Webinar
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Presenter: Sarah Anderson, Ecologist, Terrestrial Condition Assessment Coordinator
Partner Organization: US Forest Service, Terrestrial Condition Assessment Program, Natural Resources Staff Area, Washington DC Office
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Presenter: Sam Amato, Fire Application Specialist, Forest Service, Wildland Fire Management RD&A
Webinar join link.
The NRI program collects and produces scientifically credible information on the status, condition, and trends of land, soil, water, and related natural resources on the nation’s non-federal lands. It is the largest field-based survey of natural resources in the world. Inventories of natural resources have been conducted for over 65 years on non-Federal lands. For rangelands, the 12 current inventory and assessment protocols were developed in a collaboration of federal agencies, were tested for several years across the continental United States, and were set in 2004. The same set of protocols was applied to Federal rangelands beginning in 2009. This presentation describes the protocols and some of the new relevant information being generated by this longitudinal statistical study of on-site rangeland inventory.
The US Geological Survey Land Management Research Program and the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange teamed up to bring you updates in sagebrush, fire, and wildlife related research. On 3/6/2025, USGS researchers, Matt Rigge, Martin Holdrege, and Shawn O’Neil shared research on vegetation trends and their relationships to climate, invasion, and disturbance, Gregor Siegmund, Alice Stears, Mike Duniway, and Gayle Tyree shared their latest research on planning and predicting succss of restoration treatments, and Will Janousek shared science on elk management. Below are the webinar recording and resources associated with each presentation.
To view a complete list of resources (completed and planned), please view the program for this slate of presentations.
3/6 – Climate, vegetation trends, and big game
Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) vegetation trend summaries
Project webpage
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium
RCMAP fractional component time-series data across western North America (1985-2023)
Integrating climate, sagebrush ecological integrity, and grazing
Project webpage
Observed wildfire frequency, modelled wildfire probability, climate, and fine fuels across the big sagebrush region in the western US
Influence of future climate scenarios on habitat and population dynamics of greater sage-grouse
Project webpage
Understanding and forecasting environmental controls over plant establishment in sagebrush ecosystems to enhance restoration success
Project webpage
Treatment and post-fire assessment tools for management of the sagebrush ecosystem
Project webpage
Science to support elk management efforts to reduce chronic wasting disease (CWD) risk
Project webpage
The US Geological Survey Land Management Research Program and the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange teamed up to bring you updates in sagebrush, fire, and wildlife related research. On 2/27/2025, USGS researchers, Matt Germino, Doug Shinneman, and Beth Horning shared research on fuels, fuel breaks, and economics useful to decision making, Matt Germino and Morgan Roche shared research on herbicide treatments for invasive annual grasses, and Lea Condon shared research on the threats to biocrust in sagebrush ecosystems. Below are the webinar recording and resources associated with each presentation.
To view a complete list of resources (completed and planned), please view the program for this slate of presentations.
2/27 – Fire, fuels management, and invasive species
Webinar recording
Longevity of herbicides targeting exotic annual grassed in sagebrush-steppe soils
Project webpage
Patchy response of cheatgrass and nontarget vegetation to indaziflam and imazapic applied after wildfire in sagebrush steppe
A collaborative and iterative framework for delivering applied fuel break science: With a focus on sagebrush ecosystems and the Great Basin
Project webpage
Future direction of fuels management in sagebrush rangelands
UAS survey of sagebrush fuel breaks
Project webpage
Invasive annual grass – An economic assessment
Project webpage
Longevity of herbicides targeting exotic annual grasses in sagebrush-steppe soils
Project webpage
Intra-site sources of restoration variability in severely invaded rangeland: Strong temporal effects of herbicide–weather interactions; weak spatial effects of plant community patch type and litter
Synthesis of indaziflam outcomes for protecting sagebrush ecosystems
Project webpage
Can ruderal components of biocrust be maintained under increasing threats of drought, grazing, and wild horses?
