Using Aerial Photography to Reconstruct the Remediation Treatment ...
Source: jornada-www.nmsu.edu
Topic: Aerial Photography
Sort Desciption: Using Aerial Photography to Reconstruct the Remediation Treatment History of Rangeland Many remediation treatments have been established on rangelands since the early 1900s in attempts to slow shrub ...
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Using Aerial Photography to Reconstruct the Remediation Treatment
History of Rangeland
Many remediation treatments have been established on rangelands since the early 1900s in attempts to
slow shrub invasion of desert grasslands. Over time, land management agencies have been disbanded
or reorganized and paper records have been lost resulting in poor documentation of type and extent of
treatment, methods used, and evaluations of success. Nationwide aerial photography begun by USDA
in the early 1930s and continued by the agencies, like USGS, BLM, NASA as well as USDA, has
proven to provide valuable and independent information for establishing past management histories
and vegetation response to treatments on rangelands. Combination of the aerial photography and
remaining conventional records as well as use of present day field measurements greatly increases the
total information content of the rangeland management history with significant ramifications for
deciding on the most effective remediation approaches to use today. Examples of various rangelands
treatments viewed with photos in the Jornada Basin Aerial Photo Data Base are shown below.
Figure 2. Contour terraces on
the Mt. Summerford bajada on
CDDRC as viewed in a 1936
aerial phote
Figure 1. Strips resulting from 1936
manual clearing of creosote and
tarbush on the CDRRC and viewed in
a 1937
aerial photo.
Figure 3. Brush water spreaders east of
main Jornada Road on JER pasture 6,
meant to increase infiltration of water
into the soil, shown in a 1948 aerial
photo.
Recent publications
Goslee, S.C., K. M. Havstad, D. P. C. Peters, A. Rango, and W. H. Schlesinger. 2003. High resolution
images reveal rate and pattern of shrub encroachment over six decades in New Mexico, USA. Journal
of Arid Environments 54: 755-767.
Rango, A., S. C. Goslee, J. E. Herrick, M. J. Chopping, K. M. Havstad, L. F. Huenneke, R. P. Gibbens,
R. ...
