Riparian and wetland community inventory of 14 reference areas in southwestern Idaho /

wetland 47 Eleocharis palustris vernal pool 47 Lepidium davisii vernal pool 40 SECTION 3 References .conservation purposes.Classifications done elsewhere in Idaho, as well as in adjacent Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada, may be useful for identifying riparian types in southwestern Idaho, but their usefulness is only now being tested.While many types described in these classifications are applicable, unique environmental and physical conditions contribute to the formation of undescribed types that may be endemic to the area.This project is a preliminary step in filling this large gap in our knowledge of riparian ecosystems in Idaho.It is not a community classification project, but an effort to inventory the community diversity of wetlands and riparian areas considered to be in high ecological condition in southwestern Idaho, focusing on the Lower Snake River District (LSRD) of the BLM.We have received funding to continue this project in 1998.So, stay tuned.There are several implications of the project for management of riparian systems by the BLM:Currently, BLM managers in southwestern Idaho have no useful communication tool (i.e., standardized classification) to compare successional states of different watersheds, to characterize reference sites in high ecological quality, to understand site potentials for "Proper Functioning Condition" assessments, to communicate with managers in surrounding areas, and to set ecological goals for riparian and watershed health.2. Identification of a system of reasonably well-understood reference areas on the LSRD, from which riparian management guidelines can be developed.Currently this is lacking or, at best, inadequate.The BLM has established many Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and Research Natural Areas (RNA) throughout the state, in general, and the LSRD, in particular.These sites were primarily established to protect biotic elements, including riparian and wetland communities.Another purpose of these special designations is as ecological reference areas (Federal Committee on Ecological Reserves 1977; Johnson et al. 1984), a use that few managers in Idaho have taken advantage of.In addition there are many other potential reference sites, such as exclosures, that can be used as baselines to assess rangeland, including riparian, management (Laycock 1975; Turner et al. 1980; Allen 1983).4.This assessment will aid the BLM's "coarse filter" biodiversity conservation efforts (USDI- BLM 1992), that is, conservation of the community and ecosystem level of biological organization (Noss 1990; Grossman et al, 1994).By contrast, long-standing programs to conserve special status plants and animals take the complementary "fine filter" approach to biodiversity conservation and are aimed primarily at the lower levels of organization (genes, populations, and species).See Rust (1997) for an expanded review of community concepts and their application for biodiversity conservation.The purpose of this project is to assess the diversity of wetland and riparian communities of the LSRD through field inventory and sampling, using ACECs, RNAs, exclosures, and other potential reference areas as the primary inventory sites.From this inventory, we will prepare a preliminary guide to the riparian types of southwestern Idaho, which will include a key to their identification and supporting descriptive material for each community.The guide can be expanded upon as new information becomes available.The project will help fill in gaps in our knowledge of riparian and wetland communities in Idaho, and will be the low-elevation compliment to the inventory being done by Boise Cascade in mountainous areas of southwestern Idaho (Carolyn Mehl, Boise Cascade Corp., Boise, pers.comm., 1997).It also compliments inventories being conducted by the Conservation Data Center (CDC)' throughout the rest -of the state {e.g., Jankovsky-Jones 1995; 1996; 1997a; 1997b; 1997c).ROWER

Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Geotechnical engineering · Habitat · Hydrology (agriculture) · Riparian zone · Wetland · Archaeology and Natural History · Ecology · Environmental Science · Forestry · Geology · Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes · Water Quality and Resources Studies

• Indicators for Monitoring Biodiversity

  Open Access•Reed F No, Reed F Noss•Conservation Biology•1990

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