Team Arundo del Norte
Arundo Surveying and Monitoring Protocol

Arundo Survey Instructions: Conducting a survey Deanne DiPietro, deanne@ucdavis.edu March, 2002 Print version

1. Describe the site

a. Mark the site access point with your GPS Mark the location of the access point with your GPS and note it on the Site Description form. See "Delineating Sites and Observations" in the Survey Instruction Notes for an example filled-out Site Description form. You may find that you take site pictures along the way while doing the Arundo observations for the site. a. Fill out the site descriptions Check off and note all the features asked for, attempting to characterize the site accurately and meaningfully for comparison with post-eradication monitoring descriptions. We have found that we went back to that form several times as we navigated around the site doing the Arundo observations, because we noticed a new feature or weed we wanted to add to the site description.  c. Take pictures Take photos, digital or non-digital, of the main features of the site. Try to record those things that you are describing in the form, such as disturbances and channel characteristics. Use the photo log section of the form to record the GPS point from which you take the photo and the bearing or direction (you can say "looking upstream"). You don't have to take GPS points for all the photos, but think about taking several photo-points for repeating later in follow-up monitoring.

2. Record Arundo observations

a. Describe the Arundo Using the Arundo Observation form, check off and note the characteristics of the Arundo and its location that are asked for in the form. See "Delineating Sites and Observations" in the Survey Instruction Notes for helpful information about deciding about these areas and example filled-out Arundo observation forms. b. Mark the location of the Arundo with a GPS point Use your GPS according to its instructions to "mark" a location as near as you can to the clump in decimal degrees (set this ahead of time for the whole survey). You don't have to climb into the clump- remember that if you are using a "hiker" GPS unit (one that doesn't do differential correction and didn't cost a lot of money), then your accuracy is on the order of 15-45 feet. The idea is that you can find the spot again someday, and we record how much Arundo was eradicated and where. Note the identifying number of the point you just stored on the paper form. If there is a large offset (you are on the other side of the stream, a hundred and fifty feet away), then make note of this on the form in the notes section. See "How to use a GPS" for more information on that topic. c. Take a picture of the Arundo Write the GPS point number (from the GPS unit) on the dry-erase board with the fat pen and have someone stand with it next to the clump of Arundo (in the shade if possible so the number shows up in the photo). Take a digital image of the person and the clump and record the photo number on the form in the space provided for that. We have found it handy to have one person with the clipboard and the camera, and the other person with the GPS and the dry-erase board, and the photographer takes a picture of the GPS-er. That way you are taking a photo of the GPS location. If the clump is too big to fit into a frame (and lots of them are), do your best to capture the appearance of the overall clump in a sample picture.

3. Repeat 2-4 for all Arundo observations in each site.

Here's how we recommend dividing up the work:

Two or three people make the best size surveying group One records data on the forms and takes the photos Another gets in the photos with the whiteboard and takes GPS readings A third can draw on maps