Fact Sheet / Brief

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Greater sage-grouse space-use models inform surface use designations

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This brief summarizes a study that provides empirical support for distances between 5 and 7.5 km from leks for surface use designation. It is important to note that sage-grouse space use does not fully inform the extent of no-activity areas. Some industrial activities, such as those generating acoustic pollution, can contribute to negative impacts which extend beyond the physical footprint of each installation.

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Saving sage-grouse from the trees: a proactive solution to reducing a key threat to a candidate species

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This scientific paper suggests that sage-grouse incur population-level impacts at very low levels of encroachment, and leks were less likely to be active where smaller trees were dispersed.

A summary of this study and a video were made available by the Sage Grouse Initiative.

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Wildland fire fact sheet for the public and media

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This brief summarizes fire ecology and management issues in California mixed-conifer forests for an audience without a background in fire, including the general public and media.

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Do carbon offsets work? The role of forest management in greenhouse gas mitigation

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In this synthesis of the latest available science, authors challenge the underlying assumptions used to establish most carbon-trading mechanisms, including the notion that lightly managed or unmanaged forests will be more effective at sequestering carbon over long periods than would a combination of managed forests and efficiently produced wood products. They take issue with the measurement systems used to determine trading parameters and find validity in the concerns that many market experts have expressed about additionality and leakage. This report details reasons to look for other solutions to greenhouse gas emission challenges.

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Rapid lesson sharing – Smokejumper para-cargo burnover, Citadel fire

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This brief shares information about the Citadel fire incident and lessons learned by and from the Great Basin Smokejumpers.

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Fire history of a mixed conifer woodland at the ecotone between the southern Great Basin and Mojave desert

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This research brief reports that the cessation of fire use by Indians and a shift to climatic conditions less favorable to fire are both explanations for decreased fire frequency over the past century and a half in the southern Great Basin and Mojave desert ecotone.

 

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Effect of leaf beetle herbivory on the fire behavior of invasive tamarisk

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This brief evaluates the potential effects of Diorhabda herbivory on tamarisk fire behavior at Great Basin and a Mojave Desert sites.

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Climate change tipping points: A point of no return?

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This brief highlights that recent fire patterns in the West confirm that warming is already causing changes in forested landscapes that are likely irreversible. Overall, the suite of JFSP studies on climate change and tipping points presents a number of strategies for adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of climate change, but the research also underscores that there is no one-size-fits all approach.

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Cheating cheatgrass: New research to combat a wily invasive weed

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This study discusses the potential of a fungus naturally associated with these Bromus species, which is lethal to the plants’ soil-banked dormant seeds. Study findings open the way to a commercial biocontrol product that may be capable of safely eliminating the seed bank of persistent invasive grasses. Biocontrol could be used in conjunction with other weed control measures and conservation strategies to make sagebrush-steppe lands less susceptible to reinvasion.

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Bark beetles and fire: Two forces of nature transforming western forests

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This Joint Fire Science Program brief addresses whether or not beetles are setting the stage for larger, more severe wildfires and fires are bringing on beetle epidemics.

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