Decision Support
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A ranch-level model using state-and-transitions models for three ecological sites is used to determine the trade-offs of providing various ecosystem services. The hypothetical ranch is located in northern Colorado and is based upon area average ecological site characteristics and livestock production practices. Management decisions include stocking rate and brush control. The model includes exogenous factors such as precipitation and fire. The model solves for optimal decisions over an infinite planning horizon using stochastic dynamic programming. Results show that a ranch cannot provide all ecosystem services in tandem at their highest level, implying that land managers must decide which ecosystems service they want to provide. Also, it is much cheaper in terms of foregone profitability for a ranch to continue to provide a specific ecosystem service that is already provided by the ranch rather than try to transition the ranch to a new ecological state in order to provide a service currently not provided.
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This study evaluated management decision making as representatives from government agencies and conservation nongovernmental organizations, ranchers, and interdisciplinary researchers worked within the Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management (CAMP) experiment to 1) prioritize desired ecosystem services; 2) determine objectives; 3) set stocking rates, criteria for livestock movement among pastures, and vegetation treatments; and 4) select monitoring techniques that would inform decision making. For this paper, we analyzed meeting transcripts, interviews, and focus group data related to stakeholder group decision making. We find two key lessons from the CARM project. First, the CAM process makes visible, but does not reconcile differences between, stakeholder experiences and ways of knowing about complex rangeland systems. Second, social learning in CAM is contingent on the development of trust among stakeholder and researcher groups. We suggest future CAM efforts should 1) make direct efforts to share and acknowledge managers’ different rangeland management experiences, epistemologies, and knowledge and 2) involve long-term research commitment in time and funding to social, as well as experimental, processes that promote trust building among stakeholders and researchers over time.
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The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of Policy Analysis has invited LANDFIRE, to present a seminar, Foundational All-Lands Data for Improving Decisions in Land Management, on September 10, 2018, in Washington, D.C. as part of their Seminar Series. The presentation is open to the public via webcast; the recorded event will also be posted to the Office of Policy Analysis website.
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The GBLCC Conservation Planning Atlas (CPA) is an important aspect of our effort to engage a landscape focus and best available science toward improving collaboration and maximizing conservation efforts in the Great Basin. Incorporating over 1000 spatial data layers related to conservation of the Great Basin region’s many natural and cultural resources, the CPA provides managers, researchers and planners from state, federal, local, NGO and private partners a valuable suite of tools for collaborative spatial planning. In short, the portal represents a single website to access regional spatial layers, decision support tools, and Great Basin LCC project information and products.
GBLCC’s Geospatial Data Specialist, Eric Jensen will be joined by Conservation Biology Institute’s Kai Henifin to share about the CPA. Together we will dive into navigation of the portal, data, tools and publications available, and the Data Basin suite of collaborative features—such as Groups, sharing and comment threads. Finally, we’ll explore current use cases and share information about how you or your group can leverage the CPA for your own projects and planning.
Visit Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) website.
IFTDSS is a web-based software and data integration framework that organizes previously existing and newly developed fire and fuels software applications to make fuels treatment planning and analysis more efficient and effective. You must create an account to begin using this tool.
New 2021, compare weather impacts on fire behavior with IFTDSS.
Read more about IFTDSS update 3.1.1
Read more about Landscape Burn Probability capabilities added to IFTDSS in July 2019
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The Conservation Biology Institute, the Great Basin LCC, Oregon State University, and EcoAdapt hosted a workshop that presented a series of decision support tools for land managers in the PNW. You can access the tools discussed at the workshop, from this webpage.
View workshop resources.
The Conservation Biology Institute, the Great Basin LCC, Oregon State University, and EcoAdapt hosted a workshop to present a series of decision support tools for land managers in the PNW. You can access the tools discussed at the workshop, from this webpage.
In this webinar, Stuart Hardegree, Plant Physiologist, USDA ARS Northwest Watershed Research Center, Boise, ID, discusses weather variability and forecasting tools for short- and long-term restoration planning in the Great Basin.
In this webinar, David Pyke, Plant Ecologist, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, discusses setting objectives for resumption of grazing post-fire/rehabilitation activities.
In this webinar, Kori Blankenship, Fire Ecologist, and Louis Provencher, Director of Conservation Ecology with the Nature Conservancy, present 2013 updates and uses for Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program (LANDFIRE) data in the Great Basin. LANDFIRE developed quantitative vegetation models and comprehensive ecological descriptions for all major vegetation systems in the US and a suite of GIS tools that will help fire and resource managers utilize the products effectively.