Land cover and land use monitoring protocol for the Klamath Network: Narrative

Mohren, Sean; Groshong, Lorin; Sarr, Daniel; Snyder, Allison; Chung-MacCoubrey, Alice

The overall purpose of natural resource monitoring in national parks is to develop scientifically sound information on the current status and long-term trends in the composition, structure, and function of park ecosystems to help park managers and resource specialists better understand the ecosystem they are managing. The Klamath Network vital signs selection process defined important questions regarding potential trends in ecosystem structure, function, and composition in the parks (Odion et al. 2005). Ten vital signs were selected by National Park Service (NPS) management staff and resource specialists and included: Exotic and Invasive Plant Species, Terrestrial Vegetation, Landbird Communities, Intertidal Communities, Water Quality (streams and lakes), Aquatic Communities (streams and lakes), Whitebark Pine, Land Cover and Land Use, Cave Entrance Communities, and Cave Environments. With the exception of the Land Cover and Land Use vital sign, the nine other vital signs give the Klamath Network parks a fine-scale, on-the-ground, look at specific focal communities and their change over time. Monitoring land cover and land use will complement these other monitoring projects by adding a different scale of analysis that provides a comprehensive view of park-wide and region-wide ecosystems. The monitoring strategy for all of the vital signs has been planned in a way that will allow the Network to synthesize data from multiple projects and thus provide a diverse array of information needed to answer questions about the structure, function, and composition of our ecosystems. This protocol documents the purpose and need related to monitoring land cover and land use within six national park units in the Klamath region. The protocol tests the hypothesis that landscape features do not change over time by examining potential natural and anthropogenic changes to the environment. This protocol focuses on four monitoring objectives: 1. Determine the status and trends in the composition of land cover classes within all the Network parks and directly adjacent lands. 2. Determine the status and trends in the configuration and connectivity of the land cover classifications. 3. Determine the status and trends in human populations near the parks. 4. Determine long-term trends in distribution and extent of disturbances in and around the parks. Understanding the status and trends in natural and anthropogenic features on the landscapes of the parks will help support NPS management of natural resources by providing relevant landscape-scale information that can be utilized as part of the parks’ decision making process.

Land cover and land use monitoring protocol for the Klamath Network: Narrative

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