An Interagency Collaboration to Develop and Evaluate New Science-Based Strategies for Great Basin Watershed Restoration in the Future

Spring Storm in the Great Basin

    Principal Investigators

  • Susan Charnley, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
  • Hannah Gosnell, Oregon State University
  • Gordon Grant, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
  • Justin Huntington, Desert Research Institute
  • David Pilliod, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, dpilliod@usgs.gov
  • NW CASC
Completed

This project is designed to use the combined strengths of the cooperators to address their concerns stemming from the degradation of arid environments in the Great Basin. The project will identify the regional ecological and social costs and benefits of both immediate hydrologic modifications (low-profile constructed dams) and longer-term restoration of beavers (Castor canadensis) to these landscapes. Use of these techniques by ranchers and managers of public lands depends on these costs and benefits as well as social context and attitudes; the project will assess these as well. Finally, implementation of hydrologic modifications depends on communication of benefits and costs to stakeholders who may choose to implement these modifications.

Data and Products