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Open-File Report 2008-1168

Prepared in cooperation with the North Coast and Cascades Network, National Park Service

Prairie Monitoring Protocol Development: North Coast and Cascades Network

By Allen McCoy and Craig Dalby, Pacific West Region GIS Group, Seattle, Washington

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the project was to conduct research that will guide development of a standard approach to monitoring several components of prairies within the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) parks. Prairies are an important element of the natural environment at many parks, including San Juan Island National Historical Park (NHP) and Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve (NHR). Forests have been encroaching on these prairies for many years, and so monitoring of the prairies is an important resource issue.

This project specifically focused on San Juan Island NHP. Prairies at Ebey’s Landing NHR will be monitored in the future, but that park was not mapped as part of this prototype project.

In the interest of efficiency, the Network decided to investigate two main issues before launching a full protocol development effort: (1) the imagery requirements for monitoring prairie components, and (2) the effectiveness of software to assist in extracting features from the imagery.

Several components of prairie monitoring were initially identified as being easily tracked using aerial imagery. These components included prairie/forest edge, broad prairie composition (for example, shrubs, scattered trees), and internal exclusions (for example, shrubs, bare ground). In addition, we believed that it might be possible to distinguish different grasses in the prairies if the imagery were of high enough resolution.

Although the areas in question at San Juan Island NHP are small enough that mapping on the ground with GPS (Global Positioning System) would be feasible, other applications could benefit from aerial image acquisition on a regular, recurring basis and thereby make the investment in aerial imagery worthwhile. The additional expense of orthorectifying the imagery also was determined to be cost-effective.

For additional information contact:

Director, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center,
U.S. Geological Survey, 777 NW 9th Street
Corvallis, Oregon 97330
http://fresc.usgs.gov/

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Suggested citation:

McCoy, A., and Dalby, C., 2009, Prairie monitoring protocol development: North Coast and Cascades Network: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1168, 10 p.



Contents

Introduction

Monitoring Protocol Development

Technical Information

Conclusions


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