5 
MONTANA PUBLIC LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING 
Merle P. Meyer 
University of Minnesota, USA 
Harry R. Cosgriffe 
USDI - Bureau of Land Management, USA 
Fred T. Batson 
USDI - Bureau of Land Management, USA 
Bruce H. Gerbig 
University of Minnesota, USA 
James A. Brass 
University of Minnesota, USA 
ABSTRACT 
To meet the increasing demands for information on the public land re 
sources in the face of inadequate budgets and personnel, remote sensing was 
selected by the USDI - Bureau of Land Management's Montana State Office to 
increase the capabilities of existing professional personnel. A 5 - year 
series of field tests and training, conducted in cooperation with the Minne 
sota College of Forestry, has resulted in: (a) a "low-stage" inexpensive 
35mm aerial photography system now in use for monitoring range trend, wild 
life habitat, water quality, erosion, structures, timber sales, archeological 
sites, etc.; (b) a "middle-stage" system of 1:40,000 - 1:50,000 scale color 
infrared 23 x 23cm photography for use as a data base for large area (circa 
50,000 to 250,000 hectares) resource surveys; and (c) a "high-stage" system 
of color infrared small scale 1:80,000 to 1:100,000 "quad-centered" photo 
graphy applied to very large areas (circa 250,000+ hectares) for use as an 
extensive resource survey data base. The applicability of ERTS data is also 
under study. 
INTRODUCTION 
Despite the fact that, during the past 5 years, public land resource man 
agers have faced accelerating demands for more and better survey data relating 
to both renewable (e.g., livestock forage, wildlife habitat) and non-renewab1e 
(i.e., coal) resources, personnel staffing and operational funding levels have 
remained more or less static or even decreased. Although by no means a total 
or perfect solution, one obvious approach to a partial alleviation of the prob 
lem was (is) to raise the capabilities and efficiency of the professional per 
sonnel al ready in the field. Consequently, and having selected remote sensing 
as one logical management technique to achieve this end, the Montana State 
Office of the Bureau of Land Management in 1970 entered into a cooperative 
agreement with the University of Minnesota College of Forestry for the purpose