Collaborative Management and Research in the Great Basin — Examining the Issues and Developing a Framework for Action United States Departmentof Agriculture / Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-204 February 2008 Chambers, Jeanne C.; Devoe, Nora; Evenden, Angela, eds. 2008. Collaborative management and research in the Great Basin — examining the issues and developing a framework for action. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-204. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 66 p. Abstract The Great Basin is one of the most imperiled regions in the United States. Sustaining its ecosystems, resources, and human populations requires strong collaborative partnerships among the region’s research and management organizations. This GTR is the product of a workshop on “Collaborative Watershed Research and Management in the Great Basin” held in Reno, Nevada, November 28 through 30, 2006. It provides an overview and individual issues papers describing critical research and management issues facing the Great Basin. It also includes summaries of workshop sessions on (1) developing collaborative management and research programs and (2) devising mechanisms for organization and communication. Co-sponsors of the workshop included the University of Nevada, Reno, Desert Research Institute; Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit; Utah State University; Agricultural Research Service; Bureau of Land Management; State of Nevada, Department of Wildlife and Game; USDA Forest Service, Region 4; USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station; and U. S. Geological Survey. Keywords: Great Basin, environmental issues, collaboration, communication, research and management You may order additional copies of this publication by sending your mailing information in label form through one of the following media. Please specify the publication title and number. Publishing Services Telephone (970) 498-1392 FAX (970) 498-1122 E-mail [email protected] Web site http://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs Mailing Address Publications Distribution Rocky Mountain Research Station 240 West Prospect Road Fort Collins, CO 80526 Cover Photo by Nolan Preece. Collaborative Management and Research in the Great Basin — Examining the Issues and Developing a Framework for Action Jeanne C. Chambers, Nora Devoe, and Angela Evenden, editors Editor Bios Jeanne C. Chambers, Research Ecologist, U. S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 920 Valley Road, Reno, NV 89512 [email protected]. Nora Devoe, Regional Science Coordinator and Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management, Nevada State Office, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, NV 89520 [email protected]. Angela Evenden, Research Coordinator and Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Coordinator, National Park Service, University of Nevada, 1000 Valley Road, MS 186, Reno, NV 89512 [email protected]. i Contents Page Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Great Basin Issues Papers ..........................................................................8 Urbanization and Changing Land Use in the Great Basin .......................9 Alicia Torregrosa and Nora Devoe Public Perceptions of Land Management in the Great Basin ................14 Susan Wilmot and Mark Brunson Water Resources in the Great Basin ......................................................20 Jeanne C. Chambers Energy Development in the Great Basin ................................................24 Nora Devoe Climate Change and the Great Basin ....................................................29 Jeanne C. Chambers Fire and the Great Basin ........................................................................33 Jeanne C. Chambers Invasive Plant Species and the Great Basin ..........................................38 Jeanne C. Chambers Great Basin Wildlife Disease Concerns .................................................42 Russ Mason Great Basin Insect Outbreaks ...............................................................45 Barbara Bentz, Diane Alston and Ted Evans Great Basin Riparian and Aquatic Ecosystems .....................................49 Don Sada Great Basin Sagebrush Ecosystems .....................................................53 Jeanne C. Chambers Great Basin Aspen Ecosystems .............................................................57 Dale L. Bartos Great Basin Rare and Vulnerable Species ............................................61 Erica Fleishman Author Contact Information ......................................................................65 iii Collaborative Management and Research in the Great Basin — Examining the Issues and Developing a Framework for Action Jeanne C. Chambers, Nora Devoe, and Angela Evenden, editors Introduction information resulting from a workshop on Collaborative Watershed Management and Research that was held in Reno, Nevada, November 28 through 30, 2006. The Great Basin is considered to be one of the most The vision for the workshop and the efforts that have endangered ecoregions in the United States (Noss and followed is multi-disciplinary, multi-organizational teams others 1995, Wisdom and others 2005). The population working together to develop solutions to critical ecologi- is expanding at the highest rate in the nation, and major cal and socio-economic issues in the Great Basin using a sociological and ecological changes are occurring across collaborative management and research framework. Many the region. These changes can be attributed to numerous excellent Great Basin collaborative research and manage- interacting factors including urbanization, changing land ment projects already exist. However, there are relatively few use, climate change, limited water resources, altered that are regional in scope and information sharing among fire regimes, invasive species, insects, and disease. The the existing collaborations has been limited. A mechanism consequences have been large-scale vegetation type is needed for identifying and prioritizing regional issues, conversions, loss of watershed function, and degradation expanding upon existing efforts, facilitating new teams to of stream, riparian, and aquatic ecosystems. Biodiversity address emerging issues, and sharing information among has decreased, and a high number of species are at risk existing and new collaborative teams. of extinction or extirpation. Ecosystem services such as Although good progress has been made in understand- water resources for agriculture and fish, habitat for aquatic ing Great Basin ecosystems and in developing effective and terrestrial plants and animals, forage and browse for management techniques, many Great Basin issues are of native herbivores and livestock, and recreational oppor- such complexity and scale that many critical research and tunities are rapidly diminishing. These losses have had management issues still need attention. Researchers and adverse social and economic impacts on urban, subur- managers alike need to address larger spatial scales and ban, and rural areas. Managers across the Great Basin longer time scales than have typically been dealt with are increasingly challenged to maintain or improve the in the past. Collaborative projects need to be developed ecological condition of these systems and the services across administrative boundaries to address the underlying that they provide while meeting the needs of a growing causes of undesirable ecosystem change. Specific areas number of user groups with diverse and often opposing that need research and management attention include: interests. Sustaining the ecosystems, resources, and human popu- ! Science-based information and large-scale lations of the Great Basin will require strong collaborative assessments of the interacting effects of the primary partnerships among the major research and management ecosystem drivers, such as urbanization, changing organizations in the region. The first steps toward effective land use, climate change, fire, and invasive species, collaboration, as addressed in this report, are to clearly on Great Basin ecosystems (vegetation type con- identify the research and management issues and develop version, watershed functioning, stream, riparian the mechanisms for increasing collaboration among the and aquatic systems, and biodiversity). many research and management entities in the Great ! Prediction and modeling of the rates and magnitude Basin. This General Technical Report (GTR) contains of change, areas affected, and future consequences. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-204. 2008 1 ! Management tools to address the ongoing and Overview of Great Basin Issues predicted changes in Great Basin ecosystems such as methods for improving use of existing water The Great Basin is a large, semi-arid region that in- resources; methods for the early detection and control cludes most of the state of Nevada and parts of California, of invasive species; and treatment and management Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. The focus of this technical options for restoring and maintaining ecosystems report is on the Great Basin as defined by similar cli- affected by altered fire regimes. matic and floristic relationships (fig. 1). The Region Close collaboration among managers and researchers extends from the Sierra Nevada Range in California is needed to identify and prioritize research and manage- to the Wasatch Range