New app helps western land managers see vegetation changes

A bird’s-eye view of vegetation changes to the landscape during the past 30 years is now available to western landowners, conservation groups and government agencies. The Rangeland Analysis Platform, RAP for short, is a free internet application that provides everyone with the tools to scan the landscape and view changes to annual forbs and grasses, perennial forbs and grasses, shrubs, trees and bare ground. Watson introduced the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team to the new technology at the group’s December meeting in Helena, noting that it can provide clues to the effects of grazing and rangeland health, the percent of different types of vegetation and precipitation for each year. The application can also show the effects of wildland fires, such as the loss of tree and shrub cover as well as the growth of cheatgrass — an invasive species that often invades following fires...MORE