A Potential New Way Forward in the Use of Adaptive Management and Decision Triggers to Inform Management Decisions Regarding a Controversial Management Action: Lessons learned on a Long-Term Study of the Impacts of Patch-Burn Grazing with Cattle as a Prairie Management Tool on Remnant Tallgrass Prairie in Missour
AUTHORS: Tom Thompson, Grassland Ecologist, Missouri Department of Conservation, and Adrienne Dykstra, Biometrician, Missouri Department of Conservation.
ABSTRACT: Beginning in 2001 the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has utilized patch-burn grazing with cattle (hereafter, PBGC) as a prairie management tool. Because of concerns voiced by different external conservation organizations and stakeholders on the potential impacts of PBGC to remnant prairie plant communities a long-term study was designed and implemented to assess, within an adaptive management framework, what the impacts are of PBGC to the plant community composition, plant species populations of concern, and vegetation structure response at five MDC managed prairies. Additionally, as part of this adaptive management study, a priori decision triggers were established for the different plant community and vegetation structure response metrics by an MDC team composed of relevant managers, natural history biologists, scientists, and supervisors before data were analyzed. Decision triggers were based on PBGC team experience and opinion and were framed over the first 5-year assessment period to track trends or major shifts in metric responses. These decision triggers define levels in the status of these monitored biological metrics that indicate when to undertake a management action to meet a specific objective or to avoid an undesirable change in the community. Data were then summarized, analyzed, and evaluated based on these a priori decision triggers, and then shared with external and internal stakeholders. This talk will focus on the importance of long-term studies, applications and cautions in use of an adaptive management framework and decision triggers, the importance of external and internal support and involvement, and lessons learned from this on-going long-term study.
