Revision History for Open-File Report 2011-1013

By Linda C. Zeigenfuss, Therese Johnson, and Zachary Wiebe

Monitoring Plan for Vegetation Responses to Elk Management in Rocky Mountain National Park


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Posted online February 28, 2011

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Revised and reposted July 24, 2013

The publication “Monitoring Plan for Vegetation Responses to Elk Management in Rocky Mountain National Park” was designed as a report on baseline data
from vegetation-monitoring sites at Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado as well as a guide to data collection and analysis at these sites in the future.  
The vegetation monitoring sites were established to monitor vegetation response specific to elk-management actions conducted in the Park.  The plan includes 
several appendixes which outline protocols for the establishment of new sites and schedules and protocols for conducting data collection and monitoring over 
the next 20 years.  The monitoring plan was published as U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1013 in the year 2011.

History:  The body of the text of the initial version of this OFR discussed equations to be used to calculate willow browse offtake based on raw data measurements 
of twig dimensions.  However, after the first year of execution by park staff, a need was identified for a detailed protocol to describe the individual steps that 
needed to be taken to summarize raw data and convert it to offtake values.  In June 2013, a seventh appendix was added to USGS OFR 2011–1013, entitled “Appendix 7: 
Rocky Mountain National Park Elk-Vegetation Monitoring Program Willow Offtake Calculation Protocol.” Changes were made to the index pages of this OFR to reflect the 
addition of this appendix as well.