# Presentation: 311762

## MONITORING

*MONITORING*

**Notes:**
Monitoring Vegetation in Riparian Areas prepared by Alma Winward.

## Monitoring

- Periodic  Checks - Are we accomplishing what we agreed to do?

**Notes:**
Monitoring – Periodic Checks – are we doing what we agreed to do?

- SHORT TERM
-    (What is happening this year?)
- LONG TERM
-     (What is happening over
-       several years?)

**Notes:**
Short Term (What is happening this year)
Long Term (What is happening over several years)

## SHORT TERM

**Notes:**
Short Term

## Warm Springs Summit, Payette NF, ID

**Notes:**
Warm Springs Summit, Payette NF, ID:  utilization and stubble height

Is there the agreed upon number of livestock?

## Curlew Grasslands, Caribou NF, Malad, ID

**Notes:**
Curlew Grasslands, Caribou NF, Malad, ID:

Are the livestock in the pasture at the right time?
Are the livestock in the right place?
Are there still animals left in an area when they should be gone?
What kinds of impacts are occurring?
Mechanical (feet trampling), compaction, hummocking

## Crow Creek, Caribou NF, ID

**Notes:**
Crow Creek, Caribou NF, ID:

## Stump Creek, Caribou NF, ID

**Notes:**
Stump Creek. Caribou NF, ID: 

Trampling impact on streambank will vary depending upon soil types and vegetation types and amounts of vegetation present.

## Elk Tracks, Bank Displacement, Boise NF, ID

**Notes:**
Elk Tracks, soil/bank displacement, Boise NF, ID

## CARO/CANE, Bridger-Teton NF, WY

**Notes:**
CARO/CANE (Beaked Sedge/Nebraska Sedge (forward/right)), Bridger/Teton, WY

Nebraska sedge preferred forage over beaked sedge, at least seasonally.

## Mesic Graminoid Type, ID

**Notes:**
Utilization Cage, Mesic graminoid type

Cages:  shows the potential height of plant material.

## Nebraska sedge, Caribou NF, ID

**Notes:**
Utilization Cage, Nebraska Sedge, Caribou NF

determine % utilization (amount removed)

## Re-growth after use - Nebraska sedge

**Notes:**
Regrowth after use of Nebraska Sedge

## Nebraska sedge, stubble height 6” 

- Nebraska sedge, stubble height 6”

**Notes:**
6” Stubble Height – Nebraska Sedge, Caribou NF

Stubble Height

Reverse of utilization - What is left versus what is grazed
Easier to see what is left
Need to account for regrowth 
Measure Key species (usu. 2 or 3) e.g. Nebraska sedge
What happened to plant by the time it is done growing
4-6” on greenline needed to protect streambank.

## Side (edge) browsing

-  - Booth willow

**Notes:**
Side (Edge) Browsing – Booth Willow

Willow Component:

Critical to monitor little, young plants – must allow them to mature over time.
Mature plants already stable and less vulnerable.

## LONG TERM

**Notes:**
Long Term

## Woody species sampling on greenline, Strawberry River, Uinta NF

**Notes:**
Sampling on Greenline for Woody species – Strawberry R., Uinta NF

Greenline:
Count number of steps within a community type
Don’t need 100% hydric species for most stream types.
Need full one foot of vegetation (round to the nearest foot) to count as greenline.

Woody Species Regeneration Measurement
	How many willows should there be?
Who knows?  Highly variable among stream types.
Look for presence of appropriate age classes.
Count number of babies, teens, old and dead
Should have more plants in baby and teens than in old and dead.

	Episodic Species:
Seems to establish in pulses.
Measure 3-5 years for change in willow recruitment.

## CAAQ & CALA, Manti Lasal NF

**Notes:**
CAAQ/CALA (Water/Wooly sedge) above Electric Lake, Manti Lasal NF

## Damage & Natural erosion, 7-Mile Creek, Fishlake NF

**Notes:**
Induced + Natural Erosion, 7-Mile Creek, Fishlake NF

## Livestock trampling-bank slopes backward, Payette NF, ID

**Notes:**
Livestock trampling, Payette NF, ID

## Redtop (Agrostis stolonifera)

**Notes:**
Redtop (Agrostis stolonifera), Crow Creek, ID

Introduced grass with relatively shallow, weak roots.

