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Steptoe Valley Units B & C Watershed Analysis

Report

Nevada

Publication date: June 30, 2012

File format: PDF

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Report for the Steptoe Valley Units B & C Watershed Analysis using Landscape Conservation Forecasting.

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Subject Tags

  • Land management
  • Conservation Planning
  • Ecosystem management

Description

Using updated LANDFIRE vegetation data to predict needed implementation rates for ecological system restoration, we forecasted the future ecological condition of 16 ecological systems of the Bureau of Land Management Ely District's Steptoe Valley Units B and C in Nevada. For 11 ecological systems in need of restoration or predicted to further degrade, we simulated the effects of 20 years of management actions on ecological condition and calculated cumulative costs and Return-on-Investment under two active management scenarios. For several ecological systems at middle and high elevations, restoration was relatively affordable; however, restoration of sub-xeric shrublands at lower elevations was expensive and success limited, resulting in thousands of acres of seeded areas that will require decades of recovery before resembling more natural vegetation classes.

Citation

Provencher L, Anderson T. 2012. Steptoe Valley Units B & C Watershed Analysis. Landscape Conservation Forecasting. Report to the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition. Reno: The Nature Conservancy.