Project webpage
Season of grazing interacts with soil texture, selecting for associations of biocrust morphogroups
Biological soil crusts are more prevalent in warmer and drier environments within the Great Basin ecoregion: Implications for managing annual grass invasion
The US Geological Survey Land Management Research Program and the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange teamed up to bring you updates in sagebrush, fire, and wildlife related research. On 2/20/2025, USGS researchers, Rob Arkle, Doug Shinneman, and Michelle Jeffries, shared research on monitoring and planning, Adam Noel and Sarah Halperin shared their latest research on pinyon-juniper treatments and decision support. Below are the webinar recording and resources associated with each presentation.
To view a complete list of resources (completed and planned), please view the program for this slate of presentations.
2/20 – Monitoring, pinyon-juniper, and fuels management
Webinar recording
Planning for conservation delivery success: Linking biome-wide Sagebrush Conservation Design to local treatment planning by leveraging landscape restoration outcomes
Land Treatment Exploration Tool (LTET)
Technical transfer tools for the Nevada and Oregon rangeland monitoring project (NORMP)
Oregon rangeland monitoring program: SageCon
Rapid and Other Assessment and Monitoring Methods (ROAM) project
ROAM project website
Pinyon-juniper treatments for minimizing climate and fire vulnerability
Project website
Most PJ woodland species distributions projected to shrink under climate change
Data of estimated environmental suitability of PJ species under various climate scenarios
Earth Engine App with PJ projected distributions
Synthesizing scientific information on treatment and natural disturbance effects on pinyon-juniper woodlands and associated wildlife habitat
Project website
Ecological effects of PJ removal in the western US: A synthesis (2014-2021)
The US Geological Survey Land Management Research Program and the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange teamed up to bring you updates in sagebrush, fire, and wildlife related research. On 2/6/2025, USGS researchers, Stephen Boyte and Morgan Roche shared their latest research on cheatgrass and fine fuels, Bryan Tarbox and Erica Christensen shared research on restoration treatment effectiveness, and Cam Aldridge and Cara Applestein shared research on monitoring and predictions to help restoration. Below are the webinar recording and resources associated with each presentation.
To view a complete list of resources (completed and planned), please view the program for this slate of presentations.
Individual presentations and associated resources, within the project webpage with links to data and publications:
Develop annual herbaceous percent cover maps in near-real time
Project webpage
Exotic annual data
Proliferation of fine fuels: Assessing under future climatic conditions
Optimizing Sagebrush Restoration project webpage
Proliferations project webpage
Optimizing sagebrush restoration and management actions to increase connectivity within the Sagebrush Conservation Design
Project webpage
Prioritizing Restoration of Sagebrush Ecosystems Tool (PreSET) decision-support tool
Leveraging soil, vegetation, fire, and land treatment data to inform restoration across the sagebrush biome
The Sagebrush Conservation Design
Assessing cheatgrass treatment efficacy across the sagebrush biome
Project webpage
Sagebrush recovery modeling website and associated projects
Sagebrush recovery projections layers
Leveraging soil, vegetation, fire, and land treatment data to inform sagebrush restoration
Simulating trends in land health components under treatment scenarios and Sagebrush Conservation Design
Project webpage
Sagebrush biome-wide vegetation change monitoring and warning system
Project webpage
Vectors of annual grass invasion – Roche et al. Predicting reburn risk to restoration investments
Projects webpage
Webinar recording.
LANDFIRE is one of several programs that tracks treatment events on the landscape. Join TNC Fire Ecologist, Kori Blankenship as she discusses the importance of knowing when and where these treatments occur – having this knowledge available allows land managers to track progress towards land management objectives. Kori provides a brief summary of treatment tracking events and their effort to demonstrates how The Nature Conservancy is using LANDFIRE’s Events data to assess the extent of treatments in dry forests in the 11 western states.
Workshop resources, recordings.
Invasive annual grasses (IAG) – including cheatgrass, medusahead, ventanata, and others – continue to be a primary cause of rangeland degradation in the western US. In this workshop, we build upon concepts presented in previous events (see https://www.invasivegrasses.com/virtual-workshop) and focus specifically on turning strategies into action for managing IAG. Not only will we learn about the most current science around managing IAG, we will also hear success stories from ongoing projects and partnerships around the West.
You asked for it, you get it! A major component of this year’s virtual workshop will focus on answering questions submitted by you, the participants. We have compiled a list of questions submitted by previous workshop participants and will combine them with questions you can submit when you register to provide specific responses to those questions. Together, we will explore uniting landscape-scale strategic conservation concepts with targeted, on-the-ground management techniques specifically designed to meet vegetation management goals.
