Research and Publications

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Secretarial Order 3336 – Rangeland fire prevention, management, and restoration

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This Order sets forth enhanced policies and strategies for preventing and
suppressing rangeland fire and for restoring sagebrush landscapes impacted by fire across the West. These actions are essential for conserving habitat for the greater sage-grouse as well as other
wildlife species and economic activity, such as ranching and recreation, associated with the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem in the Great Basin region.

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Secretary Jewell launches comprehensive strategy to protect and restore sagebrush lands threatened by rangeland fire

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This press release highlights the issuance of Secretarial Order 3336 calling for a comprehensive science-based strategy to address the more frequent and intense wildfires that are damaging vital sagebrush landscapes and productive rangelands, particularly in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California.

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Designing regional fuel breaks to protect large remnant tracts of greater sage-grouse habitat in parts of Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah

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This report provides a GIS protocol for identifying strategic locations for fuel breaks to protect remaining large patches of habitat. It was prepared by The Nature Conservancy for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA).

Geodatabase that accompanies the report –
File 1 (682MB)
File 2 (84.5MB)

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Possible hope in battle against cheatgrass

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In this news article, work by Ann Kennedy, scientist at Washington State, Susan Meyer, USFS research ecologist, and others is highlighted. Their work includes sorting through some 20,000 strains of naturally occurring soil bacteria to discover two that single out cheatgrass.

 

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Nevada Society for Range Management Suggested Reading – Winter 2014

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These abstracts of recent papers on rangeland management in the West were prepared by Charlie Clements, Rangeland Scientist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV.

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Climate Change Quarterly – Fall 2014

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Abstracts of recent papers on climate change and land management in the West. Prepared by Louisa Evers, Science Liaison and Climate Change Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon-Washington State Office.

Treatment selecting field guide cover

A field guide for selecting the most appropriate treatment in sagebrush and piñon-juniper ecosystems in the Great Basin: Evaluating resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive annual grasses, and predicting vegetation response

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This field guide identifies seven primary components that largely determine resilience to disturbance, as well as resistance to invasive grasses and plant succession following treatment of areas of concern. An evaluation score sheet is included for rating resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive annual grasses and the probability of seeding success.

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How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface

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This study proposes using the principles of risk analysis to provide land management agencies, first responders, and affected communities who face the inevitability of wildfires the ability to reduce the potential for loss. Overcoming perceptions of wildland urban interface fire disasters as a wildfire control problem rather than a home ignition problem, determined by home ignition conditions, will reduce home loss.

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Don't blame the beetles

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This Science article reports on a growing body of research challenging the widespread notion that beetle-killed forests are more vulnerable to more severe fires than those that have escaped infestation. The findings are highlighting the complex causes of western wildfires and raising new questions about the efficacy of some fire prevention policies, such as plans to remove beetle-killed trees from vast swaths of forest.

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Mapping potential ecosystem resilience and resistance across sage-grouse range using soil temperature and moisture regimes

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This fact sheet from the Sage Grouse Initiative discusses a new soils product that provides the ability to depict potential ecosystem resilience and resistance across the range of sage-grouse using soil temperature and moisture regimes.

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