Landscape Conservation Forecasting™ Report to Great Basin National Park

Introduction

In 2009, Great Basin National Park (Park) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) entered into a Cooperative Agreement to collaborate on fire and vegetation management issues at the Park. In 2010, the Cooperative Agreement was amended to incorporate climate change effects and adaptation strategies into the development of management strategies. A supplemental report addressing climate change will be delivered independently of this report. TNC applied Landscape Conservation Forecasting -- including satellite imagery, remote sensing, predictive ecological models, and cost-benefit assessments (Provencher et al. 2008, 2009a; Low et al. 2010) -- to accomplish the Agreement’s objectives. Several workshops were held during 2010 with the Park’s natural resource managers to review and refine ecological models, review findings, and identify and explore potential vegetation management scenarios. Workshops included one session via WebEx conference, one modeling workshop, and two multi-day planning workshops at the Park offices in Baker.