Location: Great Basin Rangelands Research
Project Number: 2060-21500-001-003-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2021
End Date: Dec 31, 2025
Objective:
1. Provide scientific data and analyses to the land management community related to long-term effects of fuel treatments on ecosystem components and resulting fuels and fire behavior in order to restore sagebrush steppe habitats and historical fire regimes in the Intermountain West.
2. Provide reports that will allow managers to understand fuel treatment effectiveness and restoration of sagebrush steppe ecosystems.
3. Provide outreach materials for stakeholders to interpet scientific results of the effects of fuel treatments on the sagebrush steppe.
Approach:
Tasks that will be accomplished by ARS and its cooperators include:
1. Oversee project management, including research directions, field data collection and analysis, communication with BLM and other partners, as well as outreach materials.
2. Facilitate hiring, training, and supervising field crews for collection of long-term monitoring data.
3. Support the collection and management of scientific data into an online data store.
4. Assist partners with maintaining field infrastructure, including fences, soil water/temperature stations, meteorological stations, and any other hardware.
5. Coordinate outreach program, including information posted on the website, social media, printed products, and other activities.
6. On an annual basis, provide reports on fuels, fire behavior, and vegetation to the BLM.
7. Conduct annual meetings among SageSTEP collaborators.
8. Analyze fuels and vegetation data with respect to fuels management at landscape scales and in the context of climate change. Disseminate this information via professional and peer-reviewed journals, as well as in outreach materials.
9. Present study results at regional and/or national workshops and conferences.
