Restoration
Visit the PJ website, authored by Rick Miller
Pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands occupy over 78,000 square miles of the Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau. These woodlands have persisted for tens of thousands of years and provide important biodiversity and habitat for many species across the region. Yet, relatively recent infill of new trees into old-growth woodlands and expansion of trees into adjacent sagebrush-steppe, riparian, and aspen communities have created a considerable mix of concerns around wildfire, drought-mortality, invasive species, watershed function, tree removal, and loss of habitat, biodiversity, and resilience.
This website provides background information on the ecology and management of PJ woodlands useful to the interested public and emerging information important to resource managers.
1) PJ 101 provides a brief introduction to and description of PJ woodlands with links to more in-depth information.
2) FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) briefly addresses questions related to the ecology and management of PJ woodlands.
3) Tools provides information and concepts for evaluating landscapes, which are specifically useful for predicting disturbance or vegetation management responses in PJ woodlands.
4) Literature provides brief summaries and links to recently published PJ woodlands studies. Study findings are highlighted and discussed in terms of our current understanding.
This website will be continually updated with new articles, questions, and tools.
Visit workshop webpage.
Idaho’s collaborative groups are committed to promoting forest restoration on federal lands. National elections and new Administrations may modify policy impacting public lands management. What is the potential impact on collaborative groups engaged in forest restoration? This regional event brings together leaders from the timber industry, local government, conservation organizations, community groups, and land management agencies from across Idaho. IFRP has structured this virtual conference to include informative presentations, panel discussions on current issues, and break-out sessions.
View report.
Today, American conservation confronts the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, a global pandemic, skeptics of these threats, a massive federal deficit, economic hardship, social injustice, and political divisions that threaten our democracy. Yet, at the same time, people continue to explore new ways to work together to use science, collaboration, and innovation to advance efforts to protect our environment, conserve our natural resource legacy, and broaden its benefits for all Americans.
We are hosting several workshops, symposia as part of the 2021 Society for Range Management annual meeting. **You do not need to be registered for the SRM meeting to attend.
Strategic Targeted Grazing to Reduce Fine Fuels (Feb 16, 1:30-4:00 PST/2:30-5:00 MST)
The Strategic Grazing symposium was held in conjunction with the Society for Range Management Virtual Meeting. It provides updates on the Idaho and Nevada strategic grazing demonstration areas. Symposium recording.
Sagebrush Ecosystem Recovery 10+ Yrs after Treatments (Feb 17, 1:30-3:30 PST/2:30-4:30 MST)
The Sagebrush Ecosystem symposium provides Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP) updates. It was held in conjunction with the Society for Range Management Virtual Meeting. It shares what’s been learned after at least 10 years post-treatment. Symposium recording.
Big Sagebrush Restoration Status (Feb 18, 1:30-4:00 PST/2:30-5:00 MST)
The Big Sagebrush symposium was held in conjunction with the Society for Range Management Virtual Meeting. It was brought to you by the Rangeland Equipment and Technology Council (RTEC). Symposium recording.
The Big Sagebrush symposium will be held in conjunction with the Society for Range Management Virtual Meeting. It is brought to you by the Rangeland Equipment and Technology Council (RTEC).
**You do not need to be registered for the SRM meeting to join.
Webinar recording.
Description: Native plant diversity is the hallmark of a healthy ecosystem. In Nevada, our native plant communities are threatened by the accelerated invasion of non-native species, altered fire regimes, grazing, drought, and climate change. Slowing and reversing this largescale conversion requires coordinated efforts between researchers and land managers, working collaboratively to identify the most promising seed sources for restoring disturbed and invaded sites. The Nevada Native Seed Partnership is a group of state, federal, university, and nonprofit partners working together to increase the availability and use of native seed for rehabilitation, reclamation, and restoration activities in Nevada. This presentation will highlight some of the science and restoration efforts this partnership has accomplished to date to restore and preserve our most impacted native plant communities.
Presenter: Sarah Kulpa is the Restoration Ecologist/Botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, Nevada. Her work focuses on Great Basin sagebrush ecosystem restoration and threatened and endangered plant species. Sarah leads the native seed collection, increase, and restoration activities of the Reno FWS including mentoring the first FWS Seeds of Success team and helping establish the Nevada Native Seed Partnership. She received her M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Nevada, Reno and her B.S. in Biology from St. Michael’s College.
View webinar recording.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community (FBIC) Native Seed & Grassland Restoration Program was designed to meet DOI, BLM, and Plant Conservation and Restoration Program Strategic Goals, via partnerships with FBIC and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Launched in 2019, and led by an Indigenous PI, this Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)-based program focuses on developing genetically appropriate native plant material for habitat restoration; inventorying and prioritizing plant populations; and implementing and assessing restoration efforts through monitoring. Working on BLM lands, in consultation with Aaniiih and Nakoda elders and employing and empowering tribal youth, we are using Assessment, Inventorying, and Monitoring (AIM) protocols to identify plant populations, and then making collections from them for the Seeds of Success (SOS) program. Our long-term goal is to empower FBIC in creating a community-led greenhouse program to grow out native seeds, focusing on culturally significant species, thereby benefitting the community financially in increasing BLM Stock and Foundation seed amounts to use on larger programs and for restoration of FBIC and other Native American lands. FBIC has invited us to expand seed collection onto FBIC land, to help the community advance restoration efforts of degraded rangelands to support Greater sage-grouse and bison conservation.
Webinar recording.
Pollinators are essential to the survival and health of natural ecosystems but are declining worldwide. Because of this, there is urgent need to restore pollinators and the services they provide. One way to address this need is to use pollinator-friendly plants in revegetation projects (roadsides, fire rehabilitation, etc.), but land managers lack information about which plants are best for pollinators. RMRS and partners at Montana State University are assessing the pollinator-friendliness of native plant species that are available for revegetation in Montana to produce a guide identifying the best species mixes to support the greatest number of species and abundance of pollinators. We found that plant species vary widely in the abundance, diversity, and community of pollinator species that each attract. However, several plant species are superstars that are visited by most pollinator species across a diversity of habitats. These focal-plant species can form a backbone in seed mixes to successfully restore diverse and stable plant and pollinator communities.
View research brief.
Resilience goals should be updated to better apply to 21st century ecosystems. They propose a concept of scaled resilience, which incorporates scales of time, space, and biological level of organization. By measuring disturbance and post-disturbance ecosystem responses in all three dimensions, scaled resilience models can be grounded by data that are much more useful to land managers than simple comparisons to reference site conditions.
View abstracts.
Abstracts of Recent Papers on Range Management in the West. Prepared by Charlie Clements, Rangeland Scientist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV.