Restoration
Webinar recording.
The Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome is a two-part volume on managing sagebrush ecosystems in the West that was developed by an extensive interagency team of scientists and managers. An overview of using the concepts of resilience to disturbance (ability to recover) and resistance to invasive annual grasses across three geographic scales (sagebrush biome, ecoregions, and local sites) to prioritize conservation and restoration actions is provided.
The webinar discusses how to use the Science Framework in management planning efforts, focusing on considerations like monitoring and adaptive management, climate adaptation, wildfire and vegetation management, nonnative invasive plant management, application of National Seed Strategy concepts, livestock grazing management, and wild horse and burro considerations.
Michele Crist, BLM National Interagency Fire Center, and Jeanne Chambers, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, present.
View newsletter.
In this issue:
Bird Communities in Transition after Treatments
Using Predictive Tools to Improve Seeding Success
View guide.
As highly productive and biologically diverse communities, healthy quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides; hereafter aspen) forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services across western North America. Western aspen decline during the last century has been attributed to several causes and their interactions, including altered fire regimes, drought, excessive use by domestic and wild ungulates, and conifer encroachment. Today’s managers need science-based guidance to develop and implement strategies and practices to restore structure, processes, and resilience to the full range of aspen functional types across multiple spatial scales. In these guidelines, we detail a process for making step-by-step decisions about aspen restoration. The steps are: (1) assessment of aspen condition, (2) identification of problematic conditions, (3) determination of causal factors, (4) selection of appropriate response options, (5) monitoring for improvement, and (6) assessment and adaptation. We describe the need for reference areas in which the full range of natural environmental conditions and ecosystem processes associated with aspen can be observed and quantified, and provide a list of example sites for Utah. These guidelines provide a road map for decision makers to adaptively manage aspen in a time of increasing environmental stress and in anticipation of an uncertain future.
View webinar recording.
Join this webinar and robust discussion about innovative collaborations and case studies developed through a partnership between Trout Unlimited and the Forest Service. We will share examples of successful projects, tools such as partnership agreements, and how this model of volunteer monitoring can be expanded across other resource areas and throughout the nation to connect communities to their public lands and waters.
Projects and tools include:
- Stream Restoration Collaboration
- Angler Science
- Trout Unlimited’s Citizen Science Framework
- TU and USFS Master Agreement
- Forest Service Citizen Science Toolkit and Fund
With remarks from Trout Unlimited and Forest Service leadership:
Keith Curley, Vice President for Eastern Conservation, Trout Unlimited
Chris French, Deputy Chief for National Forest System, USDA Forest Service
View study.
From 327 experiments testing 121 taxa in 170 studies, we found 95.1% of 305 experiments reported among‐population differences, and 81.4% of 161 experiments reported trait‐by‐environment associations. Locals showed greater survival in 67% of 24 reciprocal experiments that reported survival, and higher fitness in 90% of 10 reciprocal experiments that reported reproductive output. A meta‐analysis on a subset of studies found that variation in eight commonly measured traits was associated with mean annual precipitation and mean annual temperature at the source location, with notably strong relationships for flowering phenology, leaf size, and survival, among others. Although the Great Basin is sometimes perceived as a region of homogeneous ecosystems, our results demonstrate widespread habitat‐related population differentiation and local adaptation. Locally sourced plants likely harbor adaptations at rates and magnitudes that are immediately relevant to restoration success, and our results suggest that certain key traits and environmental variables should be prioritized in future assessments of plants in this region.
View the infographic.
View the Forest Service Bulletin summary.
View a list of information and tools for applying these concepts.
View the executive summary.
The Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome is a two-part guide to managing sagebrush ecosystems in the West and was developed by an extensive interagency team of scientists and managers. It uses the concepts of resilience to disturbance (ability to recover) and resistance to invasive annual grasses across three geographic scales (sagebrush biome, ecoregions, and local sites) to prioritize conservation and restoration actions in areas where they are likely to have the greatest benefits.
Part 1 provides the science basis and decision-support tools for prioritizing areas and strategies for management.
Part 2 focuses on management considerations and tradeoffs for applying the information in Part 1, including monitoring and adaptive management, climate adaptation, wildfire and vegetation management, nonnative invasive plant management, application of National Seed Strategy concepts, livestock grazing management, and wild horse and burro considerations.
View study.
Here, we show >20 yr were required for adaptive differences to emerge among 13 populations of a widespread shrub (sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata ssp wyomingensis) collected from around the western United States and planted into common gardens. Additionally, >10 yr were required for greater survival of local populations, that is, local adaptation, to become evident. Variation in survival was best explained by the combination of populations’ home ecoregion combined with grouping of minimum temperature and aridity.
View article.
The variation in predictive power among a suite of modeling frameworks underscores the importance of a model comparison and refinement approach that evaluates multiple models and data groups, and selects variables based on their contribution to predictive power. The enhanced understanding of factors influencing restoration outcomes accomplished by this framework has the potential to aid the adaptive management process for improving future restoration outcomes.
View manual.
The purpose of this design manual is to provide restoration practitioners with guidelines for implementing a subset of low-tech tools—namely beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS)—for initiating process-based restoration in structurally-starved riverscapes. While the concept of process-based restoration in riverscapes has been advocated for at least two decades, details and specific examples on how to implement it remain sparse. Here, we describe ‘low-tech process-based restoration’ (LT-PBR) as a practice of using simple, low unit-cost, structural additions (e.g. wood and beaver dams) to riverscapes to mimic functions and initiate specific processes.
View paper.
The most significant landscape variable affecting survival was soil taxonomic subgroup, with much lower survival where buried restrictive layers reduce deep water infiltration. Survival also decreased with greater slope steepness, exotic annual grass cover, and burn severity. Survival was optimal where perennial bunchgrasses comprised 8–14% of total cover. These soil, topographic, and community condition factors revealed through monitoring of landscape-level treatments can be used to explain the success of plantings and to strategically plan future restoration projects.