NEFF-Pingree Lands

Pingree Forest Conservation Easement Monitoring

The Maine Image Analysis Laboratory (MIAL) and New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) has developed a multi-scale monitoring approach for the Pingree Conservation Easement, the largest conservation easement in the U.S. at over 750,000 acres. Through a series of meetings on developing a monitoring approach for the easement, a hierarchical system of monitoring using remote sensing and ground visits emerged as the most cost-effective system. Three levels of monitoring are used: 1) medium spatial resolution satellite (e.g., Landsat) change detection, 2) high resolution satellite or aerial photography sampling, and 3) field visits or ground measurements for highest priority monitoring sites.

Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) forest change detection is the first level (coarse filter) of the monitoring system. Medium resolution (30m) satellite data is collected every year in late spring/early summer (late May to late June). This imagery allows the entire easement to be monitored frequently, expediently and at relatively low cost per area. Changes in forest cover (harvest and re-growth) are monitored in a time-series. The location and area of disturbances can be quantified using image processing and change detection methods developed at MIAL. Aerial photography, level 2 monitoring, will be conducted on high priority sites either detected as disturbed using satellite imagery analyses (level 1) or sites that are too small to be monitored using satellite imagery. If aerial photos are not available then level 2 aircraft over-flights, using a high resolution digital camera, may be necessary. The scheduling of level 2 aerial monitoring may be annual (if high priority) or less frequent as in the case of long-term monitoring of diversity/structure indicators. Field visits, level 3 monitoring, are most expensive, and for a landscape scale easement, must be planned carefully. Field visits are conducted to verify a high priority monitoring feature detected at level 1 or 2 or to forest management guidelines compliance sampling that cannot be monitored effectively at level 1 or 2. For field and travel efficiency, field visits can be scheduled in mid to late summer or early fall after level 1-2 monitoring is complete and level 3 sites for the current year are identified.

 

For more information on the Pingree monitoring protocol, visit NEFF's web site: www.newenglandforestry.org/downloads/monitoringbooklet.pdf

 

 

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