BLM Library Science Spotlight

The Department of the Interior bases its decisions on the best available science (DOI Secretarial Order 3369). Bureau of Land Management employees actively participate in this process by regularly contributing new science to their  fields. This page features current science being published by BLM authors, or supported by BLM expertise and resources. 

Access to these articles is limited to BLM employees unless they are noted as Open Access.

Accuracy, accessibility, and institutional capacity shape the utility of habitat models for managing and conserving rare plants on western public lands. by Ella M. Samuel, Jennifer K. Meineke, Laine E. McCall, Lea B. Selby, Alison C. Foster, Zoe M. Davidson, Carol A. Dawson, Catherine S. Jarnevich, and Sarah K. Carter. In Conservation Science & Practice, 6, 6. June 2024.

Public lands are often managed for multiple uses ranging from energy development to rare plant conservation. Habitat models can help land managers assess and mitigate potential effects of projects on rare plants, but it is unclear how models are currently being used. Our goal was to better understand how staff in the Bureau of Land Management currently use habitat models to inform their decisions, and perceived challenges and benefits associated with that use. We first examined litigation documents to determine whether the agency has been challenged on its use of data for rare plants and found no relevant legal challenges. Second, we analyzed model use in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents and found no clear citations of habitat models. Finally, we conducted interviews with agency staff who analyze potential effects of proposed actions on rare plants in NEPA documents. The primary challenges interviewees faced in using models related to data organization and access, model quality and accuracy, and institutional capacity. Interviewees believed models could be used more to inform decisions and actions to conserve rare plants and rare plant habitat on public lands and recommended improving staff access to models, creating models for additional species, and addressing staffing limitations. (Available to BLM employees)

Prioritizing science efforts to inform decision making on public lands by Sarah K. Carter, Travis S. Haby, Jennifer K. Meineke, Alison C. Foster, Laine E. McCall, Leigh D. Espy, Megan A. Gilbert, Jeffrey E. Herrick, and Karen L Prentice. In Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 21, 10. September 2023.

Public land management agencies in the US are committed to using science-informed decision making, but there has been little research on the types and topics of science that managers need most to inform their decisions. We used the National Environmental Policy Act to identify four types of science information needed for making decisions relevant to public lands: (1) data on resources of concern, (2) scientific studies relevant to potential effects of proposed actions, (3) methods for quantifying potential effects of proposed actions, and (4) effective mitigation measures. We then used this framework to analyze 70 Environmental Assessments completed by the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado. Commonly proposed actions were oil and gas development, livestock grazing, land transactions, and recreation. Commonly analyzed resources included terrestrial wildlife, protected birds, vegetation, and soils. Focusing research efforts on the intersection of these resources and actions, and on developing and evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures to protect these resources, could strengthen the science foundation for public lands decision making. (Open Access)

Strategic Partnerships to Leverage Small Wins for Fine Fuels Management by Sergio A. Arispe, Dustin D. Johnson, Katherine L. Wollstein, April Hulet, K. Scott Jensen, Brad W. Schultz, James E. Sprinkle, Michele F. McDaniel, Thomas Ryan, Mark Mackenzie, and Sean Cunningham. In Rangeland Ecology & Management, 89. July 2023.

Spatial and temporal dynamics of rangeland fuels is a primary factor driving large wildfires. Yet detailed information capturing variation in fine fuels has largely been missing from rangeland fire planning and fuels management. New fuels-based maps of Great Basin rangeland fire probability help bridge this gap by coupling dynamic vegetation cover and production data from the Rangeland Analysis Platform with weather and climate data to provide annual forecasts of the relative probability of large wildfire. In this paper, we review these new fuels-based maps and discuss implications for prefire planning, preparedness, and strategic fuels management. Examining patterns of fire probability through time reveals high spatial and temporal variation in risk of large wildfires across the Great Basin. Certain areas are chronically impacted with high fire probability most years, while others have more sporadic or low probability of large fire annually. Maps confirm previous research that the recent increase in large fire risk in the region is highly associated with invasive annual grasses, but total aboveground herbaceous production (including perennials) continues to be a primary predictor of fire probability. Fuels-based fire probability maps can be used alongside existing data sources and prioritization frameworks by fire and fuels managers to inform questions of 1) what kind of fire year might this be, 2) where large fires are most likely to occur given an ignition, and 3) where resources should be focused. We provide examples of how maps can be used to improve prefire preparedness and planning to enhance suppression, facilitate annual targeting of fine fuels reductions, and support land use planning for implementation of landscape-scale fuels management. Proactively incorporating this new information into rangeland fire and fuels management can help address altered fire regimes threatening the region’s wildlife and working lands. (Available to BLM employees)

