Managing diversity is essential to maintaining the functionality of vegetative, soil, and hydrologic processes of rangeland ecosystems. Since 2011, the Great Basin Institute (GBI), in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, has implemented the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) strategy to conduct land health assessments on public lands in Nevada. State-wide application of the AIM strategy produces consistent, comparable, and scalable rangeland data to characterize and monitor ecological trends. AIM indicators include bare ground coverage, vegetation composition and height, canopy gaps, and plant species of management concern. Data resulting from this monitoring program have been used to inform management decisions regarding renewable energy development, livestock grazing, sage-grouse habitat conservation, wild horse and burro management, and post- fire restoration. Field crews have established over 1250 AIM plots throughout the state that will be resampled periodically to collect trend data over time. Data sets such as these allow land managers the ability to identify areas of resource concern and make data driven management decisions. Managing diversity and vegetation composition is a vital component for increasing ecological resistance and resilience with respect to disturbance events.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.