Main Results Summary

The range health assessment scores were related to most of the quantitative measures taken. Only saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), colour and thickness of soil Ah horizon, microbiotic crust, and bunchgrass seedheads were found to be unrelated. The two range health assessments tested rely on visual ratings; however, both are quite sensitive to the state of the 28 rough fescue grassland sites used in this study. Users of these methods can be confident that the methods are reasonably scientifically valid.

Figure 1. Distribution of Grassland Conservation Council scores among range health sites. The two methods usually showed the same direction of relationship for a particular quantitative measure. The methods do not agree completely; however, in their assessments of range health/range status. When plotted against each other, the two methods were only moderately correlated with a 47% association. The shape of the relationship suggests that the two methods agree, in relative terms, in range health scoring of low seral sites but do not agree in scoring of the higher seral sites. Figure 2. Distribution of Uplands Function Checklist scores among range health sites.

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Last Modified: 2007 April 25. Ministry contact: Reg Newman. Webmaster: For.Prodres@gov.bc.ca