Eric Sant

Eric is a distinguished geospatial specialist that integrates land management experience into geospatial products. His passion and experience has been working with and creating geospatial products that answer management needs. He has pioneered methods that assess rangelands rapidly and accurately at a landscape level. Eric is lead author on two peer-reviewed papers and secondary author on another listed below that describe and validate rangeland and riparian EST.

• Assessment of Sagebrush Cover Using Remote Sensing at Multiple Spatial and Temporal Scales. Ecological Indicators, 2014 (http://openrangeconsulting.com/sant_et_al.pdf)
• A Remote Sensing Approach to Assessing Riparian Habitat. Rangeland Ecology and Management, In Review (http://www.openrangeconsulting.com/rip_method.pdf)
• Willow Cover as a Stream-Recovery Indicator under a Conservation Grazing Plan. Ecological Indicators, 2012 (http://www.openrangeconsulting.com/tb_rip_paper.pdf)

Eric has worked for ORC since 2001. His experience includes working on several federal, state, and private industry projects that have assessed large landscapes for biological values. These projects have been funded by the BLM; Forest Service; NRCS; Utah Department of Agriculture and Food; State Trustlands of Utah; and Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks as well as private industry. For these projects, he has developed unique remote sensing tools and methods that map and quantify invasive species, rangeland condition, riparian/PFC condition, carrying capacity for wild horses, conifer encroachment, wildlife evaluation as well as countless other applications.