Field Guide

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Threat-based Management for creeks, streams and rivers a manager’s guide for understanding and managing flowing waters in sagebrush

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This tool is designed to rapidly assess and manage perennial and intermittent lotic (flowing) water systems. Lentic, or still-water, systems, such as wet meadows, swales, seeps and marshes, are inherently different.

This guide is not an instruction manual but a decision-support tool for understanding how riparian areas such as creeks, rivers and streams should function. This guide helps managers determine whether a riparian area is functioning properly and how to restore or maintain proper function. A wide variety of natural resource professionals or land managers will find this guide helpful because it provides a framework for land managers to identify, discuss and address threats to riparian resources.

The goals of this tool are:

  • Facilitate communication about riparian conditions across a broad audience of stakeholders.
  • Provide an assessment that easily integrates with existing protocols and programs.
  • Help users identify factors impacting stream resilience.
  • Help users assess and prioritize areas that may require more detailed investigation.
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Post-fire field guide: Create and use post-fire soil burn severity maps

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In the weeks following the 2022 Cedar Creek Fire, an Interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team was mobilized to identify and mitigate risks to human life and safety and critical water resources in the surrounding communities, including Oakridge, Oregon. During their assessment, the BAER team used a field guide developed by the Rocky Mountain Research Station to create a soil burn severity map and identify areas prone to elevated erosion. Their field work led to quick assessment of potential harm to water quality in Waldo Lake.

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Preparedness guide for wildland firefighters and their families

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A Preparedness Guide for Wildland Firefighters and Their Families provides honest information, resources, and conversation starters to give you, the wildland firefighter, tools that will be helpful in preparing yourself and your support network for the realities of your career. This publication does not set any standards or mandates; rather, it is intended to provide you with helpful information to bridge the gap between wellness and managing the unexpected. This publication helps firefighters and support networks such as family members, significant others, and friends prepare for and respond to planned and unplanned situations in the world of wildland firefighting. Some sections of this guide are written for the firefighter, while other sections are intended to be shared directly with support networks

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Sustainable ranch management assessment guidebook: A communications tool for agencies, ranchers, and technical service providers

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This guidebook is to help the rancher and/or land manager use business planning and ecological monitoring to ensure the ranch or land is managed in a sustainable manner.

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Year-round field identification of common northern Great Basin grasses

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This guide provides detailed identification information for common grass species found throughout the northern Great Basin. Many of these grasses are found throughout the Great Basin. Several can be found throughout the West

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Wildfire home retrofit guide

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This Guide includes specific recommendations for how to retrofit existing components of a home to withstand wildfre. Each section contains an explanation of how the component is vulnerable to wildfire and what can be done to improve that component. The illustrations throughout the Guide are intended to show best practices for reducing the vulnerability of a home to wildfire.

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Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire

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The NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire contains information on prescribed fire smoke management techniques, air quality regulations, smoke monitoring, modeling, communication, public perception of prescribed fire and smoke, climate change, practical meteorological approaches, and smoke tools. The primary focus of this document is to serve as the textbook in support of NWCG’s RX-410, Smoke Management Techniques course which is required for the position of Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 2 (RXB2). The Guide is useful to all who use prescribed fire, from private land owners to federal land managers, with practical tools, and underlying science. Many chapters are helpful for addressing air quality impacts from wildfires. It is intended to assist those who are following the guidance of the NWCG’s Interagency Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation Procedures Guide, PMS 484,  in planning for, and addressing, smoke when conducting prescribed fires.

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Shrub management handbook for Utah rangelands

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This handbook is a guide to developing realistic project plans and implementing appropriate management strategies by enhancing your understanding of basic shrub biology, ecological concepts,and management principles.

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The Cheatgrass Challenge: Resources, Efforts, and Partnerships

Cheatgrass Challenge webpage.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Idaho and Wyoming have teamed up with each other along with partners in their respective states to address cheatgrass proliferation in the West. The Cheatgrass Challenge is a call to arms for agricultural producers, federal and state agencies, educational institutions and non-profit organizations.

As the Challenge develops, the webpage will be updated with additional information and resources, so check back regularly for updates.

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Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) field sampling and fuelbed development guide

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The Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) was designed to store and archive wildland fuel characteristics within fuelbeds, defined as the inherent physical characteristics of fuels that contribute to fire behavior and effects. The FCCS represents fuel characteristics in six strata including canopy, shrubs, herbaceous fuels, downed wood, litter-lichen-moss, and ground fuels. Each stratum is further divided into one or more categories and subcategories to represent the complexity of wildland and managed fuels. A variety of techniques to measure and summarize fuelbed data are detailed in this guide. This guide is organized by strata and categories to facilitate data input into FCCS fuelbeds and provides field sampling forms by stratum. The first section provides an overview of how FCCS reference fuelbeds were constructed from databases, literature sources, and expert opinion. The guide next describes how regional pathway fuelbeds can provide a systematic set of management fuelbeds that track vegetation and fuel succession over time as well as management activities such as prescribed burning and mechanical thinning. The final section details common field sampling methodologies for users who wish to use field measurements to construct FCCS fuelbeds.

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