## Stabilizing sedges behind aspen log, Strawberry River, Uinta NF, UT

**Notes:**
Stabilizing sedges behind aspen log, Strawberry R., Uinta NF, UT

## Young Salix drumondiana

**Notes:**
Young Drummond Willow (Salix drummondiana)

## Willow stream, narrow bottom, Herd Creek

**Notes:**
Willow stream, narrow bottom, Herd Creek, Sawtooth NF, Idaho

## Willow species diversity, Fontinelle Creek, Kemmerer, WY

- Willow species diversity, Fontinelle Creek, Kemmerer, WY

**Notes:**
SAWO/CAAQ, (Wolf Willow/Water Sedge) Fontinelle Creek, Kemmerer Dist., WY

## Geyer’s Willow & good condition sedges, 

- Geyer’s Willow & good condition sedges,
- Hereford Creek

**Notes:**
Geyer’s Willow and good condition sedges, Hereford Creek, Sawtooth NF, ID.

## Willows provide winter temperature moderation

**Notes:**
Willows provide winter temperature moderation.

## Geyer’s & Booth Willows - Stabilizers

**Notes:**
Geyer’s and booth Willows – Stabilizers.

## Willow - stabilizer

**Notes:**
Willow – stabilizer.

## Salix roots match 

- Salix roots match
- crowns, 6’+ depth

**Notes:**
Willow roots match crown height, 6’ + depth.

## Alder roots - stabilizer

**Notes:**
Alder roots act as a stabilizer.

## Mixed roots, 

- Mixed roots,
- sedge/coyote willow

**Notes:**
Mixed roots – sedge/coyote willow among the strongest combinations available.

## Damaged streambank, Marsh Creek, Sawtooth NF, ID

**Notes:**
Damaged streambank, Marsh Creek, Sawtooth NF, ID

## Good willow/sedges, Montpelier Creek, ID

**Notes:**
Good willows/sedges, Montpelier Creek, ID

## Stream Meander

**Notes:**
Vegetation Cross Section:

Number of steps of each key community type makes up community type composition for entire riparian area.
Generally recommend a minimum of 5 cross sections in an ecological site (riparian complex).

## Slide 36

**Notes:**
Cross-section transect:

It may become difficult to identify, specifically, where certain community type boundaries occur.  It often is helpful to look several feet on each side of the line that one is traversing to better select where a boundary occurs on the line.  This is especially critical where one of the community types has a relatively sparse component in the overstory, for example, willows, shrubby cinquefoil, or silver sage.

## Teton National Park, WY - Stream Edge Lacks Potential for Willows

**Notes:**
Example of a stream edge that does not have the potential (cutting/deposition) for a willow community, Teton National Park, Wyoming.

## Brookgrass acts as a 

- Brookgrass acts as a
- temporary filter.

**Notes:**
A typical colonizing species (brookgrass – Catabrosia aquatica) forming a temporary filtering community type along the greenline.

## Greenline of non-hydrophytic plant species.

**Greenline of non-hydrophytic plant species.**

**Notes:**
Example of a greenline dominated by non-hydrophytic plant species.  

Note the excessive streambank erosion on portions of this bank due to dominance of shallow-rooted species.

## Slide 40

**Notes:**
Stands of several community types in the riparian complex.  
The greenline procedure required that a vegetation community type classification be completed for the area being measured.

## Slide 41

**Notes:**
Example of two riparian complexes:  

Complex A – Narrowleaf cottonwood/Kentucky bluegrass, Haploboroll, moderate gradient, narrow valley bottom, 
Complex B – Coyote willow/Kentucky bluegrass, Cryaquoll, low gradient, broad valley bottom.

## Slide 42

**Notes:**
Samplers using a 6-foot pole to measure woody species regeneration along the greenline.

## Slide 43

**Notes:**
Correct placement of the sampling pole along the greenline water interface.

## Slide 44

**Notes:**
Placement of the measuring pole such that the left end does not reach beyond the center of a stream less than 6 feet wide.

## Slide 45

**Notes:**
Substrate features, in this case a consolidated soil layer, may substantially influence erosiveness of stream banks.

## Slide 46

**Notes:**
A portion of Nebraska sedge (Carex nebraskensis), an important stabilizing greenline species.  Note its extensive, strong roots, crown, and leaves.

## Slide 47

**Notes:**
The combination of greatest water velocity and highest rooting strength and root concentration in healthy riparian systems creates undercut banks, which in turn provide a cooling effect in the water column as well as other special habitat features beneficial to many aquatic organisms.

## HEALTHY RIPARIAN AREA EXAMPLE

**Notes:**
Example of a healthy riparian area:

Cross-section = PNC
Woody regeneration = healthy
Bank stability = excellent