INTERAGENCY ECOLOGICAL SITE APPLICATIONS WORKSHOP
Archbold Biological Station, Venus, FL
15 - 17 November, 2011

The Society for Range Management and agency partners held the second regional Interagency Ecological Site Applications Workshop this past month as part of the Ecological Site Description (ESD) Workshop series.  The workshop took place at the beautiful Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida and spanned a total of three days.  There were 40 workshop participants representing 10 federal and state agencies and other organizations.  Organizations represented included: the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Air Force (USAF), Agriculture Research Service (ARS), the National Park Service (NPS), the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI), and others. This broad participation resulted in an effective series of discussions and field exercises.

Participants spent a considerable amount of time in the field over the course of the workshop and were able to get a great first-hand look at the local Florida landscape.  While the ESD workshop was field-focused, the first day was spent primarily in the classroom with a series of presentations.  The content that was focused on for the first day centered on the components of an ecological site description and the background for how ESDs are developed, with the intention helping users understand the process and ultimately, the application of ESDs.  Based on recommendations from past ESD workshops, this method of establishing a basis to which the workshop can be based and built upon proved successful in laying a foundation for the remaining workshop days.

The keynote presentation by Dr. Hilary Swain of the Archbold Biological Station provided a basis for understanding the presentations on soil landscapes and vegetation dynamics that were to follow; Dr. Swain’s talk gave participants a general understanding of the landscape and climate they would experience throughout the workshop.  Additionally, the presentation given by Dr. Eric Menges, also of the Archbold Biological Station, on the fire ecology of the region greatly added to participant understanding of the region’s unique make-up and impact that such events have on the natural landscape.

Multiple presentations that looked at the general underlying concepts of ecological sites were given by Dr. Brandon Bestelmeyer, Tom Weber-Florida State Soil Scientist, Dr. Dave Cleland of the U.S. Forest Service, and Dr. Pat Shaver.  These presentations focused on the general concepts of ecological sites, soil processes, land hierarchies, state and transition models, and general ESD components, respectively.  Additional presentations that built upon these concepts and how one would apply them to a local site were given by Dr. Joel Brown, Dr. Jeff Herrick, Chad Ellis and Greg Hendricks.  These discussions focused on the development process of an ESD, how one establishes reference state conditions based on local knowledge and the uses and applications of local knowledge and scientific studies, respectively, in order to adequately set the stage for participants and how they may apply the field portions of their workshop to their general understanding and study of an ecological site.  In order to provide context to participants in how to move forward with developing their own knowledge of ESDs, presentations were given by Bruce Wight (NRCS, Washington, D.C.), Pete Biggam (National Parks Service), Kim Gulledge (FNAI) and Homer Sanchez.  These outlined both the developing policy surrounding ESDs and the resources that are currently available to professionals that will allow them to continue their current work on ESDs and provide the same opportunities and information to their colleagues and partner agencies.

The time spent inside the Archbold Station listening and discussing the above mentioned presentations provided great insight into what the participants should expect once they set out to the field.  The field portions of the workshop were critical to supplement classroom material for forming a working understanding of ecological sites on the ground.  The key elements within the field exercises demonstrated how different vegetation (states) can occupy the same soil which then illustrates the importance of a well-developed state and transition model and demonstrated how different soils can have similar states which have resulted from different histories of use and thus requiring different management responses.  The Venus, Florida region provided numerous examples of these minute differences in the landscape and offered participants the opportunity to discuss how one should identify the site.

Each field site visit provided multiple stations that focused on describing climate, soil properties, vegetation attributes and management of that particular site.  Participants moved from station to station and were able to interact with experts at each to get a better understanding of the different attributes associated with the ecological site and ask targeted questions on each station’s focus.  Field portions of the workshop provided a foundation for which to discuss how differing management regimes can result in distinctly different states with differing values and management requirements and how the contrast between soils and similar vegetation can be of particular use in illustrating the need for verifying the soil at a specific site.

The Venus, Florida ESD workshop built on the evaluation of recommendations submitted at the Nunn, Colorado workshop as well as the Pilot ESD workshop in Las Cruces, New Mexico held in November 2010.  Future ESD workshops are in development for 2012 and 2013 and will continue to build on feedback from previous workshop to enhance the overall program and tailor workshops to each location.

