Vegetation Management Plan

Jacobs, Brian

INTRODUCTION Vegetation management is a component of many diverse activities planned or on-going at Bandelier National Monument. A variety of routine activities such as road and trail maintenance, hazard tree mitigation and developed landscape maintenance can be considered vegetation management actions. Prescribed fire, exotic plant control, rare plant management, ruins stabilization and disturbed site revegetation are other management actions which can affect vegetation. Since vegetative systems are dynamic, changes occur in the absence of management actions as well; no action or alternatively suppression of 'natural forces' such as wildfire can allow significant changes to occur. A vegetation management plan provides a context for these diverse activities, prescribes actions and assigns responsibilities. It also enables park managers to assess the cumulative effects of vegetation management actions parkwide. Vegetation is dynamic, changing whether or not it is actively managed. Through vegetation management planning, managers can understand the vegetation dynamics within their park and coordinate short-term actions to achieve long-term goals. Controversial vegetation management issues at Bandelier result from either the affects of historic landuse practices (i.e. grazing, fire suppression) or simply lack of maintenance (i.e. historic landscape). The fire management, landscape restoration, and ungulate impact programs address legacies of overgrazing and fire suppression; historic landscape maintenance has been underrecognized and under-funded. The remaining vegetation management issues are mostly routine or programmatic in nature, required by law, policy, or management guidelines and include hazard tree, exotic plant, sensitive plant, wilderness, endangered species, and archeological site stabilization programs. The complexity of any vegetation management program stems not only from the continually changing nature of the resource, but also from the diversity of management goals to be achieved. Natural resource management, cultural resources preservation, and infrastructural maintenance all influence vegetation. Actions taken in one vegetative setting often impact other settings. Coordination is best achieved through a comprehensive vegetation management plan which addresses relationships among all vegetation related activities in all areas of the park and its adjacent landscape. PURPOSE OF AND NEED FOR ACTION This vegetation management plan describes the vegetation, identifies issues, sets specific management goals and objectives, prescribes management techniques, and identifies research and monitoring needs. It proposes standards by which success can be measured and provides long-term program direction. Methodologies and standards proposed here are intended to be guidelines and can be modified for specific conditions or needs based on consultation with the vegetation management specialist. This vegetation management plan attempts to reference a number of existing programs, plans and miscellaneous actions within a single coherent context. Since many of these programs, plans and actions are either already documented elsewhere or still under development, no attempt will be made to replicate these efforts. The vegetation management plan however, will supersede 3 existing documents in prescription of management techniques, rationales for treatment, and measures of success for routine operations. This plan is intended to be an in-house reference manual for vegetation management and will provide a general context for vegetation management at Bandelier. It will define management zones as well as a framework for decision making. The scope of the current plan will include only those issues and actions deemed by the park to be routine or non-controversial. These include roads, trails, and other developed areas or infrastructure maintenance, sensitive and exotic plant management, hazard tre