Rapid & Other Methods for Assessment and Monitoring
USGS is identifying, testing, and verifying rapid methods for rangeland assessment and restoration monitoring. Our methods complement existing monitoring frameworks, providing land management agencies with timely information that can be used to determine if restoration investments are successful, and why. Standardization, validation, repeatability, data management, and training are at the core of Project ROAM.
Efficient Methods for Rangeland Assessment
Resource managers across the West use quantitative data and tools to guide and justify policy actions, land uses, and adaptive management decisions. Thousands of restoration actions are implemented every year, and managers need efficient methods to assess their effectiveness across large landscapes. Rapid assessment methods employed in the field can be useful in this context, however, a better understanding of when and how to use these methods is needed. Since these methods complement existing monitoring frameworks, we also need a thorough understanding of their advantages, limitations, and appropriate applications relative to more detailed methods, such as line-point intercept. Further there is a need for protocols and training to improve standardization, repeatability, and documentation to aid practitioners.
Right Method, Right Place, Right Time
The goal of this project is to examine existing standardized protocols and new protocols to assess their utility for restoration effectiveness monitoring.
This research includes identifying and testing rapid methods of rangeland assessment, which often have not been properly evaluated or standardized.
Evaluating these novel methods in relation to existing methods is the first step towards the standardization of methods that meet a wider variety of monitoring needs.
Our analyses assess variability of cover or density estimates across different monitoring methods and identify sources of uncertainty. Beyond inter-method correlations, we are identifying strengths and weaknesses of the different methods for site characterization. This will help determine conditions or situations under which various methods may be best suited.
We are also assessing logistical constraints of time and cost.
We expect this study to generate additional questions and form the basis for discussion among partners and stakeholders to develop compatible, standardized rapid assessment procedures, as well as guidelines, protocols, data standards, and training materials.
The Project ROAM Approach
We conduct multiple monitoring methods on plots across a range of environmental conditions, including post-fire and post-treatment, to compare quantitative representations of the soil and vegetation conditions across methods. All plots are sampled using a suite of field monitoring techniques.
Our techniques include: species inventory search, overhead photos, landscape photos, line-point intercept, step-point intercept, stick-point intercept, canopy and basal gap, vegetation heights, linear density belts, radial density belts, point-quarter, ocular assessments of functional groups/species, soil pedoderm and erosion description, distance to nearest landscape features, and threat-based ecostate classification.
Diverse Vegetation, Diverse Landscapes
Matted buckwheat (left) and rayless shaggy fleabane (right), photographed in the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho. Project ROAM protocols account for species that are difficult to detect using traditional rangeland monitoring methods, such as uncommon native forbs.
Western juniper trees in the Stinkingwater Mountains of Oregon (left), and sagebrush germinants in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (right). Project ROAM plots are sampled across a variety of rangeland ecosystems and treatment prescriptions. Our protocols include methods to detect and distinguish different age classes of shrubs, such as these young sagebrush plants.
On the Ground and in the Air
A subset of plots are surveyed with drones. Images taken from drones provide data on vegetation composition, cover, density, and height.
Progress Across Sites and States
In 2023 we collected 15 ROAM plots across environmental gradients in southwest Idaho. Eleven of these plots were successfully surveyed with drones. In 2024, we collected data at 30 ROAM plots in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. We have drone-based data for 18 of the 2024 plots. Plots within the pink highlighted areas are within Sagebrush Collaborative Restoration Landscapes. These sagebrush landscapes were identified by the Sagebrush Keystone Initiative for long-term, strategic conservation and restoration investments.
Impact for Land Management in the West
Project ROAM will provide resource managers a standardized and efficient protocol to collect robust data which complement existing monitoring frameworks, such as the Bureau of Land Management’s Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring Strategy (AIM). These supplementary methods will allow managers to efficiently understand and evaluate land treatment effectiveness.
Project ROAM is a collaboration between the USGS and Bureau of Land Management.
