CTWSRO Comprehensive Inventory, 2011–2015
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation – Madras, Oregon
Synergy Resource Solutions collected rangeland data for a tribal natural resource invento-ry within the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indian Reservation (CTWSRO) in-cluding ecological status inventory, cultural plant surveys, weed surveys, and vegetation inventory on over 625,000 acres from 2011-2015. Over 300 study sites were established and inventoried. Ecological status inventories included dry weight rank with comparative yield, line point intercept, gap intercept, plant height, plant census, rangeland health, and soil stability test. Additionally, special surveys were conducted for culturally significant plants and weeds. Synergy was responsible for site selection, conducting geographic in-formation system (GIS) analysis and developing the inventory design. This project in-volved the development of a three-tiered rangeland monitoring protocol using vegetation and soils data to collect scientific data. The tribal natural resource inventory utilized methods from ground studies and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) to collect a substantial amount of data. Professional and scientific requirements for the project in-cluded the use of the Database for Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment (DIMA), ex-tensive plant identification of all vegetation types, GPS/GIS equipment and software, soil sciences, and a professional scientific team. Synergy also wrote 10 ecological site descrip-tions (ESDs) working with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation and NRCS.
CTUIR Comprehensive Inventory, 2009–2015
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation – Oregon
Synergy Resource Solutions completed a comprehensive tribal natural resource inventory for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation of Oregon. The rangeland inventory on 66,000 acres involved culturally sensitive plant surveys, weed surveys, de-velopment of monitoring design, field data collection, data analysis, geographic infor-mation system (GIS) coordination, and detailed report preparation. Data collection in-cluded species composition and a weed inventory on 164 rangeland and forested sites. Collection required identification of grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees to the species level. Our team performed cultural plant inventory, weed inventory, and ocular estimates of species composition and production on 342 sites. The data also provided information on ecological trends, watershed function, wildlife habitat, and culturally significant plants. Synergy has also collected wild horse utilization data on the reservation.