Remote Sensing and Jerry Ritchie.

In much of the western USA, the covarying relationship between topography and vegetation has a major influence on carbon, water and energy cycling. In addition, the extensive nature of these landscapes lends itself to remote sensing approaches. Laser would seem to be the perfect instrument in this case because it can be used from aircraft and can obtain accurate ground surface and vegetation canopy information simultaneously.  The approach has the additional advantage that accuracy testing is relatively straightforward.  We tested laser profiling with Jerry Ritchie in 1995 at Reynolds Creek as part of a larger project Jerry was involved with. One objective was to develop statistical signatures for different, subtlety different vegetation types. While this worked moderately well, we found that a major limitation of the approach is the lack of horizontal dimension. The actual point of measurement is never known, which greatly complicates data interpretation. This work put us in a perfect place to realize the potential of Lidar to accomplish the same ends. We have followed Jerry’s footsteps in applying Lidar to the rangelands of southern Idaho.