A new tool for managing juniper

Jan 142013
 

In conservation circles, we often hear the call to save a native species that is being marginalized to the point of extinction.  But in the West’s Great Basin we have a picturesque, aromatic native species that is proliferating to the point of being invasive.

We’re talking about juniper.

Over the past 100 years, scientists have been documenting the spread of juniper at alarming rates across eastern Oregon, down through Nevada, Utah, and into parts of eastern California, with some studies noting as much as a tenfold increase since the late 1800s.  This expansion comes with a heavy cost to local ecosystems (e.g. sagebrush habitats) and threatened species such as sage grouse and pygmy rabbits.

Juniper expansion comes at a high cost for other species throughout the West. Photo by Matt Noone/ USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Juniper are thirsty trees — a single tree, in the right circumstances, is able to consume 25 gallons on a single day. In dry upland deserts, that can be detrimental to a variety of other species that depend on that limited water to survive.

The reasons for juniper expansion are varied, but researchers see over-grazing practices of the past, fire suppression and changing climate conditions as the leading factors that have led to the species’ success. The situation has land managers and owners, ranchers, and other concerned community members wondering what can be done to halt the juniper’s steady advance in the West.

But addressing the problem is no easy task.  Removal of the species at different stages of development and at remote locations can be extremely expensive.  And where the species are treated can have varied results on restoration of surrounding habitats. It’s a challenge to figure out how to get the most value from limited resources for habitat restoration.

Ecotrust is partnering with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to build an online Juniper Management tool using the Madrona framework, a software platform developed by Ecotrust to create web-based spatial management tools.  The tool will allow land managers to review a suite of juniper-related spatial data layers such as juniper canopy, sage grouse habitat, hydrology, and landownership in an interactive web map viewer, and then build personalized scenarios for juniper removal by defining specific objectives such as how many acres of juniper to remove or whether or not to prioritize removal in sage grouse habitat.

Ecotrust’s juniper management tool v1.0, built with the Madrona framework.

Once specific objectives are defined, a new management scenario is run.  The process takes only a few moments, but once completed the interactive map is updated to show areas selected for restoration that meet the defined objectives while also minimizing the costs of treatment.  An accompanying report lists specific information for each area selected, such as how many acres of the target area were met and the potential financial cost for removing juniper within the target area.  The tool also allows users to share and compare results with other landowners and managers who are using the tool from other locations.

While juniper is now seen by many as an “invader,” it also may offer new market opportunities. The wood can be turned into specialty products, such as fine juniper cabinetry, or more common products such as fence poles and planter boxes. The wood can also help fuel new biofuel facilities, while wild-harvested berries may create a new market for Oregon distilled gin.

Along with careful planning, the Juniper Management tool can help support the restoration of high desert ecosystems while creating economic opportunities for rural communities and innovative entrepreneurs.

Here are a number of other juniper-related initiatives that have sprung up across the West:

Western Juniper Utilization Group: http://orsolutions.org/osproject/juniper

SageCon (Sage Grouse Conservation Partnership): http://orsolutions.org/osproject/sagecon

The Western Juniper Commercialization Project: http://juniper.oregonstate.edu/index.php

Sage Grouse Initiative: www.sagegrouseinitiative.com

Desert Juniper (example of a local business making use of wild Juniper berries): http://www.handcraftedgin.com/

SageSTEP (Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project): http://www.sagestep.org/

SAGEMAP: http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/

In austere times, where best to invest restoration money?

Jul 122012
 

If you had $10,000 to spend to restore streams, rivers and other aquatic areas in the Pacific Northwest, where would you spend it? Why? You might choose the stretch of river that hides your favorite fishing spot, a watershed that provides your drinking water, or the streams and waterfalls that make up your favorite hike. Where would your neighbor spend that money? Your boss?

Land managers need help prioritizing restoration in places such as Washington's Elwha River, recently undammed. Photo by Jocelyn Tutak

Though many people support restoration, we each have our own priorities and interests when it comes to the causes and landscapes most important to us. Federal and state agencies, tribal governments, and conservation organizations are similarly driven by diverse missions and goals, but all work with limited budgets and resources to restore and conserve aquatic habitat. By identifying where priorities overlap, these groups can more effectively spend their resources.

Identifying priorities, however, quickly becomes difficult when you’re trying to balance many species’ needs and factor in the many threats habitats face, like climate change and pollution. That’s where decision support software comes in. Where the human brain can get bogged down in infinite possibilities, decision support tools evaluate a multitude of variables and return solutions that stick to pre-defined goals.

Recently, we used Ecotrust’s newly released Madrona framework to help the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service develop a decision support tool to prioritize watershed investments. The Regional Aquatic Prioritization and Mapping Tool allows users to identify watershed priorities that meet fish habitat needs, while also avoiding watersheds that are in poor condition or vulnerable to climate change and aquatic species invasion. The tool’s collaborative, interactive design allows users to apply their own parameters and share their outputs with each other. Flexible and easily updated, the tool also serves as a platform on which to build similar decision support tools for other clients in different geographic regions. And different agencies and organizations can collaborate with each other to identify overlapping priorities.

Ecotrust teamed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to build a decision support tool that will help the agency prioritize restoration work.

The work of freshwater restoration and habitat conservation can feel endless. Though millions of dollars are spent in our region, there is never enough funding to do the work that’s needed. When resources are spread haphazardly, returns are limited. With collaborative tools, we can support effective restoration efforts and leverage those successes for future restoration investment.

Software for 21st-century decisions

Jul 102012
 

How will we all thrive on a densely populated, rapidly changing planet?  For over twenty years, Ecotrust has been tackling this question, through the creation of innovative mapping and software solutions that bridge different perspectives on land and ocean use.  These tools empower people to understand complex information and solve problems collaboratively.

One thing we have learned is that one-size-fits-all software solutions often fall short, especially when it comes to supporting a complex decision-making process.  Instead, the most successful solutions provide carefully chosen features that are tailored to the specific goal, process, audience, geography, and culture.  This takes time and often multiple iterations to get right.  As an organization that creates many of these decision support tools each year, the question we faced was how to make this process more efficient.  The answer we found was to distill our best practices and most popular software features into a modular framework that allows a developer to choose only what they need for the problem at hand and to customize it quickly.  We’ve refined this framework over many projects this last year and in the spirit of sharing good ideas, we are now proud to announce the release of Madrona, a software framework for effective place-based decision making.

Madrona provides software developers with a set of building blocks that can be mixed and matched to create cutting-edge, web-based tools for decision support and spatial planning at any scale.  It can be used in sectors ranging from natural resource management to ocean and land-use planning, urban and community planning, energy, transportation, health care and more.  These building blocks have evolved through extensive work with project partners, including our award-winning work with the MarineMap Consortium designing marine protected areas in California, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identifying conservation priorities in the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, and in helping regional leaders around the world visualize future vulnerabilities and resilience-building opportunities.

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Madrona tools are supporting ocean and shoreline planning in Washington.

Conceptually, you can think of Madrona like you would the materials and plans for building a house. There are core materials that form a strong foundation (group collaboration, a spatial content management system), various rooms and options to choose from (2D and 3D mapping, scenario planning), and the flexibility to make your own additions and alterations.  Ultimately, how you build it is up to you. The goal of Madrona is to let you focus on the bigger picture and not get distracted by all of the nuts and bolts.

To learn more visit madrona.ecotrust.org.  We offer case studies, step-by-step tutorials, generous open source licensing, a community forum for asking questions, and a full range of consulting services.  We invite technologists from around the world to use Madrona and contribute to its ongoing evolution.   Together we can achieve a larger global impact through improved decision making.

 

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