Multidisciplinary, Multisite Evaluation of Alternative Sagebrush Steppe Restoration Treatments: The SageSTEP Project

Abstract

This special issue presents short-term ecological effects of restoration treatments imposed as part of the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP), and summarizes public attitude survey results related to restoration efforts. Funded by the US Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP; 2005– 2011), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM; 2011 to present), the National Interagency Fire Center (2011 to present), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (2010), SageSTEP was designed and implemented to provide treatment-related information to managers concerned about the rapidly changing condition of sagebrush steppe ecosystems in the US Interior West (McIver et al. 2010). At lower elevations, cheatgrass has become more dominant at the expense of native perennial bunchgrasses, in some locations shifting fire return intervals from.50–100 yr to,20 yr, and greatly increasing mean fire size (Whisenant 1990; Miller et al. 2011; Balch et al. 2012). At higher elevations, pinon pine and juniper woodlands have expanded and displaced sagebrush and other shrubs, in some places shifting fire return intervals from 10–50 yr to..50 yr, and significantly increasing mean fire severity (Miller and Heyerdahl 2008). Federal, state, and private land managers and owners have for many years attempted to arrest the conversion of sagebrush steppe communities into woodland and annual grassland and to restore native herbaceous communities by applying treatments such as prescribed fire, mowing, chaining, cutting, mastication, or herbicides. Substantial published information exists on the efficacy of such treatments in sagebrush steppe, but most studies are site-specific, short-term (Miller et al. 2013), and focused on few variables. Recognizing this, the BLM, in collaboration with the JFSP, solicited sagebrush steppe scientists and managers to design SageSTEP, a study that provides multisite, multidisciplinary, long-term information on treatment outcomes over a range of ecological conditions, and that also provides insight on cost and public acceptance of management practices. A planning grant was provided by JFSP in 2003 to design SageSTEP, and the study was ultimately funded by JFSP in 2005. SageSTEP addresses four principle objectives, each linked to one or more of the design features of the study: