By Tod Williams, Chief of Resource Management. From The Midden (Great Basin National Park), Vol. 15, No. 2, Winter 2015.
SNPLMA money has paid for many park projects, including this aspen restoration in Can Young Canyon. NPS photo.
The White Pine County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act of 2006 let the Resource Management (RM) Division at Great Basin National Park compete for Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) funds — money from sales of public land in the Las Vegas Valley.
RM mostly uses two SNPLMA programs:
| Program | Pays for |
|---|---|
| Conservation Initiative | conservation on federal land: natural and cultural resource protection, habitat restoration, species management, environmental education and site stewardship |
| Eastern Nevada Landscape Restoration Program (ENLRP) | healthy Great Basin ecosystems, especially shrub-steppe, pinyon-juniper and riparian |
Completed projects
| Round | Project | Funding | What it did |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Restore natural processes and cave floor in Lehman Cave (Conservation Initiative) | $233,850, 2008 | restored 4,700 square feet of cave floor by removing an abandoned trail and its lighting, whose decay threatened the cave |
| 9a & b | Implement the Nevada Conservation Agreement for Bonneville cutthroat trout (Conservation Initiative) | $977,738, 2009 | met the agreement's goals: manage 14 conservation populations and remove threats that might warrant Endangered Species Act listing |
| 9a & b | Landscape-level vegetation planning (ENLRP) | $486,348, 2009 | six planning pieces: a fire regime condition map, current and potential natural vegetation map, wildlife inventory for species of concern, desired future conditions, interactive management models, and aspen stand assessments |
| 9a & b | Snake Valley invasive weeds: inventory, treatment and restoration (ENLRP) | $665,041, 2010 | cooperative weed work across all land ownerships in Snake Valley — inventory, treatment and education — with the park as lead agency |
| 11 | Sagebrush steppe and aspen restoration, South Snake Range (ENLRP) | $542,230, 2011 | restored 500 acres of sagebrush, riparian aspen and upland aspen, reconnecting habitat so shrub-dependent wildlife can spread into empty habitat |
Under way in 2015
- Johnson Lake Mine Historic District stabilization (Round 13, Conservation Initiative, $511,991, 2013): archeological research, stabilizing historic structures and making the area near open mine adits safer. The district is on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic landscape; the work is a partnership with the Vanishing Treasures program.
- Soap Creek sagebrush steppe and aspen restoration (Round 13, ENLRP, $231,500, 2013): treating up to 226 acres to restore montane sagebrush, improve riparian and aspen areas, cut fuel loads and improve habitat for shrub-dependent wildlife.
- Bonneville cutthroat trout in the Snake Creek watershed (Round 14, Conservation Initiative, $403,436, 2014): Snake Creek is one of twelve streams the conservation agreement names to keep as trout streams, but introduced brook trout compromised its population. The plan: build a fish barrier, remove all non-native fish above it, and reintroduce the cutthroat.
- Strawberry Creek fuels reduction and restoration (Round 14, ENLRP, $241,650, 2014): treating 206 acres to restore sagebrush steppe, upland aspen and riparian systems and improve habitat for several species of concern.
Approved, awaiting funds (Round 15)
- Wetland restoration for sensitive wildlife (Conservation Initiative, $389,550.00 requested): restore 8 acres of wetland and 0.5 miles of stream in the Lehman Creek drainage by removing roads, culverts and ditches and restoring natural flow and vegetation.
- Adaptive management for restoration and fuels (ENLRP, $299,215.00 requested): change vegetation structure on 258 acres of sagebrush, aspen and riparian land to lower fire probability, spread and intensity, in a fuel break placed as an anchor point for firefighting in the Lehman Creek watershed.
Sources
Based on "Overview of Resource Management's SNPLMA Projects," by Tod Williams, The Midden, Great Basin National Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The original's "open audits" is read as open mine adits.
In these publicationsGreat Basin National Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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