants, Monitoring, Non-Native Plants, prioritizing, Sagebrush, Sagebrush steppe, Sagebrush Steppe Monitoring, Vegetation Inventory