Panel Activities at the ESA Portland Meeting

The ESA Panel was very active at the ESA meeting in Portland, OR (August 5-10, 2012).  Below are some links to the various activities and sessions that the Vegetation Classification Panel organized, including a workshop, field trip, symposium, and exhibit hall booth:

WK 4 – Vegetation Sample Allocation: A Half-Day Overview

This workshop addressed different techniques of sample allocation and covered the process and strategy for implementing a vegetation sampling strategy using the National Vegetation Classification.

 FT 5 – Allocating Vegetation Sample Plots: A Demonstration of Effective Field Sampling Design in the Oregon Cascades

This field trip addressed effective methods of selecting vegetation sampling locations in a natural landscape. It accompanied the half day workshop on vegetation sample allocation above, and was very well-attended.   The workshop achieved its objective to demonstrate the interaction of existing field data, GIS-based allocation, and follow-up opportunistic sampling to develop a representative landscape-level approach to sampling vegetation in a natural landscape.

SYMP 1 – Frontiers In Measuring and Projecting Long-Lived Vegetation Dynamics

This symposium was very popular at the meeting and brought together scholars who confront a wide range of data showing change in vegetation.

Booth on the NVC and Vegbank in the Exhibit Hall

Panel members staffed the booth, where attendees were able to learn more about the NVC and get help with adding their data to VegBank.

USNVC Midcareer Managers Workshop a Success

Members of the ESA Vegetation Classification Panel conducted a one-day workshop on the US National Vegetation Classification (NVC) on March 20th at the Denver Federal Center.  The workshop was aimed at midcareer federal agency managers and provided an open forum for participants to discuss the NVC’s uses and challenges.  Panel members were also able to present case studies demonstrating how the NVC can help a variety of federal agencies meet their business needs.  The thirty-five attendees represented a variety of agencies and groups, including: the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Forest Service, Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML), National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).