Support Great Basin Institute in Serving Public Lands in the West
Support Great Basin Institute in Serving Public Lands in the West
Public land management agencies require reliable and consistent quantitative data on the status, condition, and trend of natural resources on our public lands.The Ecological Monitoring (EM) Program partners with the federal, state, and other organizations to assist with rigorous data collection through hiring, training, and supporting field staff. With the gathered information, state and federal land managers are able to make informed decisions for conservation efforts.
The Ecological Monitoring Program conducts a variety of vegetation and soils monitoring across multiple states with Federal and State Partners. A majority of field crews are hosted in house with GBI staff supporting field personnel with logistical and safety assistance. Currently, EM Crews are based in Reno and Las Vegas, allowing for data collection across Nevada and parts of California.
Notably, since 2011, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management’s National Operations Center, the EM Program has completed over 7,000 terrestrial and aquatic assessment, inventory and monitoring (AIM) plots in NV, CA, CO, OR, WA, ID, WY and UT. Additionally in partnership with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), the EM Program conducts vegetation assessments to gauge restoration effectiveness and long term habitat trends. The EM Program supports additional sampling needs including but not limited to, rare plant surveys, canopy and understory identification, NRCS soil protocols and stream surveys.
The Ecological Monitoring Program provides the following monitoring & managing projects:
Establishing a partnership with the Great Basin Institute is a straightforward process involving cooperation between three major parties: an agency grant/contracting officer, a GBI grant/contracting officer, and the EM Program Director. To initiate an agreement, please contact Lauren Steinkamp at lsteinkamp@thegreatbasininstitute.org.
Our dedicated program staff can help guide you towards a partnership or serving with Great Basin Institute
Research Associates monitor landscape recovery after wildfires, tracking erosion, mapping weeds and evaluating the recovery of native plant species across the western states. Post fire recovery efforts stabilize soils to reduce susceptibility to wind and water erosion and to protect watersheds. Rangeland managers rehabilitate fire scars to desired conditions, ensuring public lands remain productive, functional ecosystems that provide for wildlife, grazing and recreation. Several native wildlife ESA candidate species, including sage-grouse and pygmy rabbit, are sagebrush-obligates and are sensitive to habitat disturbance, such as high severity wildfire. Restoring sagebrush habitats is essential for the survival of these species.
The Great Basin Institute provided field technicians to implement Level I Spring Inventories in Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Hiking cross-country, teams collected data on hundreds of springs, assessing water quality and turbidity, source substrata, surrounding plant communities, and use by wildlife. Data on the presence of rare, endemic spring snails was also collected. Upon completion of the field surveys, the populate databases with detailed biological and hydrologic data and photo points of each spring.
In 2014, GBI signed an agreement with the National Park Service, Mojave Network (Great Basin NP, Mojave National Preserve, Lake Mead NRA, Death Valley NP, Manzanar National Historic Site, Joshua Tree NP, and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument) for Research Associate botanists to implement integrated Upland Monitoring protocol on upland areas (away from riparian areas) throughout these parks. As part of the Vital Signs Monitoring Program, standardized data on vegetation change, invasive species, and soils supports NPS management of natural resources.
