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Bruce Roundy

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...
Land managers are responsible for developing effective strategies for conserving and restoring Great Basin ecosystems in the face of invasive species, conifer expansion, and altered fire regimes. A warming climate is magnifying the effects of these threats and adding urgency to implementation of management practices that will maintain or improve ecosystem functioning. This Factsheet Series was developed to provide land managers with brief summaries of the best available information on contemporary management issues to facilitate science delivery and foster effective management. Each peer-reviewed factsheet was developed as a collaborative effort among knowledgeable scientists and managers. The series begins with...
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Research and Publications Authored and Supported by GBLCC Staff
FY2010In addition to regional Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge projects that the Great Basin LCC (GBLCC) supports, GBLCC staff lend technical expertise to a range of projects and have contributed to important regional publications on a range of subjects. These publications range in type from textbooks, to management-oriented science and conservation plans, to scientific papers and have covered subjects like wind erosion following fire, soil microbiota response to drought, plant community resilience to invasive species, and alpine plant communities. In many cases these publications form foundations for scientifically-informed management strategies across the Great Basin.
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SageSTEP Longterm Ecological Monitoring Network
Proposed work will monitor for five years vegetation, fuels, wildlife, insects, and weather at 10 Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP) sites, all of which have been treated to reduce either juniper encroachment (woodland sites) or cheatgrass invasion (sagebrush/cheatgrass sites). Monitoring of treatment response over the long term will lead to a better understanding of the extent to which managers can manipulate vegetation, fuels, and wildlife habitat in the context of climate change.FY2010Objectives:1) assess longterm trajectories in populations of key plant and animal species, and link these trajectories to management restoration treatments and to climate change; 2) measure total ecosystem...
This presentation aired as part of the Great Basin LCC webinar series on November 29, 2017. The presentation was given by Bruce Roundy of Brigham Young University.In this webinar, Dr. Bruce Roundy of Brigham Young University discusses climatic conditions that favor cheatgrass and those that favor desirable perennial herbs. He explains why conditions that favor cheatgrass are associated with less resistance and those that favor perennial herbs are associated with more resilience. The presentation suggests ways to increase resistance to weeds and system resilience when planning fuel control treatments in sagebrush steppe.
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