Plant community and forest composition and structure monitoring at Devils Tower National Monument: 2018 data report
Ashton IW, Davis CJ, Swanson DJ. 2019. Plant community and forest composition and structure monitoring at Devils Tower National Monument: 2018 data report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NGPN/NRDS—2019/1215. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2018 at Devils Tower National Monument (DETO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the eighth year of combined monitoring efforts. Crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots to collect data on the plant communities at DETO. The NGPFire crew visited an additional 13 plots in the North Terrace and Graham Burn Units to collect plant community data following prescribed fire. This work is part of a long-term monitoring effort designed to provide a better understanding of the condition of the vegetation community and how it changes over time and in response to prescribed fire. NGPN and NGPFire staff measured species richness, herb-layer height, native and non-native species abundance, ground cover, and site disturbance at each of the six plots. This year monitoring crews also collected forest structure data from 75 plots in the park. In plots where woody species were present, tree regeneration, tall shrub density, tree density, and woody fuel loads were measured. In 2018, monitoring crews identified 152 unique plant species in 77 monitoring plots. Of those species, 34 were exotic species. On average, the absolute cover of exotic species was greater than the absolute cover of native species. One rare grass species, fall rosette grass (Dichanthelium wilcoxianum; Wyoming state rank S2) was observed at DETO, and there were no state-listed noxious species observed in 2018. Trees were present in only thirty-one of the plots and these were dominated by ponderosa pine. Seedling density was highly variable with many sites having none and others had more than one thousand stems per hectare.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Ashton, Isabel; Davis, Christopher; Swanson, Daniel
- Date of Issue
- 2019-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DETO , NGPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Forests, Grasslands, mixed-grass prairie, Monitoring, monitoring report, plant community monitor, Plant community monitoring, Plant diversity, Vegetation