Using Dynamic, Fuels-Based Fire Probability Maps to Reduce Large Wildfires in the Great Basin by Jeremy D. Maestas, Joseph T. Smith, Brady W. Allred, David E. Naugle, Matthew O. Jones, Casey O’Connor, Chad S. Boyd, Kirk W. Davies, Michele R. Crist, and Andrew C. Olsen. In Rangeland Ecology & Management, 89. July 2023.

Rangeland wildfire is a wicked problem that cuts across a mosaic of public and private rangelands in the western United States and countless countries worldwide. Fine fuel accumulation in these ecosystems contributes to large-scale wildfires and undermines plant communities’ resistance to invasive annual grasses and resilience to disturbances such as fire. Yet it can be difficult to implement fuels management practices, such as grazing, in socially and politically complex contexts such as federally managed rangelands in the United States. In this Research-Partnership Highlight, we argue that private-public partners in such settings must be strategic in their selection of tasks to generate “small wins” in order to build the trust, competency, and legitimacy needed to advance an approach for landscape-scale fine fuels management. We highlight a fine fuels reduction partnership consisting of public and private entities in southeastern Oregon that established a research and education project and applied dormant-season grazing on three pastures within the Vale District Bureau of Land Management. We describe the impetus for the partnership, antecedents, strategic tactics, and ongoing learning and reflection used to revise processes. In this example, implementing dormant-season grazing as a research and education project allowed the partners to assess the efficaciousness of the treatment, as well as the operational logistics and administrative competencies necessary to apply the treatment to manage fine fuels at broader scales. Because dormant-season grazing may, in some instances, conflict with established practices and norms, small-scale projects such as this allow partners to refine understandings of the social and administrative conditions that make implementation possible. Generating small wins through projects such as this is a critical precursor for partnerships seeking to take on larger, more complex endeavors that involve increasing ecological, economic, and social uncertainty. (Available to BLM employees)

Range-wide occupancy trends for the Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) by Amanda M. Kissel, Bryan Wallace, Jessie Anderson, Brett G. Dickson, Kristen Van Neste, Vincent Landau, Roy C. Averill-Murray, Linda J. Alison, and Amy Fesnock. In Ecosphere, 14, 1. April 2023.

Data from long-term monitoring programs, such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) line distance sampling (LDS) program for Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), are increasingly being used in new ways to elucidate trends in population dynamics. We used the USFWS LDS data in a novel way to generate range-wide predictions of occupancy, colonization, and local extinction rates from 2001 to 2018. We developed a dynamic occupancy model to answer fundamental questions posed by Bureau of Land Management personnel regarding how G. agassizii are distributed across the landscape over space and time. We transformed the LDS data into detection/nondetection data and constructed a Bayesian dynamic occupancy model using several time-varying (e.g., temperature, precipitation, normalized difference vegetation index, fire, and a proxy for invasive grasses) and static covariates (e.g., soil properties, topography, distance to roads, distance to urban areas) hypothesized to influence G. agassizii occupancy dynamics. We estimated that over the entire time series (2001–2018) the probability of G. agassizii occupancy is declining in over one quarter (26%) of the range, largely in the northeastern part of the range, but that from 2011 to 2018, 77% of the range has a declining trend. Drawing on these model outputs, we developed an interactive, web-based tool for exploring trends in dynamic occupancy across the species range, allowing users to focus on areas of management interest or concern. (Available to BLM employees)

Long-Term Trends in Vegetation on Bureau of Land Management Rangelands in the Western United States by Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Emily J. Kachergis, Sarah E. McCord, Justin Shirley, Nicole R. Hupp, Jennifer Walker, John C. Carlson, Scott L. Morford, Matthew O. Jones, Joseph T. Smith, Brady W. Allred, and David E. Naugle. In Rangeland Ecology & Management, 87. March 2023.

