Introduction to Land Monitoring
Number of Days: 1
Number of Participants: 25-50
Investment: $160/person
Prerequisite: None
This practical one-day workshop is designed for laypersons, ranchers or land managers seeking the building blocks of range ecology and grazing monitoring. Training covers the benefits of ecological monitoring and grass/grazing processes. Stimulating discussion and hands-on field exercises allow participants to determine rangeland production, proper stocking rates, scoring of grazing practices, and management options. Exercises using EZ-EKG field cards will give participants the skills to rate and document ecological health, function, and pasture condition at temporary short-term monitoring plots. This is a good foundational course for anyone interested or involved in land management and seeking monitoring skills to apply on many landscapes.
EKG Blink
Number of Days: 2
Number of Participants: 20-35
Investment: $400/person
Prerequisite: None
Participants will leave this NEW two-day course with well-practiced abilities in choosing monitoring sites, transect layout mechanics, and EKG photo procedures. This class is designed for any rancher or conservation manger seeking a rapid, repeatable monitoring program, right away. Participants will practice through land monitoring basics, soil surveys, grazing indexing, forage production methods, surface cover percents, and EZ-EKG assessments, but will spend the majority of time learning monitoring mechanics for EKG transect lines. Additional time will be spent on ?situational monitoring? and site recording techniques including an introduction to EKG DataStore.
EKG Pro
Number of Days: 2
Number of Participants: 20-35
Investment: $400/person
Prerequisite: EKG Blink
This NEW two-day course builds on EKG transect mechanics training by adding the final step for ecological profitability, answering the question: “What is really going on here, and what do I do?” Following a brief review of site layout, training will focus on recording and understanding ecological function and will highlight restorative or preemptive management techniques. Time will be devoted to simple plant/organism inventories, ecosystem process indicators, grazing and precipitation tracking, and forage production. Using the Land EKG Field Matrix, participants will learn to rapidly quantify, depict, and report land function, a must for profit driven managers or those dealing with public lands or grazing leases. Participants will leave this course confident in their abilities to read EKG transects, document/graph findings, and utilize EKG DataStore.
EKG Monitoring Intensive
Number of Days: 3
Number of Participants: 15-30
Investment: $600/person
Prerequisite: None
Designed for the serious rancher or agency professional devoted to begin a full monitoring program immediately, this class combines key information from EKG Blink and EKG Pro, into one intensive 3-day workshop. Participants will learn the nuts-and-bolts of pasture ecology, grazing management, transect mechanics, ecological assessments, record organization, EKG DataStore, and other key monitoring skills necessary to begin a complete monitoring program on their own lands, right away.
Grazing Planning for Success
Number of Days: 2
Number of Participants: 20-40
Investment: $400/person
Prerequisite: None
Develop your own flexible year-round grazing plan. Once completed, this framework can provide a continuous planning mechanism for future management decisions. In this workshop, grazing managers will learn the key grazing concepts for improving animal performance and rangeland condition. Through case study exercises, participants will gain confidence using soil surveys while creating forage and grazing budgets for various land types on their own ranch. The group will also be introduced to adaptive grazing control ideas, watering options, and innovative answers to long held questions relating to grazing animals.
EKG DataStore
This one-day workshop is for landowners and managers wanting personal instruction in using EKG DataStore, our unique on-line database for land monitoring data. Using their own records, participants will spend the day on computers walking through the process of data and photo entry, while becoming comfortable with the simple applications of DataStore analysis and reporting capabilities. Share specific management strategies based on monitoring feedback in a small group setting.
EKG Field Refresher
Those who have already been through both 2-day EKG Monitoring Workshops or the 3-day Monitoring Intensive workshop but need to brush up on their skills – they are invited to attend an EKG Blink or EKG Pro workshop for half price.