Degrading rural grasslands is threatening development and environmental sustainability in South African river catchments. Decades of poor land management decisions coupled with advancing fronts of invasive species has drastically decreased catchment water availability, reduced biodiversity, and harmed communally managed rangelands and livelihoods. To solve some of these issues, communities, governments, non-profit agencies, and academic institutions are working together to rehabilitate important degraded grasslands. The Umzimvubu Catchment Partnership (UCP), is working to improve, maintain, and monitor soil and land health through a series of initiatives, including invasive species removal, rotational grazing practices, and land conservation initiatives. However, there has been little consistent ecological data collected across the UCP area so there is a need for the establishment of long-term ecological research sites. Tracking restoration efforts overtime is important to measure the impacts of ongoing work, so the time for baseline data collection is now. This project aims to help the UCP assess the effectiveness of ongoing invasive species removal projects and landscape conservation practices on grassland recovery by collecting and comparing vegetation and soil data across the upper catchment. Additionally, researchers will work with local partners to develop a data management plan to better inform regional conservation agreements and co-management decisions.