[APWG] TRAINING: Vegetation Monitoring in a Management Context (Lake Placid, FL)

[Olivia Kwong]

Registration is open!

The Natural Areas Training Academy
Vegetation Monitoring in a Management Context

Date: March 2-7, 2009
Location: Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, Florida
Fee: $875.00 (includes registration, materials, lodging and meals)
Course Coordinator: Doria Gordon, The Nature Conservancy

This workshop is a practical step-by-step guide to establish and manage 
monitoring protocols for plant community work. Participants learn to:

* Develop sampling designs for well-defined objectives.
* Determine monitoring priorities in an adaptive management context.
* Implement techniques in the field.
* Interpret and manipulate data for presentation.

For more information and on-line registration please visit the Natural 
Areas Training Academy web site at: http://nata.snre.ufl.edu/

Vegetation Monitoring in a Management Context
Sample Agenda . Subject to Change

Monday, March 2, 2009
10:00 Registration Starts
11:00 Welcome
11:15 Workshop Objectives, Introduction of Participants
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Introduction to Ecological Monitoring and Monitoring in an Adaptive 
Management Context
2:15 Management Objectives and Sampling Objectives
3:45 Levels of Monitoring
4:30 Developing Monitoring Protocols
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Management and Monitoring Priorities Exercise

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sampling Design Lectures (AM)
8:00 Introduction to Sampling Design and Statistical Terms and Concepts 
Essential to Sampling Design
9:40 Non-sampling and Sampling Errors
11:10 Setting Sampling Objectives
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Sampling Methods
2:45 Field Demonstration and Exercise: Sampling Abundance and Composition
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Sampling Design Exercise

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Sampling Design Lectures (continued)
8:00 Selecting Sampling Units
9:45 Placement of Sampling Units
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Placement of Sampling Units continued
1:15 Number of Sampling Units
2:45 Long-term Change Detection: Data Sources and Analysis
3:15 Vegetation monitoring underway at ABS
4:15 Photographic Monitoring
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Sample Size Exercise

Thursday, March 5, 2009
8:00 Monitoring Plant Populations, Communities, and Landscapes
9:15 Interpreting Monitoring Data
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Field Exercise: Sampling Community Structure
6:00 Dinner

Develop monitoring protocols (on your own)

Friday, March 6, 2009
8:00 Field Exercise: Developing Sampling Designs and Collecting Data for 
Plant Populations, Communities and Landscapes
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Field Exercise continued
4:00 Return from Field and Analysis of Field Exercise Data
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Analysis of Field Exercise Data continued

Saturday, March 7, 2009
8:00 Team Presentations of Field Exercise Data
10:00 Discussion of Monitoring Protocols
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Data Collection and Data Management
2:00 Final Comments and Evaluation
3:00 Depart

Instructors may include: Doria Gordon, Rob Sutter and Jodi Slapcinsky from 
The Nature Conservancy and guest speakers from Archbold Biological 
Station.

For more information and on-line registration please visit the Natural 
Areas Training Academy web site at: http://nata.snre.ufl.edu/