Thursday March 9, 2006

Western Dakota Technical Institute

800 Mickelson Dr .

We had another good turn-out this year, with 41 in attendance. Participants represented the NPS, USGS, Black Hills National Forest, Nebraska National Forest, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources, SD Game, Fish & Parks, The Nature Conservancy, Black Hills State University, Chadron State University, Pope and Talbot, and Rapid City Journal.

Presentations:

• Amy Symstad (USGS) - Early success of various grassland seed mixes in plantings at Wind Cave National Park

• Peter Brown (RMTRR) - Historical fire and forest structure at Mount Rushmore and implications for forest management (given by Cody Wienk)

• Jack Butler (USFS RMRS) - Patterns of vegetation recovery following control of leafy spurge

• Cody Wienk (NPS) - Protocol development for monitoring plant community composition in Northern Great Plains national parks: Results of a pilot study

• Beth Burkhart (BHNF) - New direction for vegetation management on BHNF resulting from the Phase II Amendment, including species of local concern

• Helen McGranahan - Balancing urban interface and wildfire in the southern Black Hills: experiences of a Firewise community

• Marcia Wilson (NPS) - Update on the progress of the NPS Northern Great Plains I&M Network (given by Amy Symstad)

• Joel Brumm (NPS) - 3-D visualization and imaging in vegetation monitoring

• Mark Gabel (BHSU) - A web-accessible database of grasses of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming

• Grace Kostel (UWyo) - New and unusual collections from the Buffalo Gap and Oglala National Grasslands