USGS is identifying, testing, and verifying rapid methods for rangeland assessment and restoration monitoring. Our methods complement existing monitoring frameworks, providing land management agencies with timely information that can be used to determine if restoration investments are successful, and why. Standardization, validation, repeatability, data management, and training are at the core of Project ROAM.
Efficient Methods for Rangeland Assessment
Resource managers across the West use quantitative data and tools to guide and justify policy actions, land uses, and adaptive management decisions. Thousands of restoration actions are implemented every year, and managers need efficient methods to assess their effectiveness across large landscapes. Rapid assessment methods employed in the field can be useful in this context, however, a better understanding of when and how to use these methods is needed. Since these methods complement existing monitoring frameworks, we also need a thorough understanding of their advantages, limitations, and appropriate applications relative to more detailed methods, such as line-point intercept. Further there is a need for protocols and training to improve standardization, repeatability, and documentation to aid practitioners.
Right Method, Right Place, Right Time
The goal of this project is to examine existing standardized protocols and new protocols to assess their utility for restoration effectiveness monitoring.
This research includes identifying and testing rapid methods of rangeland assessment, which often have not been properly evaluated or standardized.
Evaluating these novel methods in relation to existing methods is the first step towards the standardization of methods that meet a wider variety of monitoring needs.
Our analyses assess variability of cover or density estimates across different monitoring methods and identify sources of uncertainty. Beyond inter-method correlations, we are identifying strengths and weaknesses of the different methods for site characterization. This will help determine conditions or situations under which various methods may be best suited.
We are also assessing logistical constraints of time and cost.
We expect this study to generate additional questions and form the basis for discussion among partners and stakeholders to develop compatible, standardized rapid assessment procedures, as well as guidelines, protocols, data standards, and training materials.
The Project ROAM Approach
We conduct multiple monitoring methods on plots across a range of environmental conditions, including post-fire and post-treatment, to compare quantitative representations of the soil and vegetation conditions across methods. All plots are sampled using a suite of field monitoring techniques.
Our techniques include: species inventory search, overhead photos, landscape photos, line-point intercept, step-point intercept, stick-point intercept, canopy and basal gap, vegetation heights, linear density belts, radial density belts, point-quarter, ocular assessments of functional groups/species, soil pedoderm and erosion description, distance to nearest landscape features, and threat-based ecostate classification.
Diverse Vegetation, Diverse Landscapes
Matted buckwheat (left) and rayless shaggy fleabane (right), photographed in the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho. Project ROAM protocols account for species that are difficult to detect using traditional rangeland monitoring methods, such as uncommon native forbs.
Western juniper trees in the Stinkingwater Mountains of Oregon (left), and sagebrush germinants in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (right). Project ROAM plots are sampled across a variety of rangeland ecosystems and treatment prescriptions. Our protocols include methods to detect and distinguish different age classes of shrubs, such as these young sagebrush plants.
On the Ground and in the Air
A subset of plots are surveyed with drones. Images taken from drones provide data on vegetation composition, cover, density, and height.
Progress Across Sites and States
In 2023 we collected 15 ROAM plots across environmental gradients in southwest Idaho. Eleven of these plots were successfully surveyed with drones. In 2024, we collected data at 30 ROAM plots in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. We have drone-based data for 18 of the 2024 plots. Plots within the pink highlighted areas are within Sagebrush Collaborative Restoration Landscapes. These sagebrush landscapes were identified by the Sagebrush Keystone Initiative for long-term, strategic conservation and restoration investments.
Impact for Land Management in the West
Project ROAM will provide resource managers a standardized and efficient protocol to collect robust data which complement existing monitoring frameworks, such as the Bureau of Land Management’s Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring Strategy (AIM). These supplementary methods will allow managers to efficiently understand and evaluate land treatment effectiveness.
Project ROAM is a collaboration between the USGS and Bureau of Land Management.