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used in the sagebrush type. Arandomly-located 0.5m x 2.Om belt was used in the willow <br />component of the Swale/drainage. This small belt size was selected on the basis of the <br />extremely dense character of the willow thickets. <br />Woody plant densities were measured in the irrigated pasture vegetation type using direct <br />counts from 1" = 500' color aerial photography with field checks for verification. <br />Sample Point Selection - 1999. Individual sample point locations, and belt transect origins <br />were selected using pairs of randomly-geherated coordinates. The 1999 vegetation map was <br />brought into ESRI ArcView and a state plane 100 foot interval tic grid was overlaid on the map. <br />Coordinates located within a map unit were listed and exported to Microsoft Access where a <br />random number generator was used to pick pairs of coordinates for sampling locations. The <br />numbers 0 to 359 were also entered into Microsoft Access and a random number generator <br />used to select transect direction. <br />Sample point locations were located from the resultant transects being plotted on the raster <br />digital aerial photo. The observer then walked to that point using visible landmarks. Once the <br />• vicinity of the sample point was found, a orange spike was thrown over the observer's shoulder <br />to identify the exact location where the sampling point would be located. <br />Vegetation Cover and Freauencv - 1999. Quantitative measurements of vegetation cover <br />and plant species frequency were made in the sagebrush - 1 (SG-1 ), sagebrush - 2 (SG-2), <br />sagebrush reference area, dryland pasture reference area, irrigated pasture and <br />Swale/drainage vegetation types. <br />Vegetation cover data was collected in the sagebrush type by the point-intercept technique <br />applied by use of an laser point bar. The data was collected on July 13 through 20, 1999. The <br />sampling design consisted of groups of ten points sampled at 10 ft. intervals along a 100 ft. <br />transect to achieve 100 points per transect. Thirty to 50 transects were sampled. Each group <br />of ten points, with a 10cm interval between each point, was oriented such that 10 points were <br />projected vertically downward (or upward for overhanging canopy) perpendicular to the <br />transect. At each point, the first contact of a plant species was recorded as a "hit". If the hit <br />was a living perennial, the vegetation was moved to see if a subsequent perennial was "hit" <br />• (REVISED 9/99) 2.04.10 - 20 <br />