In the absence of technology-driven monitoring platforms, US rangeland policies, management practices, and outcome assessments have been primarily informed by the extrapolation of local information from national-scale rangeland inventories. A persistent monitoring gap between plot-level inventories and the scale at which rangeland assessments are conducted has required decision makers to fill data gaps with statistical extrapolations or assumptions of homogeneity and equilibrium. This gap is now being bridged with spatially comprehensive, annual, rangeland monitoring data across all western US rangelands to assess vegetation conditions at a resolution appropriate to inform cross-scale assessments and decisions. In this paper, 20-yr trends in plant functional type cover are presented, confirming two widespread national rangeland resource concerns: widespread increases in annual grass cover and tree cover. Rangeland vegetation monitoring is now available to inform national to regional policies and provide essential data at the scales at which decisions are made and implemented.

在没有技术驱动的监测平台的情况下，美国牧场政策，管理实践和结果评估主要是通过从国家规模的牧场清单中推断出的本地信息来获得的。在地块级清单和进行牧场评估的规模之间存在持续的监控空白，要求决策者用统计推断或同质性和均衡性假设填补数据空白。现在，该差距正在与美国西部所有牧场的空间全面的年度牧场监测数据进行弥合，以适合于跨尺度评估和决策的分辨率评估植被状况。本文介绍了植物功能类型覆盖率的20年趋势，确认了两个广泛的国家牧场资源问题：每年的草皮和树木的覆盖率普遍增加。现在可以进行牧场植被监测，以向国家和地区政策提供信息，并在制定和实施决策的规模上提供必要的数据。