Part 6: Choosing Where to Monitor

How many key areas should you have?

The best answer to how many key areas you should have is as many as possible. Time, funding, and personnel available for monitoring are often the limiting factors as to how much monitoring actually occurs.

Practically speaking, you will want to have enough key areas to represent the important variability on your ranch. Here are some guidelines for determining the number of key areas in your monitoring program:

Minimum Monitoring:

• Include only representative or key areas for this level of monitoring.
• For a ranch with mixed plant communities, designate one site for each distinct plant community that is used for grazing.
• If the ranch is fairly uniform in the type of plant community, three to four sites scattered throughout the parcel may be sufficient.
• Omit any parcels containing critical areas, and steer clear of riparian areas. You can tackle this terrain if you decide to increase your monitoring program.

Recommended Monitoring:

• Include all representative or key areas. For ranches with fairly uniform vegetation, designate three to four sites scattered throughout the ranch.
• Also include critical areas, which are those areas that are “special” because of landform, valuable vegetation, various disturbances, and endangered or invasive species.

Comprehensive Monitoring:

• Include all areas as for Recommended Monitoring
• Also include comparison areas. These protected areas provide a unique opportunity to compare grazed land with land that has set idle for a long period of time.