Reno, Nev. - On October 19, state, federal, and non-profit organizations signed a cooperative Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, to enhance and expand proactive sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.
Learn more about sagebrush conservation and restoration across Nevada. Signed in Reno, Nevada, this MOU also prioritizes conservation in the Bi-State area along the California/Nevada border.
The purpose of this MOU is to provide a collaborative framework to accomplish common goals related to the restoration, enhancement, and conservation of sage-steppe habitat.
“This partnership is modeled on the highly successful Burley Project in Idaho and will allow Nevada partners to cooperatively pool resources across the state,” said Pheasants Forever and Sage Grouse Initiative Field Capacity Coordinator Michael Brown.
The primary components to this partnership and MOU are to accelerate sagebrush ecosystem conservation across state, federal, and private property by investing in these proactive efforts:
- Control invading conifers in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds;
- Implement practices across landownerships designed to reduce the risk of fire and invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species in the Great Basin Region; and - Restore and enhance wet meadow habitats in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds.
Participating non-profit groups and agencies include: Pheasants Forever; USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service; Bureau of Land Management; U.S Fish and Wildlife Service; Nevada Department of Wildlife; Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest; Nevada Department of Agriculture; and the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Background on the Burley Landscape Project:
The Burley Landscape Habitat Restoration Project serves as a prominent example of how organizations can effectively pool and leverage resources to conserve wildlife on public lands to compliment private land conservation using collaborative funding. The Burley Project partners have continued to implement conservation at a landscape scale by selectively targeting locations with the greatest conservation return on investment.
This diverse partnership, which is comprised of Idaho stakeholders, including: the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Twin Falls District of BLM in Idaho, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Department of Lands, Pheasants Forever, conservation districts, local working groups and permittee holders, are treating encroaching conifer trees. The Burley partnership’s dedication and the resulting implementation track record in treating 28,000 acres of conifer has made the Burley Project a shining conservation model in the West. They are now working on treating another 47,000 acres of conifer.
