Sagebrush
When: May 28th – 30th, 2025
Where: Prineville, Oregon
Board meeting, presentations and first night social: 4-H Clover Building, 502 SE Lynn Blvd, Prineville, OR 97754
Cost: Regular Registration (until May 14th): $75; Late Registration (after May 14th): $85; Student Registration: $25; May 28 only – social and light dinner/appetizers, evening presentation: $30
Questions: Contact Andy Neary, Central Oregon Chapter
This three-day short course covers the unique taxonomy associated with the Sunflower Family, Asteraceae. Basic terminology, dissection skills, and use of a key are critical elements of this class. We will cover not only how to identify sunflowers, but how to collect and press them for future reference or for the purpose of mailing to others for identification or verification. You can anticipate seeing about 60 different sunflower genera. This class is for participants with beginner through intermediate skills.
Instructor: Arnold (Jerry) Tiehm, M.S, Great Basin Flora Specialist
atiehm@unr.edu
Cost: $240 for non-students, $120 for students
Fees for optional credit units are paid separately when you enroll with UNR for Spring or Fall semester.
The simplest method for payment is to bring a check to class made out to Board of Regents. Contact the instructor for other payment options.
Registration: Sign up by emailing the instructor at atiehm@unr.edu
Timing: Class will be July 8-10, 2025
Additional details: Class size is limited to 30 participants.
Class will be from 8:00 am-12:00 pm, one hour lunch break, 1 pm-5 pm daily. It will be held in room 300G of Fleischman Agriculture at UNR. Hot water and some coffee and tea will be available in the classroom. This class may be taken for 1 unit of optional credit during either semester. Let the instructor know if you want to receive credit so you can obtain a class number. You must also pay the separate credit fees with UNR.
The workshop will be May 7th – 8th 8:00am-5:30 pm. Registration is FREE, so please come prepared with lunch, snacks, water and layers. In additional comments, please indicate anything we need to know (e.g., arriving late on Monday at 8:30am, need information for camping on site, accommodations related to a disability, uncertainty regarding federal travel restrictions etc.) Reach out to Vanessa (Vanessa.Schroeder@oregonstate.edu) with any other questions or concerns. Note: We are limiting to 40 people. We will have a waitlist. If you are no longer able to attend please email Vanessa so we can let others into the course. You will not immediately receive confirmation of the registration, but we will send out confirmations closer to the course. If you are waitlisted we will contact you to let you know where you are on the waitlist and if you have been moved into the course.
Webinar recording (1:00:34)
The Sagebrush Conservation Design (SCD) is a tool to identify intact sagebrush areas and address the largest threats to the ecosystem. The SCD focuses on first protecting intact and functioning sagebrush ecosystems, called Core Sagebrush Areas, then works outward toward more degraded areas (i.e., “Defend the Core”). The premise behind the Defend the Core approach is simple: focus resources first on preventative actions that retain ecosystem services in Core Sagebrush Areas because they are more cost-effective and more likely to be successful. The November 2024 special issue of Rangeland Ecology and Management is dedicated to applying the SCD to improve conservation outcomes across the sagebrush biome in the face of pervasive ecosystem threats. This special issue provides new science and real-world examples of how we can implement the SCD to save a biome. The overarching themes are: 1) Business-As-Usual Won’t Save the Sagebrush Sea, 2) Better Spatial Targeting Can Improve Outcomes, 3) Conservation Planning is Needed to Develop Realistic Business Plans, 4) Targeted Ecosystem Management: Monitoring Shows Managing for Sagebrush Ecological Integrity is Working, 5) Maintaining Sagebrush Ecological Integrity is Ecologically Relevant, and 6) There is Only Hope if We Manage Change. The collective articles show that there is no shared plan to save the biome, yet a business plan for the biome could ensure realistic goals. The sagebrush biome still has vast expanses of open spaces with high ecological integrity at a scale that is rare in other ecological systems within the lower 48 states. If we focus on the common ground of the main drivers of ecosystem change, implementing the SCD and Defending the Core are viable strategies to help save a biome.
View article.
The rate of change in invasive annual grass cover describes the trajectory of invasion. This information can be used to fine-tune priority locations and strategies for invasive species treatments. We identified locations with positive, neutral, negative, and variable rates of change. Although rates of change have accelerated, there were many locations with a consistent neutral rate of change in cover. High positive rates of change frequently preceded high invasive annual grass cover, and locations that had low cover rarely had a history of high positive rates of change. We identified potential management opportunities by combining rates of change in cover and percent cover data, illustrating both invasion severity and trajectory. We applied these potential opportunities to a map of the sagebrush biome using example thresholds. This map identifies locations that could be prioritized for different management goals and shows how those areas align with the Sagebrush Conservation Design management
View article.
To help inform strategic and cost-effective investments, we conducted a quantitative assessment of wildfire risk for the sagebrush biome. We used a geospatial fire modeling approach, customized for the sagebrush biome, to estimate spatially explicit burn probability and expected average annual area burned within three Sagebrush Ecological Integrity classes under the Sagebrush Conservation Design: Core Sagebrush Areas (CSAs), Growth Opportunity Areas (GOAs), and Other Rangeland Areas. We further used indices of ecological resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive grasses to characterize fire risk and recovery potential. Our approach indicates that nearly 530,000 ha are likely to burn in a typical contemporary fire year across the highest integrity Sagebrush Ecological Integrity classes (7% in CSAs and 31% in GOAs). Of the CSAs and GOAs likely to burn, nearly 9000 and 66000 ha, respectively, are expected to have low resilience or resistance and therefore highest loss potential. Cost-effective conservation investments should include wildfire protection for high-integrity sagebrush with low resilience or resistance. Protection objectives may be met with strategically placed fuel breaks intended to enhance fire prevention and containment efforts. Fuel treatments, including prescribed fire and mechanical activities outside of fuel breaks, are by contrast best suited for high-integrity areas with relatively high resilience and resistance. Those activities should be risk-informed and intended to maintain or improve ecological integrity and resilience to wildfire rather than to exclude fire altogether.
View article.
We found that within the sagebrush biome, fuel breaks are generally located in areas with high burn probability and are thus positioned well to intercept potential wildfires. However, fuel breaks are also frequently positioned in areas with lower predicted fuel break effectiveness relative to the sagebrush biome overall. Fuel breaks also are spatially associated with high invasive grass cover, indicating the need to better understand the causal relationship between fuel breaks and annual invasive grasses. We also show that the fuel break network is dense within priority wildlife habitats. Dense fuel breaks within wildlife habitats may trade off wildfire protection for decreased integrity of such habitats.
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.
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.
View (and/or order) the poster.
Sagebrush ecosystems, broadly distributed across western North America (see map), are imperiled due to a combination of modern and historical factors causing widespread degradation and habitat loss. Sagebrush shrubs are so common in these ecosystems that they create a “sea” across the landscape. This poster highlights wildflowers (forbs) common in sagebrush vegetation of the Great Basin.
These wildflowers support countless wildlife species, including some species only found in sagebrush ecosystems, such as the greater sage-grouse. (See “High sage-grouse value.”) Many forb species (including most featured here) are highly valued and used for food, medicine and ceremony by the many Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. There are hundreds of forb species in sagebrush ecosystems, all with their own unique characteristics. The 31 species on this poster highlight common species potentially useful in restoration. These species also represent the variety of size, height, flowering timing and taxonomy (evolutionary relationships) found in typical sagebrush communities. Note: These species rarely, if ever, occur as closely together as shown in this poster.