On October 19, 2018, state, federal, and non-profit organizations signed a cooperative Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, to enhance and expand proactive sagebrush conservation and restoration across Nevada. Signed in Reno, the MOU also prioritizes conservation in the bi-state area along the California/Nevada border.
The purpose of this MOU is to provide a collaborative framework to accomplish common goals related to the restoration, enhancement, and conservation of sagebrush habitat.
“This partnership is modeled on the highly successful Burley Project in Idaho and will allow Nevada partners to cooperatively pool resources across the state,” said Pheasants Forever and Sage Grouse Initiative Field Capacity Coordinator Michael Brown.
The primary components to this partnership and MOU are to accelerate sagebrush ecosystem conservation across state, federal, and private property by investing in these efforts:
- Control invading conifers in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds;
- Implement practices across landownerships designed to reduce the risk of fire and invasive species in the Great Basin; and
- Restore and enhance wet meadow habitats in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds.
Participating groups and agencies include: Pheasants Forever; USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service; Bureau of Land Management; U.S Fish and Wildlife Service; Nevada Department of Wildlife; Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest; Nevada Department of Agriculture; and the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The Burley Project partners have continued to implement conservation at a landscape scale by selectively targeting locations with the greatest conservation return on investment. The partnership’s track record in treating 28,000 acres of conifer has made the project a conservation model in the West. They are now working on treating another 47,000 acres of conifer.
