Superseded by BLM Technical Reference 1731-21
It is the policy of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to apply the Standard Ecological Site Description procedure patterned after the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Range Site procedure and expanded by the BLM (USDA-SCS 1976, USDI-BLM 1990) to grazable woodland, native pasture, and riparian sites. However, other classification and description procedures exist and often must be used to make use of all available information or to coordinate between other agencies and institutions during riparian and wetland inventory. This document introduces major concepts relevant to the understanding of riparian systems and reviews selected riparian and wetland classification and description procedures. This document also provides a means of relating the various procedures. Appendix A contains a crosswalk of those reviewed classification and description procedures that can be readily applied to riparian site descriptions and concepts of vegetation succession and site progression discussed below. Appendixes B-E provide information and define terminology that should help in understanding and applying classification and description procedures.