Richard F Miller

2010 Proposal: SageSTEP Long‐term Ecological Monitoring Network

Proposed work will monitor for five years vegetation, fuels, wildlife, insects, and weather at 10 SageSTEP sites, all of which have been treated to reduce either juniper encroachment (woodland sites) or cheatgrass invasion (sagebrush/cheatgrass sites). Each of the six woodland sites contains an untreated control plot, a ‘cut’ plot where all trees were felled and left on site, and a prescribed burn plot, where fire was used to kill all trees – management objective of the treatments was to reduce tree dominance. Each of the four sagebrush/cheatgrass sites contains an untreated control plot, a mowed plot, a prescribed burn plot, and an herbicide plot, where each treatment was designed to remove 50% of the sagebrush...

Resilience to Stress and Disturbance, and Resistance to Bromus tectorum L. Invasion in Cold Desert Shrublands of Western North America

Abstract: "Alien grass invasions in arid and semi-arid ecosystems are resulting in grass-fire cycles and ecosystem-level transformations that severely diminish ecosystem services. Our capacity to address the rapid and complex changes occurring in these ecosystems can be enhanced by developing an understanding of the environmental factors and ecosystem attributes that determine resilience of native ecosystems to stress and disturbance, and resistance to invasion. Cold desert shrublands occur over strong environmental gradients and exhibit significant differences in resilience and resistance. They provide an excellent opportunity to increase our understanding of these concepts. Herein, we examine a series of linked...

Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation

Restoration Handbook for Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems with Emphasis on Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat

This Restoration Handbook consists of three parts with the same main title, “Restoration Handbook for Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems with Emphasis on Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat.” These parts provide an approach for effective implementation of restoration practices in sagebrush steppe ecosystems. The current document summarizes the literature and synthesizes core concepts that are necessary for a practitioner/manager to apply tools to help make landscape and site-specific decisions. Landscape-level decision tools are designed to help managers prioritize resource allocation among multiple potential restoration projects for achieving the greatest benefit at the landscape level. We are examining how restoration of sagebrush...