Webinar
Description: The Western Governors’ Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under a Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, have been collaborating on efforts to meaningfully address the large-scale infestation of invasive annual grasses on western forests and rangelands. The result of this effort is a new toolkit for land managers to address the spread of invasive annual grasses in the West, including species such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventanata.
The toolkit is comprised of three elements:
- A roadmap for invasive grass management in the West, with new best management practices for the identification and protection of relatively intact “core” areas;Case studies highlighting the application of these practices in Idaho and Wyoming; and
- A new geospatial data layer to help state and local officials manage invasive annual grasses at home, while also offering opportunities to identify new cross-boundary collaborative projects.
Presenters: Lindy Garner, Sagebrush Ecosystem Invasive Species Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jeremy Maestas, Ecologist/National Sagebrush Ecosystem Specialist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Brian A. Mealor, Director and Associate Professor, University of Wyoming Sheridan Research and Extension Center; Brian A. Rutledge, Director, Sagebrush Ecosystem Initiative, The National Audubon Society
The first session in a series of seven on Shared Stewardship, Vicki Christensen, Chief of the USDA Forest Service; Jay Farrell, Executive Director of the National Association of State Foresters; Vernon Stearns Jr., President of the Intertribal Timber Council; Karen Hardigg, Executive Director of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; and Mary Mitsos, President and CEO of the National Forest Foundation answered the questions, “If you were to look back five years from now, what would you be most proud of in terms of what has been achieved through Shared Stewardship?” and, “Where are cultural shifts needed to make those desired outcomes a reality?”. Speakers addressed a series of audience questions before the session concluded.
Description: Post-fire seeding has been widely implemented in the Great Basin in response to the threat of resource degradation and weed invasion following fire disturbance. The longstanding practice of seeding non-native forage grasses has worked well for some purposes, but seeding native species is a more sensible choice if natural vegetation recovery is a long-term objective. Seeding natives raises questions of cost, establishment ability and whether native species will be as effective as non-natives in outcompeting invasive annuals. We consider these issues in the context of a study where outcomes of native and non-native seed mixes were compared during an 18-year timeframe following wildfire. Successional trajectories of seeded treatments were compared with unseeded controls and late-successional reference communities to assess restoration potential of treatment options.
Presenters: Francis Kilkenny, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service and Jeff Ott, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service.
Webinar recording.
Description: Range of Variability (ROV) concepts – including Natural (NRV), Historic (HRV), Current (CRV), and Future (FRV) – are frequently used by the US Forest Service to help define land management goals. This webinar provides an introduction to ROV terminology and examples of how the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests in the Blue Mountains have applied ROV concepts during project planning when addressing key requirements of the Eastside Screens. The discussion includes overviews of tools commonly used to conduct ROV analyses.
Presenter: Nathan Poage, Forest Service Ecologist,
In NEPA 101, you learned about the components of the National Environmental Policy Act and the role of collaborative engagement in the environmental analysis process. In this follow-up webinar, Susan Jane Brown from the Western Environmental Law Center gives a presentation on and answer your questions about collaborative administrative and judicial review opportunities, and dig deeper into the administrative review process for the Forest Service, judicial review of agency decisions, and how collaborative groups can engage in these processes.
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Description: Webinar focuses on three critical areas of bioenergy and bioproducts research and development: 1) sustainable and economically efficient forest biomass management and production systems, 2) competitive low-emissions biofuels and bioenergy conversion technologies deployed in the forest sector, and 3) information and tools for decision making and policy analysis related to forest biomass utilization.
Presenter: Nate Anderson, PhD in Forest Resources Management from the State University of New York, an MS in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, and a BS in Biology from Bates College.
This webinar presentation lays the groundwork for an in-depth symposium at the upcoming 2020 Natural Areas Conference that will address wildfire, herbivory, climate warming, development pressures, cross-boundary management, and regional monitoring of aspen in the Western United States.
Webinar presented by Rich Hatfield.
Wet or mesic meadows are rare but disproportionately important habitats within western rangelands. Gully erosion and channel incision are widespread problems reducing natural resiliency and water storage capacity, which is impacting wildlife and working lands. Simple, low-tech restoration methods using sticks and stones provide effective tools for protecting and restoring meadow systems. While there is no shortage of degraded areas that need help across the West, there is a shortage of time and money to address them. In this webinar, Jeremy and Shawn will introduce participants to how to use Bill Zeedyk’s principles of “Reading the Landscape and Thinking like Water” to recognize and prioritize meadow restoration.
This webinar walks through the newly launched Future Avoided Cost Explorer (FACE:Hazards) with a basic demonstration of the tool’s features and answer questions about exploring the study data. This resource, provided by the State of Colorado, aims to help decision-makers determine the economic risks of future hazards – including flood, drought, and wildfire – on select sectors of Colorado’s economy.