Tracking an Ever-Changing Landscape
In collaboration with our partners at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Ecostudies conducts an installation-wide Prairie Habitat Monitoring (PHM) program to quantify vegetative change over time, evaluate effectiveness of restoration actions, and inform planning. We work closely with JBLM to enhance native prairie quality and support JBLM in achieving species recovery goals, while mitigating negative impacts to sensitive species and training flexibility as part of regulatory agreements with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Our management goals are guided by species-specific habitat targets, which focus on reducing presence of invasive shrubs and grasses, reducing vegetation height, increasing native species cover, and ensuring adequate host plant and nectar resources are available.
To meet these objectives , Ecostudies and JBLM conduct year round restoration efforts such as prescribed fire, herbicide treatments, mechanical treatments, and seeding and plugging of native species. Implementing a monitoring protocol, such as PHM, provides a scientific assessment of outcomes across both local and landscape scales, and supports decision making with continuous improvement through adaptive management.
We conduct Prairie Habitat Monitoring at approximately 2,500 25×25 m plots across 9 different prairies on JBLM.
At each plot, we collect both point-intercept and area search data to quantify native plant species cover and richness, respectively. In areas that JBLM manages for rare butterflies, host plant and nectar resource density are also recorded. Each of the 9 prairie sites are monitored every 3 to 5 years to track plant community changes over time.
How are Plant Communities Changing?
South Sound prairie ecosystems are in a constant state of change. Using our PHM data, we can identify several botanical trends over the past decade of data.
- Restoration works! The areas of JBLM that we spend the most time and effort restoring have the greatest increases in floristic quality.
- Exotic perennial shrub (Scotch Broom, Blackberry) and grass (tall oat grass, orchard grass) cover, which degrade prairie ecosystems, have been decreasing.
- Native richness— the number of unique native species in a given area—has been declining.
- Native annual cover has been decreasing, but overall native cover has mostly stayed the same.
- Exotic annual grass cover has increased greatly.