CESU Colorado River District (CRD) Monitoring Project
Project Background Information: The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network is a national consortium of federal agencies, academic institutions, tribal, state, and local governments, nongovernmental conservation organizations (300 partners). The Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (DSCESU) is a cooperative network, transcending political and institutional boundaries, which creates innovative opportunities for research, education, and technical assistance in support of the management and stewardship by partner agencies of the Desert Southwest natural, cultural, and social resources. The DSCESU has a unique collaborative relationship with research scientists, end users of research products, the public, and educators who are trained to bridge the gap between researchers, science users and educators. The BLM seeks a partnership to work side by side BLM in completing monitoring studies including condition, trend, ecological site inventories, invasive/noxious weed inventories on individual grazing allotments with BLM personnel and permittees. In addition, the partner assists in compiling and documenting the data collected and other existing data into the appropriate files and databases. This meets the objectives of the MOU between BLM and the Public Lands Council relative to allotment monitoring. The assistance agreement for the U of A Monitoring Project (Agreement #L09AC15972) was started in September 2003 in an effort to assist the BLM in conducting vegetation monitoring studies within active public land grazing allotments. This agreement has been in place since that date. The major focus was finding a partner to work side-by-side BLM in collecting monitoring data on those allotments where Rangeland Health Assessments were being implemented. This project has only involved BLM and U of A as partners and is specific to the collection vegetation monitoring data using approved BLM methods and protocol. Project Objective: The principle purpose of this project is to develop a partnership to work side-by-side BLM to assist BLM, landowners and grazing lease holders (State of Arizona leases as well as BLM leases) in managing their land and leases to maximize profits and optimize sustainability of rangeland resources. Collecting and analyzing vegetative monitoring data on the Kingman and Yuma Field Offices of the Colorado River District will greatly improve their ability to advise their constituents on best management practices. The objective of this agreement is to provide and ensure current vegetation monitoring data on the Colorado River District rangelands for the requesting public.
Office: Bureau of Land Management
ebell@blm.gov
