Hot New Tech: Empowering SageCon partners to use science, technology and tools to improve outcomes on the ground
The SageCon Partnership has developed and compiled technical tools and resources to leverage data, science and technology to help guide the Partnership toward our shared vision of healthy, resilient rangelands in Oregon and beyond. Each SageCon newsletter features tools, technology or science synthesis to guide management based on the best available information and knowledge.
Oregon Rangeland Monitoring Program
In an era where rangeland restoration activities are occurring at an unprecedented rate, the Oregon Rangeland Monitoring Program (ORMP) is a collaborative effort to measure and communicate the outcomes of restoration treatments across public and private lands. Using the skillsets of a diverse stakeholder and expert group, ORMP includes guidance on where to place monitoring plots, a rapid and standardized data collection protocol and mobile platform, and a summary of treatment outcomes in a customizable web-based dashboard. Find out more on the ORMP website.
New StoryMap Brings Ecostate Maps to Life
The Institute for Natural Resources helps bring ecostate maps to life with a StoryMap explaining how the maps are built, how they are used, and how to access the data.
Even better, you can now download a georeferenced PDF of the most recent ecostate map for counties in southeastern Oregon - allowing you to display the ecostate map on your mobile device relative to your location as you move through the range (click on the QR codes toward the bottom of the StoryMap). We field tested the Lake County ecostate map in the southern Warner Mountains during the SageCon Summit field tour and found that it captured vegetation conditions in the area with relatively high accuracy.
For more information, technical support, or to provide feedback on the accuracy of ecostate maps in your area, contact INR’s new rangeland science & technology transfer specialist, Dylan O’Leary: dylan.oleary@oregonstate.edu.
SageCon Technical Trainings and Workshops in 2024
Thanks to those of you who attended the 2023 SageCon Summit in Lakeview and provided input on the technical trainings and workshops of interest to you. Based on your feedback, we have upcoming trainings and events planned in 2024. Keep up to date on the haps from our SageCon events page.
In addition, we are starting a series of Threat-Based Strategic Conservation workshops with local collaborative groups in Oregon, starting with the Prineville Local Implementation Team. These workshops provide a hands-on, interactive process to facilitate landscape-scale, proactive planning in complex local landscapes - with the goal of helping our partners develop their own science-informed but locally-derived spatial strategy to defend and grow the core. If you are interested in Threat-Based Strategic Conservation in your area or have other technical questions, contact Megan Creutzburg: megan.creutzburg@oregonstate.edu
Featured Tool:
SageCon Landscape Planning Tool
Oregon’s Threat-Based Ecostate Maps apply the power of satellite imagery and machine learning to the concepts of Threat-Based Land Management that have helped guide management actions targeted toward threats of wildfire, invasive annual grass, and conifer encroachment in Oregon rangelands for over a decade. Threat-based ecostate time series maps capture broad patterns of rangeland condition and trend in southeastern Oregon from the 1990s to present, and have been recently updated with 2022 maps from the Rangeland Analysis Platform. To harness the power of this time series dataset, the new Ecostate Summarization Tool produces tables and charts summarizing ecostates for a customized, user-defined area of interest and time frame. Access maps and run the Ecostate Summarization Tool for your area by visiting the SageCon Landscape Planning Tool.
Featured Tool:
SageCon Landscape Planning Tool
Oregon’s Threat-Based Ecostate Maps apply the power of satellite imagery and machine learning to the concepts of Threat-Based Land Management that have helped guide management actions targeted toward threats of wildfire, invasive annual grass, and conifer encroachment in Oregon rangelands for over a decade. Threat-based ecostate time series maps capture broad patterns of rangeland condition and trend in southeastern Oregon from the 1990s to present, and have been recently updated with new maps from the Rangeland Analysis Platform. To harness the power of this time series dataset, the new Ecostate Summarization Tool produces tables and charts summarizing ecostates for a customized, user-defined area of interest and time frame. Access maps and run the Ecostate Summarization Tool for your area by visiting the SageCon Landscape Planning Tool.
Featured Science Synthesis: Storing Carbon in Rangelands
Recent federal and state policy has focused increasingly on storing carbon in natural and working landscapes to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, and the vast expanses of rangelands in southeastern Oregon hold potential for securing carbon in intact sagebrush steppe vegetation communities and soils. Our partners at the Intermountain West Joint Venture recently synthesized the most recent science and information on rangeland carbon storage in their report and outreach materials on Storing Carbon on Sagebrush Rangelands. Spoiler alert: many of the management actions already being taken to protect healthy and intact sagebrush steppe from landscape-scale threats also maximize carbon storage. Check out IWJV’s Partners in the Sage website for more great content relevant to western rangeland conservation.
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