DEVELOPMENT OF WORKFLOW AND PROTOCOLS FOR THE APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-ACCURACY GNSS DATA TO PALEONTOLOGICAL INVENTORY AND MONITORING AND COLLECTIONS SITES AT FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT, COLORADO

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (FLFO) protects late Eocene (34.07 Ma) paleontological sites that have been cyclically monitored by an Inventory & Monitoring (I&M) program since 1992. During the summer season of 2019, Geoscientist-in-the-Parks interns and NPS staff created new and revised previous protocols and workflows for the paleo- I&M program and related historical collection sites using High-Accuracy GNSS Data (HAD). Previous GPS data had been collected by Garmin and Trimble devices with 1 to 9 meter accuracy and were updated at sub-meter precision utilizing an Eos Positioning Systems Arrow Gold GNSS receiver and an array of Esri Enterprise solutions. This technology was accessed in the field through Collector, Survey123, Eos Tools applications and geospatial web maps uploaded to an Android tablet. Over 60 I&M and collection sites were updated, with around 210 I&M photo points and over 15 polygons being created or revised. In- field and office troubleshooting and workflows were noted and developed into protocols that were integrated into preexisting manuals for the I&M program and a newly created collection site documentation project. Although previous years had more tasks to complete in office after field work, the new protocols require more pre-configuration time before the field. Once field data are synced, additional analyses and management were done via the geospatial web-portal, accessed through Esri Enterprise and NPS credentials, with technical assistance provided by the Intermountain Region Geographic Resources Division. In addition, all site data have been stored in databases that can be queried via Collector, making the data more accessible while requiring little database expertise. By using these workflows, ease of use and accuracy of data collected have been improved, creating a far more intuitive process that will mitigate issues seen with past I&M program installations. Because these data are now visually managed, access to these sites will be more intuitive for current and visiting researchers, including those who may lack prior experience with these processes. While HAD has helped to ease workflows for the I&M program at FLFO, it is also proving to be an important tool to modernize conservation and resource management efforts of NPS and other DOI sites at higher levels of resolution.