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages nearly 1 million km of public lands that support recreation, livestock production, and wildlife habitat. Monitoring the condition of vegetation on these lands is crucial for sound management but has historically been difficult to do at scale. Here we used newly developed remote-sensing tools to conduct an unprecedented assessment of trends in vegetation cover and production for all BLM rangelands from 1991 to 2020. We found widespread increases in cover and production of annual grasses and forbs, declines in herbaceous perennial cover, and expansion of trees. Cover and production of annual plants now exceed that of perennials on > 21 million ha of BLM rangeland, marking a fundamental shift in the ecology of these lands. This trend was most dramatic in the Western Cold Desert of Nevada and parts of surrounding states where aboveground production of annuals has more than tripled. Trends in annuals were negatively correlated with trends in bare ground but not with trends in perennials, suggesting that annuals are filling in bare ground rather than displacing perennials. Tree cover increased in half of ecoregions affecting some 44 million ha and underscoring the threat of woodland expansion for western rangelands. A multiscale variance partitioning analysis found that trends often varied the most at the finest spatial scale. This result reinforces the need to combine plot-level field data with moderate-resolution remote sensing to accurately quantify vegetation changes in heterogeneous rangelands. The long-term changes in vegetation on public rangelands argue for a more hands-on approach to management, emphasizing preventative treatment and restoration to preserve rangeland habitat and functioning. Our work shows the power of new remote-sensing tools for monitoring public rangelands and developing effective strategies for adaptive management and conservation. (Available to BLM employees)

Monitoring Grazing Use: Strategies for Leveraging Technology and Adapting to Variability by Andrew R. Kleinhessellink, Emily J. Kachergis, Sarah E. McCord, Justin Shirley, Nicole R. Hupp, Jennifer Walker, John C. Carlson, Scott L. Morford, Matthew O. Jones, Joseph T. Smith, Brady W. Allred, David E. Naugle. In Rangeland Ecology and Management, 87, 1-12. March 2023. 

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages nearly 1 million km2 of public lands that support recreation, livestock production, and wildlife habitat. Monitoring the condition of vegetation on these lands is crucial for sound management but has historically been difficult to do at scale. Here we used newly developed remote-sensing tools to conduct an unprecedented assessment of trends in vegetation cover and production for all BLM rangelands from 1991 to 2020. We found widespread increases in cover and production of annual grasses and forbs, declines in herbaceous perennial cover, and expansion of trees. Cover and production of annual plants now exceed that of perennials on > 21 million ha of BLM rangeland, marking a fundamental shift in the ecology of these lands. This trend was most dramatic in the Western Cold Desert of Nevada and parts of surrounding states where aboveground production of annuals has more than tripled. Trends in annuals were negatively correlated with trends in bare ground but not with trends in perennials, suggesting that annuals are filling in bare ground rather than displacing perennials. Tree cover increased in half of ecoregions affecting some 44 million ha and underscoring the threat of woodland expansion for western rangelands. A multiscale variance partitioning analysis found that trends often varied the most at the finest spatial scale. This result reinforces the need to combine plot-level field data with moderate-resolution remote sensing to accurately quantify vegetation changes in heterogeneous rangelands. The long-term changes in vegetation on public rangelands argue for a more hands-on approach to management, emphasizing preventative treatment and restoration to preserve rangeland habitat and functioning. Our work shows the power of new remote-sensing tools for monitoring public rangelands and developing effective strategies for adaptive management and conservation. (Available to BLM employees)