Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition

The mission of the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition is to restore the dynamic and diverse landscapes of the Great Basin for present and future generations through collaborative efforts.

We envision a future where communities of plants and animals thrive in their Great Basin environment. These healed, diverse landscapes will be a result of restoration achieved and maintained with naturally occurring disturbances such as fire, in combination with other management prescriptions, including traditional uses. The Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition will be a recognized contributor and leader in this effort for future generations of Americans, both local and national.

During fiscal year 2003 ENLC and our partners impacted over 8,700,000 acres through restoration, treatment, inventory and data collection. In addition to many on-going projects, here are a few examples of what we accomplished during fiscal year 2003:

� Resumed ground truthing for the reGAP project in March. The total survey area for 2003 was 168,024 square kilometers (4,151,960 acres). Total number of survey sites collected was over 10,000. Eight seasonal employees were involved in this project. The mapping information from this data will be used by many agencies for a variety projects from fire planning and management to resource management. The data will also be incorporated into a southwest regional data set.

� Collection of plant ground cover data on four watersheds (280,000 acres). Two seasonal employees were involved in this project. The information obtained from this project will be incorporated in the Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement that the Ely BLM office is working on for the entire district. This data will provide the baseline information for future projects.

� Fenced Cress Spring with volunteer labor and collected baseline vegetative transect data and baseline hydrology data. The purpose of this project was to protect the spring source from further deterioration, while still allowing access to water for wildlife, livestock and wild horses.

� Produced and advertised a request for proposals to rehabilitate 1400 acres of cheatgrass for a basic research project. The purpose of the study was to expand a research project that was designed and tested on a traditional, research scale and increase the dimensions to a landscape size and observe if the results are the same. The project was awarded and completed by mid-September � the existing stand of cheatgrass and halogeton was planted with a mixture of native and non-native seeds. The project area was also fenced with a temporary fence to prevent wild horse and livestock disturbances until the area was restored.

� ENLC member and partner the Tri-County Weed Project inventoried 3,497,184 acres for weeds and found 3,374 weed infestations representing 1141.3 acres. Additional inventory work involved checking 54 water sources in Newark and Long Valleys for weeds and walking 26 miles of Huntington Creek looking for weeds. On the treatment end Tri-County covered an additional 69,307 acres while treating 1,277 acres for weeds, which included 155 acres of tamarisk. The total cost for all of this fantastic weed work was $473,113 or 13.2 cents/acre.

� Proposed an aspen regeneration project to the Forest Service. Project proposal was accepted and signed, work will be completed in 2004 ($13,000). The goal of the project is to restore vigor to declining aspen stands.

� Hosted 4^th Annual Workshop and Field Tour in June. Over 100 participants in the workshop and 60 participants in the Field Tour.

� Obtained $12,000 in grant funding for the three local Cooperative Weed Management Areas. The funds were used by the CWMA�s for education, outreach, mapping and some equipment. The funds could not be expended on chemicals. The CWMA�s treated over 95 acres of private lands for weeds and inventoried another 293 acres of private lands for weed infestations.

� Obtained $36,000 in grant funding from USFWS for work on private lands for pigmy rabbits and sage grouse. The sage grouse habitat project involves fencing off some traditional sage grouse habitat and restoring the sage brush and understory. The fence portion of this project will start in January 2004.

� Obtained $500 in grant funding from Tourism and Recreation for 2004 workshop.

� Obtained a five year assistance agreement with the Bureau of Land Management. The assistance agreement will allow ENLC to work with the BLM as a partner on a wide variety of projects.

� Successfully obtained passage of a resolution of support from the Nevada State Legislature for ENLC during the 2003 session.

� Signed on as technical advisors with the Natural Resource Conservation Service. This will allow ENLC to provide technical assistance to the NRCS on projects they are implementing on private lands.

� Presentation by chairman of ENLC Science Committee to Cambridge University and the Zoological Society of London on the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition and collaborative restoration efforts. These presentations were a continuation of ENLC�s outreach to the public and scientific communities beyond Nevada�s borders.

� Presentations by the Science Committee Chairman on ecological restoration on a landscape scale at the Wildlife Society, BLM, and Forest and Range Stewardship Conference meetings.

� Science Committee Chair facilitated a workshop on research issues at the Research Summit in Elko.

� Co-hosted Efroymson workshop with The Nature Conservancy, and Science Committee Chairman co-authored the final report from the workshop.

� Published �Cost of Doing Nothing� article in the Journal of Range Management. This was a big hit for us because it took our message out to a larger scientific community.

� Presentation to Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit at their first annual meeting on the Coalition, a who, what, where and why type presentation.

� Invited to join Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. This invitation is a feather in ENLC�s cap because it legitimizes us with the Universities in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. It also allows ENLC to partner with the Universities on projects.

� Invited to join and joined the White Pine Coordinated Resource Management team.

Please contact webmaster@envlc.org for any technical questions or comments concerning the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition's website. All other inquiries may be directed to enlc@envlc.org