Purpose and Need for a Grassland Assessment

Abstract

This report is volume 1 of an ecological assessment of grassland ecosystems in the Southwestern United States, and it is one of a series of planned publications addressing major ecosystems of the Southwest. The first assessment, General Technical Report RM-GTR- 295, An Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Health in the Southwest (by Dahms and Geils, technical editors, published July 1997), covered forested ecosystems. Given the complexities of grassland ecology and the increasing number of challenges facing grassland managers, the USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region, in partnership with the agency's Rocky Mountain Research Station, focused on grasslands in its second assessment. The assessment is regional in scale and pertains primarily to lands administered by the Southwestern Region (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma).Individual papers from this publication

Parent Publication

• Assessment of grassland ecosystem conditions in the Southwestern United States. Vol. 1

Citation

Finch, Deborah M.; Dahms, Cathy W. 2004. Purpose and Need for a Grassland Assessment. In: Finch, Deborah M., Editor. 2004. Assessment of grassland ecosystem conditions in the Southwestern United States. Volume 1. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-135-vol. 1. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 1-10