There will be two ESD workshops at the SRM Annual Meeting in Spokane, Washington.  The next three-day regional ESD workshop is scheduled for Reno, Nevada in June 2012.  Additional workshops are in the planning stages for 2012 and 2013.

Agenda and Logistics

• Workshop Agenda (pdf - 255KB)
• Certified Professional in Rangeland Management CEU Form (pdf - 12KB)
• Participant List (pdf - 234KB)

ESD Resources

• ESD Fact Sheets
  - Agency Employee (1 MB pdf)
  - Rancher (1.3 MB pdf)
  - Conservation Manager (1.2 pdf)
• Example ESD (468KB pdf)

PowerPoint Presentations

• General Concepts of Ecological Sites and State & Transition Models, Dr. Brandon Bestelmeyer (9 MB)
• Soil Processes and Properties, Tom Weber (1.8 MB pdf)
• State & Transition Models, Their Concepts and Components (Characterizing the Site to Reference Conditions), Dr. Pat Shaver (6.5 MB pdf)
• Using Local and Scientific Knowledge to Establish the Reference for Ecological Site Descriptions and State & Transition Models, Dr. Jeff Herrick (3.4 pdf)
• Uses and Applications of an Ecological Site Description, Chad Ellis and Greg Hendricks (5 MB pdf)
• FNAI Natural Communities of Florida and Ecological Site Information, Kim Gulledge (7.4 MB pdf)
• How to Access ESDs from Different Sites of Locations, Homer Sanchez (6.6 MB pdf)
• Opportunities to Develop an Interagency Spatial Hierarchy for ESD Applications (4 MB pdf)

Archbold Biological Station (ABS) Field Site Resources

• ABS Schema and Maps
• - ABS Soils Schema (pdf - 868 kb)
• - ABS Topographic Map (pdf - 1,370 kb)
• - ABS Soils Map (pdf - 2,061 kb)
• - ABS Sites 1 and 2: Ecological Communities (pdf - 1,601 kb)
• - ABS Sites 3 and 4: Ecological Communities(pdf - 1,679 kb)
• ABS Sites and Soils
• - ABS Site 1: Sand Scrub (pdf - 161 kb)
• - ABS Site 3: Sand Scrub (pdf - 145 kb)
• - ABS Site 4 Scrubby Flatwoods (pdf - 180 kb)
• ABS FNAI Scrub Site Description
• - ABS Scrub Site Description (pdf - 284 kb)

Westby Ranch Field Site Resources

• Westby Schema and Maps
• - Westby Ranch Soils Schema (281 kb pdf)
• - Westby Ranch Topographic Map (1.36 MB pdf)
• - Westby Ranch Soils Map (2 MB pdf)
• - Westby Ranch ESD Map (1.86 MB pdf)
• Westby Ranch Sites and Soils
• - Westby Ranch Site 1: Scrubby Flatwoods (pdf - 164 kb)
• - Westby Ranch Site 2: Scrubby Flatwoods (pdf - 155 kb)
• - Westby Ranch Site 3: Cutthroat Seep (pdf - 296 kb)
• - Westby Ranch Site 4: South Florida Flatwoods (pdf - 166 kb)
• - Westby Ranch Site 5: Wetland Hardwood Hammock (pdf - 228 kb)
• Florida 26 Ecological Site Communities and FNAI Site Description ( 2.8 MB pdf)

**Photos courtesy of Gail Hendricks, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

• Interagency Ecological Site Applications Workshop June 2012 in Winnemucca, Nevada
• Ecological Site Description (ESD) and State-and-Transition Model (STM) Development January 28, 2012, Spokane Annual Meeting
  
• Using Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) as a Decision-Making Tool January 30 to February 3, 2012, Spokane Annual Meeting
• Interagency Ecological Site Applications Workshop November 15 - 17, 2011, Lake Placid/Venus, Florida
• Interagency Ecological Site Applications Workshop August 23 - 25, 2011, Cheyenne, Wyoming/Nunn, Colorado
• Interagency Rangeland Ecological Site Descriptions Pilot Workshop November 16 - 18, 2010, Las Cruces, New Mexico