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The goal of this cooperative effort is to enhance the ability of land managers to main-
tain or improve the resilience (or recovery potential) of sagebrush habitat to disturbances
and to improve resistance to exotic annual grasses that are partially responsible for
altered fi re regimes in the Great Basin (Chambers et al. 2014a ). Resilience of sagebrush
ecosystems to disturbance and resistance to B. tectorum invasion varies along climatic
and topographic gradients, and ecosystems at higher elevation with cooler and moisture
soil temperature/moisture regimes are typically more resilient and resistant than those at
lower elevations with warmer and drier regimes. Soil temperature and moisture regimes
are components of National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil surveys that
can be used to spatially portray resistance and resilience across large regions (Fig. 12.4 ).
Landscape cover of sagebrush is the primary predictor of the probability of sage-grouse
persistence (Knick et al. 2013 ) and, when combined with soil temperature and moisture
regimes, can be used to identify areas on the landscape with the potential to support
sage- grouse populations and their relative resilience to disturbance and resistance to
invasive annual grasses (Chambers et al. 2014b ). Portraying this information with
respect to sage-grouse strongholds, termed Priority Areas for Conservation (USFWS
2013 ), provides managers with an effective decision tool to prioritize management and
restoration activities across this large landscape (Miller et al. 2013 ; Chambers et al.
2014a ). Specifi c management strategies include appropriate applications of fi re opera-
tions (preparedness, prevention, and suppression activities), fuels management, postfi re
rehabilitation, and habitat recovery/restoration. For example, fi re suppression and fuels
management would be a high priority in sage-grouse habitat where landscape sagebrush
cover is greater than 25 % and resistance to B. tectorum and resilience after disturbance
are low because these areas can support persistent populations of sage-grouse but are at
high risk of Bromus dominance. Fuels management such as conifer removal would be
appropriate where sagebrush cover is over 25 % and resistance and resilience are moder-
ate to high (Chambers et al. 2014a ).
12.5.2.3 Implement
The assessment and design steps of adaptive management provide the context to
implement appropriate restoration projects. Project implementation can be greatly
improved by the use of ESDs, STMs (see Sect. 12.3.1 ), and the soil surveys that
inform their development (Miller et al. 2013 , 2014 ; Provencher et al. 2015 ). ESDs
contain the biotic and abiotic characteristics that defi ne the site potential (i.e., cli-
mate, physiographic, soil characteristics, and plant communities Caudle et al. 2013 )
and, in combination with current STMs, are useful in determining the target plant
community and restoration pathways (Monaco et al. 2012 ; Chambers et al. 2014b ).
Implementation includes project planning and application of B. tectorum control
methods described above (see Sect. 12.4.3 ) as well as the seed and equipment to suc-
cessfully carry out the restoration project. The Great Basin Native Plant Selection and
Increase project ( http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/research/shrub/greatbasin.shtml ) and
the SageSTEP Project (www. sagestep.org ) are two examples of regional research
efforts assisting land managers in restoring native vegetation in the Great Basin.
T.A. Monaco et al.