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 carbon over a wide geographic area of sagebrush steppe lands within or near the Great Northern LCC, anddetermine how patterns of carbon stores are altered by management restoration treatments; and 3) provide managers with information on the extent to which vegetation and wildlife restoration goals conflict with goals to manage carbon.
