Print PageInitiating a new landscape approach to natural resource management, the Bureau of Land Management has embarked on a series of rapid ecoregional assessments. These regional assessments intend to document and forecast ecosystem conditions within current and mid-21st century time frames, setting the stage for revision of land management plans. Each assessment is scheduled to be conducted within an 18 month time frame, largely building on existing information. Within these constraints, NatureServe ecologists are leading technical teams to develop and apply new methods for gauging ecological integrity for several forms of ‘conservation elements’ (i.e., ecosystem types, species assemblages, at-risk species habitat) applicable to these rapid, regional-scaled assessments.
Results/Conclusions
Here we report on emerging methods and results for assessment of upland and wetland ecosystems with examples drawn from the Mojave Desert and Great Basin ecoregions of the American southwest. Classified, described, and mapped distributions of major woodland, shrub steppe, desert scrub, and riparian/wetland types form one primary focus for ecoregional assessment. Indicators of ecological integrity, drawn from spatial models of landscape condition, landscape connectivity, dynamic regimes (fire or hydrology), and biotic composition, are measured and reported individually and in combination to categorize conditions into “sustainable” “transitioning” and “degraded” categories. The ecoregional assessment initially provides a summary of ecological integrity for current conditions. Forecasted land use trends factor into assessment and reporting for a future 2025 scenario. Climate change effects factor into assessment and reporting for a future 2060 scenario. Conditions are reported for distributions of each ecological type by 5th-level watershed. They may also be reported by other spatial unit, such as management unit, protected area, or potential conservation area.
