The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) was developed as a partnership between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the University of Montana for the purpose of mapping vegetation across the United States and providing users with an innovative and efficient way to interact with rangeland data. RAP is co-authored and supported by rangeland ecologists Brady Allred and Jeremy Maestas, research scientist Matthew Jones, and RAP outreach coordinator Eric Jensen.

The Production Explorer is an additional tool of the RAP that provides a more in-depth analysis of the rangeland production data hosted in the main RAP application. The data hosted within this tool is not mapped, but rather provides an analysis of trends summarized for current rangeland production, historical production, and stocking rate estimates. 

Data Source: Sourced from RAP production cover data.

Time-Step: Every 16 days

Potential Use-Cases for Tribes:

• Compare current year production with previous years of production
• Evaluate productivity departures from historic averages
• Estimate stocking rates on an annual basis
• Export this specified data into an excel spreadsheet to use in your Tribe’s own natural resource planning