Data Management Tools for Maintaining Compliance in Integrated Vegetation Management
Dan McLendon
dmclendon@usaconservation.org, American Conservation Experience, Gardiner, MT;
Dan McLendon serves as the National Restoration & GIS Specialist at ACE. With 15 years of experience in planning and executing invasive plant and vegetation management operations, Dan has worked within or in partnership with over 50 federal and non-fed land management agency locations across the contiguous United States. Dan provides internal and external pesticide training and Continuing Education Credit Courses for licensed state pesticide applicators and manages pesticide application data and compliance for 20 states on behalf of ACE. This discussion will benefit vegetation and invasive-weed managers seeking practical strategies to elevate the quality, consistency, and usability of data collected both in the field and in the office.
The quality of spray project data hinges on many variables-sometimes we’re constrained by the limits of our technology, other times by the practicality of our data collection protocols. But when the State Pesticide Inspector drops by the office for an audit on your pesticide application logs, how confident will you be that your data meets their muster? In this presentation, Dan shares three powerful resources that can empower both data managers and applicators in the field. These tools include: (1) GIS workflows for collecting high-quality spatial and custom attribute data, (2) streamlined, paperless Pesticide Use Log that auto-calculates max application rates and meets most states’ data standards, and (3) integrated pesticide-label database resources to help applicators interpret cryptic label specifications while in the field.
This presentation will equip vegetation and weed managers with concrete tools and workflows to strengthen data integrity, streamline data collection processes in the field, and ensure compliance with state pesticide data collection standards. The templates and resources discussed in this presentation will be made available for Land Managers to access and integrate into their workflow.