Vegetation Surveying + Monitoring
establishing a regional baseline in nw minnesota
EOR partook in documenting the largest prairie wetland restoration effort in North America (a 30,000+ acre in Minnesota’s Prairie Pothole Region) and helped to establish a viable data collection methodology that will measure project goals.
Piloting our methodology on a 2,400 acre of the region following the Key Ecological Attribute of species composition of the plant communities, we combined the results of conducting meander surveys with Braun-Blanquet cover-classes and formed a viable method that, along with minimal additional efforts such as GPS data entry, can be used for restoration management. This work accounts for the planning of site-specific invasive species and the sub-unit mapping of micro-habitats for rare species recovery as well.
Upon the completion of EOR’s extensive data collection for the pilot area, a database was created for future data analysis and GIS link-and-query. Designed as a long-term, 15-year system, this project when completed, will represent a restoration effort connecting nearly 7,800 acres of existing native prairie and wetland communities, forming part of a mosaic of protected lands that will connect several ownerships of native plant communities throughout the region.