MRRMaid: Mesic Resource Restoration Monitoring Aid

The Project

A satellite-based monitoring tool for mesic ecosystems in drylands of the American West

An illustration of a NASA satellite collecting images of an Idaho landscape with mountains, hills and rivers across spring, summer, fall and winter seasons. Graphic created by Emily Iskin Art and Design.

MRRMaid is a satellite-based monitoring tool for mesic ecosystems in drylands of the American West. Mesic ecosystems include riparian zones, wetlands, wet meadows, rivers, streams and other open surface water. The web apps on this page have been designed so that a user can zoom in and out of specific areas, draw polygons for their area of interest, and then show maps and plots of mesic ecosystem change over time.

MRRMaid Apps

MRRMaid is constantly evolving and improving over time, and currently consists of two web applications. Access the MRRMaid and Mesic Vegetation Persistence apps, user guides, video tutorials and associated publications below.

Link to the monthly mesic resource restoration monitoring aid app. Image of a heat map and line chart demonstrating monthly maps and time-series of mesic vegetation and surface water.

Launch App: Monthly Mesic Resources Restoration Monitoring Aid

Monthly MRRMaid App: Monthly maps and time-series of mesic vegetation and surface water.

Link to open the Mesic vegetation persistence app. Image of a heat map and line chart of mesic vegetation persistence and dense seasonal and inter-annual time-series of mesic vegetation for an unknown area

Launch App: Mesic Vegetation Persistence App

Mesic Vegetation Persistence (MVP) App: Maps of mesic vegetation persistence and dense seasonal and inter-annual time-series of mesic vegetation.

Watch our virtual MRRMaid Training Webinar

MRRMaid Training Webinar

This 1-hour long webinar was delivered virtually on February 22, 2024, and gives an overview of the MRRMaid toolbox and basic instructions to get you started using the MRRMaid tools.

Virtual MRRMaid Training Webinar

A NASA-funded project to provide decision support for beaver rewilding

Researchers Partner with Ranchers, Beavers, and NASA

Transcript of the “Researchers partner with ranchers, beavers and NASA” video

MRRMaid is the product of a NASA-funded project to provide decision support for beaver rewilding. The project contains three main components: research, extension and outreach.

Research

We develop satellite-based measurements of mesic ecosystems. This is the research focused part of our work, and mostly takes place in front of a computer, using new technologies to make maps of mesic ecosystems from satellite images. We have partners in the field who really know their ecosystem, and we can use those sites as “test sites” for our research. The products we develop cover broad areas, e.g. all of southern Idaho, and in some cases, the entire west.

Extension

Once we have a validated monitoring product, we create web apps to make those monitoring products available. That way anyone can use them in the sites they are working at. Currently, we have two “beta version” web-apps that enable open source use of our existing data products.

Outreach

We also conduct workshops with our partners. The goal here is to develop relationships between researchers, agencies, and people working directly with restoration projects — that makes everyone’s work better and more fun. Please contact jodibrandt@boisestate.edu if you would like to be included on our email list.