Abstract - Applications of Remote Sensing to Prairie Dog Management

Dalsted, K.J., Sather-Blair, Signe and Worcester, Bruce K. 1979. Applications of Remote Sensing To Prairie Dog Management. Report to National Park Service, Wind Cave National Park; Project funded by NASA Grant No. 42-003-007 and by the National Park Service; SDSU-RSI-79-04. 34 p.

Abstract

Prairie dog acreage in Wind Cave National Park has increased at an alarming rate in the past 20 years. Regulations preventing the use of certain toxicants have been among the factors allowing rapid expansion of dog population. Within prairie dog sites utilization and continual clipping of vegetation has led to a lowered range productivity and state of retrogressive succession. Implications of a lowered range productivity are many. Other wildlife populations must be controlled to match the Park's vegetative productivity and since prairie dogs prefer the best range sites (i.e. deep and nearly level, productive soils) the Park's range carrying capacity has been lowered.

For effective prairie dog management, accurate and current inventories are necessary. In the past, ground surveys have been the source of this data, but the size and extent of the dog towns in WCNP precludes ground surveys of all the towns in any one year. Remote sensing techniques have shown numerous applications to wildlife, range, and soil investigations. This investigation utilized low altitude aerial photography to determine its usefulness in prairie dog assessments.

Color infared, color, and black and white imagery were collected over the Park on 19 July 1978 at 4500 ft. above ground level. Ground support data included general vegetation description of each town and 39 sampling stations (in and near dog towns) where color and color infared slides were taken of .25 sq. m. plots, vegetation composition was described and vegetation clippings were taken. These data were used in the interpretation and analyses of the film products. Color infared (CIR) film was found to be the most useful source of data for prairie dog town delineations. Prairie dog acreage was successfully determined from the CIR for 11 dog towns in the Park. Extent was interpreted to be 1501 acres or 5.35 percent of the total Park area. CIR was also utilized with soil and topographic information to determine likely expansion potential and probably direction of growth of the 11 major dog towns.