Long-Term Planning for Vegetation Management

Overview: Starting a Long-Term Management Plan

Contents

Learning Objectives

Narrative

A long-term plan for vegetation management is a written document, with maps and data records, that governs actions directly or indirectly affecting vegetation in a particular management area (site). Implementation of a high-quality long-term plan on rural properties supports stewardship of natural resources and sustainable use.
The steps we will use to start preparing a long-term plan for vegetation management are:
  1. Describe the site, including its unique features, history, and who is responsible for management; how adjacent lands are managed and how they may influence or potentially influence the site.
  2. Describe the land management goals for the site in general and any particular portions of the site that may have different goals.
  3. Describe the current management practices occuring on the site that may affect vegetation.
  4. Identify the vegetation types currently present on the site. Is the extent of the vegetation types known on the site? If not, it will be necessary to perform an inventory or survey to locate them.
  5. Determine which existing vegetation types are consistent with the management goals and objectives. If location is a factor, prepare a map showing the existing vegetation types and the portions that are consistent or inconsistent.
  6. Identify replacement vegetation types (for those identified as inconsistent in the previous step) based on site history, soil type, topography and neighboring vegetation.
  7. Identify native plant species associated with existing or replacement vegetation types and non-native plant species present at the site. Set vegetation objectives for cover of each species (dominant, associated, occassional). Categorize according to a comparison of current cover with target cover (increase, maintain, decrease).
  8. Forecast which, if any, management practices or pests threaten or have the potential to threaten your management goals and vegetation objectives. This forecast is based on, in order of preference, site knowledge, literature review, expert knowledge, and manager's intuition.
  9. Identify actions needed to attain vegetation objectives. Clearly describe how implementation of the actions will move conditions towards the management goals (this can be in terms of successional management if you find it applicable.) Suggest who (e.g., management agency employees, citizen groups, etc.) will implement the on-the-ground management practices.
  10. Determine how you will set up comparisons of the different actions in the field, and how you will compare the results in the office. State how you will incorporate the results into the management plan.
  11. Identify a mechanism to revisit and revise the management goals, practices, monitoring, and assessment based on monitoring and evaluation.
Note that although we do not explicitly include permitting in the steps of plan, depending on the location of the site, the extent of the vegetation modification and the identity of the land owner, permits may be required before actions can be legally implemented. Contact the Mendocino County Planning Department for more information.
The references below contain hyperlinks to some sample management plans focused on threats to native vegetation from invasive weeds.
You can see that a lot of information is required to fill out a long-term plan, and that the plan is never finished - it will be continually updated with new knowledge or changing conditons.

Exercises

  1. Describe your site, or a site familiar to you, according to step 1. Look at the sample plans for guidelines as to the necessary level of detail. Share your description with the class, and save it for your draft management plan.
  2. Look up any terms with which you are not familiar in the glossary. Check your understanding by writing a sentence about how the term is, or is not, relevant to your draft management plan.
  3. State the land mangement goals for your site according to step 2. Look at the MCWMA Project Checklist, page 2, for some examples.

References

 
The content of the page was last modified 2007-09-13