Building ecological site descriptions. Clary, Justin^*,1, ¹ USDA-NRCS, Temple, TX, USA

ABSTRACT- Ecological sites provide a vast variety of values and benefits to society. Proper management of our natural resources requires a firm understanding and knowledge of these ecological sites and their interrelationships to one another on the landscape. Ecological site descriptions (ESDs) provide valuable information about each of these ecological sites, such as physiographic features, climatic data, influencing water features, representative soils information, ecological dynamics, state & transition diagram, plant communities, livestock and wood products, plant preference by animal species, wildlife habitat, recreational uses, and water. An effort to develop ecological sites is possible due to incorporation of knowledge and data from numerous sources such as academia, records, literature review, and ESD workshop participants. The purpose of this poster is to provide knowledge of where resource data comes from, provide awareness of the multitude of sites and resources that should be used in developing quality products, and emphasize the importance of utilizing the Ecological Site Information System. Information sources, materials, and processes utilized to complete ecological site descriptions will be reviewed. In an effort to make natural resource information readily available to the general public via the internet, the Ecological Site Information System web site has been developed to store all of the ecological site descriptions. The web site can be accessed at http://esis.sc.egov.usda.gov.

KEY WORDS: ecological site description