The US Geological Survey Land Management Research Program and the Great Basin Fire Science Exchange teamed up to bring you updates in sagebrush, fire, and wildlife related research.
Dates, Topics, and Presentations:
1/30 – Sage-grouse, carbon topics
Webinar recording
Summary webpage
Program with speakers, talks, and resources
- Greater sage-grouse hierarchical population monitoring framework: Range-wide application of an early warning systems for populations at-risk – Coates, Weise et al.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation actions directed for greater sage-grouse using hierarchical models and the Conservation Efforts Database – Coates et al.
- Greater sage-grouse range-wide seasonal habitat maps: Identifying regional thresholds and relationships between trends and seasonal habitat use – Wann et al.
- Characterizing the environmental drivers of range-wide gene flow for greater sage-grouse – Zimmerman et al.
- Characterizing greater sage-grouse climate driven maladaptation – Zimmerman et al.
- Quantifying carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions in sagebrush rangelands to inform management for carbon resilience – Bagcilar et al.
2/6 – Invasive species, restoration effectiveness, and monitoring
Webinar recording
Summary webpage
Program with speakers, talks, and resources
- Develop annual herbaceous percent cover maps in near-real time – Boyte et al.
- Proliferation of fine fuels: Assessing under future climatic conditions – Roche et al.
- Optimizing sagebrush restoration and management actions to increase connectivity within the Sagebrush Conservation Design – Tarbox et al.
- Assessing cheatgrass treatment efficacy across the sagebrush biome – Tarbox et al.
- Simulating trends in land health components under treatment scenarios and Sagebrush Conservation Design – Christensen et al.
- Biome-wide vegetation change monitoring and warning system – Aldridge et al.
- Vectors of annual grass invasion – Roche et al.
- Predicting reburn risk to restoration investments – Applestein et al.
2/20 – Monitoring, pinyon-juniper, and fuels management
Webinar recording
Summary webpage
Program with speakers, talks, and resources
- Planning for conservation delivery success: Linking biome-wide Sagebrush Conservation Design to local treatment planning by leveraging landscape restoration outcomes- Arkle et al.
- Technical transfer tools for the Nevada and Oregon rangeland monitoring project (NORMP) – Pilliod et al.
- Rapid and Other Assessment and Monitoring Methods (ROAM) project – Jeffries et al.
- Pinyon-juniper treatments for minimizing climate and fire vulnerability – Noel et al.
- Synthesis and forecasts of pinyon-juniper woodland die-off – Wion (No recording)
- Synthesizing scientific information on treatment and natural disturbance effects on pinyon-juniper woodlands and associated wildlife habitat – Halperin et al.
2/27 – Fire, fuels management, invasive species –
Webinar recording
Summary webpage
Program with speakers, talks, and resources
- Effectiveness of layering treatments in the “multiple-intervention” response to wildfire in sagebrush steppe – Germino et al.
- A collaborative and iterative framework for delivering applied fuel break science: With a focus on sagebrush ecosystems and the Great Basin – Shinneman et al.
- UAS survey of sagebrush fuel breaks – Shinneman et al.
- Invasive annual grass – Economic assessment – Orning et al.
- Longevity of herbicides targeting exotic annual grasses in sagebrush-steppe soils – Germino et al.
- Synthesis of indaziflam outcomes for protecting sagebrush ecosystems – Roche et al.
- Can ruderal components of biocrust be maintained under increasing threats of drought, grazing, and wild horses? Condon et al.
3/6 – Climate, vegetation trends, and big game
Webinar recording
Summary webpage
Program with speakers, talks, and resources
- Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) vegetation trend summaries – Rigge
- Integrating climate, sagebrush ecological integrity, and grazing – Holdrege et al.
- Influence of future climate scenarios on habitat and population dynamics of greater sage-grouse – O’Neil et al.
- Understanding and forecasting environmental controls over plant establishment in sagebrush ecosystems to enhance restoration success – Siegmund, Stears et al.
- Treatment and post-fire assessment tools for management of the sagebrush ecosystem – Duniway, Tyree et al.
- Science to support elk management efforts to reduce CWD risk – Janousek et al.