Mike Pellant, Great Basin Restoration Initiative, USDI Bureau of Land Management, 1837 S. Vinnell Way, Boise , Boise, ID 83709
The Great Basin is a semi-arid desert in the Intermountain West, U.S.A. that was historically dominated by shrubs with a herbaceous understory that was maintained by periodic wildfires. The area’s largest land manager is the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees nearly 75 million acres of public lands. Biological integrity is at increasing risk as invasive species continue to displace native plants and wildfire size and frequency increase. The Great Basin Restoration Initiative was initiated in 1999 after a disastrous wildfire season (almost 2 million acres of public lands were burned) to restore diversity and stability on degraded rangelands and woodlands. This proactive program emphasizes restoring native plant diversity and structure, thereby improving the resiliency of plant communities after disturbances and resistance to invasive species. The Initiative encourages collaborative, science-based projects that provide economic benefits to local communities. The first priority is to maintain healthy landscapes followed by restoration of degraded landscapes. One restoration strategy is to use nonnative perennial plants to ecologically stabilize sites that would otherwise remain in a fire-prone exotic annual grass state until native perennial plants could be reintroduced at a future date to meet wildlife and livestock needs. Case studies illustrating the integration of additional, innovative weed control strategies, native plant development, and post-restoration management and monitoring will be presented. If this Initiative is not successful, the largest desert in the United States will continue to unravel ecologically with significant negative impacts to people and natural resources.
