Restoration
View fact sheet, pg 49.
This fact sheet provides land managers with state-of-the-art information on the establishment of big sagebrush through direct seeding.
View all topics reviewed in the Fact Sheet series.
View fact sheet, pg. 74.
Great Basin sagebrush communities are experiencing widespread degradation due to the introduction of invasive annual weeds and disturbances that promote weed expansion, including inappropriate grazing and fire. Many sites previously occupied by diverse communities of perennial grasses, forbs, and shrubs have been reduced to depauperate sagebrush stands that readily become dominated by invasive annuals following fire. Post-fire seeding may be necessary to prevent these areas from converting to annual grasslands.
View all topics reviewed in the Fact Sheet series.
Individual fact sheets comprising the Information and tools to conserve and restore Great Basin ecosystems – Factsheet Series are available below.
No. 1- Putting resilience and resistance into practice
No. 2- Limiting medusahead invasion and impacts in the Great Basin
No. 4- Conifer removal in the sagebrush steppe: The why, when, where, and how
No. 6- Wind erosion following wildfire in Great Basin ecosystems
No. 7- Post-fire grazing management in the Great Basin
No. 8- Establishing big sagebrush and other shrubs from planting stock
No. 9- Assessing fuel loads in sagebrush steppe and PJ woodlands
No. 10- Seeding big sagebrush successfully on Intermountain rangelands
No. 11- Assessing impacts of fire and post-fire mitigation on runoff and erosion from rangelands
No. 12- Management of aspen in a changing environment
No. 13- Woody fuels reduction in Wyoming big sagebrush communities
No. 14- Seeding techniques for sagebrush community restoration after fire
View report.
Findings of this research suggest that a hedge betting approach (employing more than one restoration method) can increase the probability of successful restoration. Broadcast seeding seed pillows and bare seed over two years resulted in a sagebrush restoration success rate of 86% compared to 36% if only one method was used in one year. Information generated from this study will help land managers successfully restore sage-grouse habitat after wildfires by pairing restoration methods with site characteristics.
View webinar recording.
Three speakers from three different federal agencies discuss implementation opportunities and challenges from a national, regional and local perspective. Examples will relate to strategy goals (producing and providing needed seed, conducting research, expanding tools for land managers and communications).
This two day field tour discussed conservation and restoration issues in watersheds, riparian ecosystems, and meadows on day one, and piñon-juniper expansion, cheatgrass invasion, and fire on day two. Presenters were from federal and state agencies and the University of Nevada, Reno.
View the flyer and the agenda.
Biological soil crusts refer to a community of organisms that live on the soil surface in arid and semi-arid lands, including fungi, lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria. These organisms contribute to nutrient and hydrologic cycling as well as the prevention of soil erosion. This webinar discusses the distribution of biocrusts in the region as well as their recovery from disturbance and restoration. Presented by Lea Condon, Research Ecologist at the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR.
This webinar provided an overview of Idaho Fish and Game’s Southwest Region Volunteer Program, which has been utilizing volunteers in important habitat restoration projects for over 25 years. They use an adaptive approach to landscape management that includes responding to wildfires and working across land managed by federal, state and private entities. The program has become quite successful because it makes the volunteer the most important piece of the project; without volunteers the projects could not happen.
Many inventory and assessment projects spanning large landscapes, the entire Great Basin, or the western US, have been completed recently or are underway for key natural resources. This special session of the 4th Great Basin Consortium Conference brought together leaders of these efforts to compare/contrast their efforts and create a synthesis product or “table of contents” for geospatial data users.
Geospatial presentations in pdf format are provided below:
- Landscape conservation management and analysis portal, Sean Finn USFS, GNLCC
- Rapid ecological assessment of the Northern and Central Basin and Range, Nika Lepak, BLM
- Fire and Invasives Tool, Mike Pellant, BLM
- Land Treatment Digital Library, David Pilliod, USGS
- Conservation Efforts Database, Justin Welty, USGS
- Landscape Toolbox and JournalMap, Bob Unnasch, TNC
- Remote sensing characterization of GB shrub and grasslands for monitoring, Collin Homer
- BLM Riparian Toolbar, Ken McGwire, DRI
- Geospatial weather sources, Stuart Hardegree, ARS
- Development and use of seed zones in native plant restoration, Francis Kilkenny, RMRS
- NorWEST Stream Temperature, Dan Isaak, RMRS
- Forest Inventory and Analysis, Chris Witt, FS
- Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring Strategy, Nika Lepak, BLM
- Sagebrush ecosystem response to changing climate and disturbance: an ecohydrological perspective, John Bradford, USGS
- Small mammal thermal mapping, Erik Beever, USGS
In this webinar, Stuart Hardegree, Plant Physiologist, USDA ARS Northwest Watershed Research Center, Boise, ID, discusses weather variability and forecasting tools for short- and long-term restoration planning in the Great Basin.