Rapid Assessment Sampling Plots: Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge-Grassland Composition

Refuge staff must make annual decisions about what management actions to implement (e.g., fire, rest, mow, hand pull, chemical, biological, seed, irrigate) in order to improve the health of native prairie, reach grassland community management objectives, and benefit native grassland birds and other wildlife. Management decisions are made across multiple grassland management units that are comprised of at least three vegetation communities: mixed-grass prairie, shortgrass prairie, and shrublands (see Figure 1). Refuge staff require information about grassland condition (current state) for each management unit to prescribe optimal management treatments based on existing ecological knowledge about the likely responses of vegetation communities to particular treatments. There may be barriers to carrying out desired management actions due to constraints in staffing, financial resources, infrastructure, the availability of burn crews, etc. There is generally low structural uncertainty; i.e., Refuge staff generally have a solid shared understanding of how the grassland community is likely to respond to various management treatments. However, there is uncertainty with regards to the current condition or state of each management unit, which will affect which management treatments are considered optimal. In addition, there is moderate to high environmental stochasticity; i.e., natural variation over space and time that is difficult to predict (e.g., spatial and temporal variation in rainfall). Stakeholders who are impacted by refuge management decisions include neighboring private property owners and members of the public who visit the refuge for wildlife-dependent recreation. The decision maker (i.e., the person who

[
  "010:18"
]

[
  "010:028",
  "010:094"
]

[
  "https://iris.fws.gov/APPS/ServCat/Reference/Profile/157170"
]

[
  "geospatial"
]