Date: 10/02/06
Contact: Lynne Foster
Phone: (775) 688-1997

NDOW BEGINS SWIFT, CRITICAL HABITAT RESTORATION

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) is using habitat conservation fees from license sales and money from the state’s Q-1 bond initiative to begin immediate wildlife habitat restoration efforts across fire-damaged areas of northern Nevada. This will supplement the large-scale effort that the Bureau of Land Management is starting, and fill in the gaps on lands that the BLM is not able to rehabilitate.

An estimated $208,000 in habitat conservation fees, (raised from a $3 surcharge on hunting, fishing and trapping licenses) will be used for this year’s wildfire restoration efforts. Another $500,000 in Q-1 funds, (a bond initiative approved by voters in 2001 to support wildlife habitat) will also be used on the ground to support re-vegetation of fire-impacted areas. Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) funds are also available for private landowners in fire-affected areas who wish to support habitat for sensitive species on their land. For more information, contact NDOW’s LIP program coordinator, Connie Lee, at (775) 777-2392.

The $708,000 will purchase seed and pay contractors to do drill seeding this fall and aerial seeding this winter. With the cost of seeding estimated at $100/acre, the goal is to revegetate as much as 70,000 acres, but precipitation and future management will determine the overall success of the effort.

“This is exactly the type of project that the conservation fee was intended for,” said Doug Hunt, Acting Director. “We have to act quickly if we are to restore even a tiny fraction of the habitat that was lost this summer.”

This summer, more than 1.46 million acres of wildlife habitat burned, including 1.04 million acres in Elko County, primarily in high elevation sage brush steppe habitat. This summer’s fires have eliminated habitat for more than 10,000 sage grouse, have burned over 60% of the winter range for one of Nevada’s largest and most productive antelope herds and has decimated much of the remaining transition and wintering habitat for the Area Six deer, which was already reeling from decades of devastating fires. Past fires, combined with the 2006 fires, will reduce a deer herd that once numbered close to 30,000 deer in the 1960s to a habitat that will be lucky to support 6,000 deer. An estimated 76 sage grouse leks (breeding grounds) have been lost in northern Nevada over the past two years due to fires.

NDOW’s reseeding efforts will be closely coordinated with the BLM rehabilitation efforts and will focus on restoring some of the most crucial wildlife habitat areas, and on green-stripping buffers around remaining intact areas of critically important wildlife habitat. Plants that are both fire resistant and provide wildlife forage, like perennial grasses and forage kochia, will be used to establish green buffers between previously burned areas and intact habitat while sagebrush species and bitterbrush will be seeded in burned upland areas.

“Our goal is to quickly put seed on the ground that can compete with cheat grass, is somewhat fire resistant, provides food for wildlife, and will have value for livestock production. It’s important that we do as much as we can for wildlife and ranching families whose ability to live on the land has been put in jeopardy, “ said Dave Pulliam, Habitat Chief for NDOW. “We have to try to make inroads to at least slow the cheat grass invasion, and to slow fires as they cross Nevada’s landscape to protect all threatened habitat,” said Pulliam. Successful reseeding will buy time for more comprehensive responses to threats that could destroy Nevada’s treasured sagebrush and montane communities.

Despite the magnitude of NDOW’s response, the funds will provide resources to re-vegetate only 5% of the lands lost to this year’s wildfires. “This funding is a drop in the bucket of what is needed, but we have to act now,” said Hunt. “Hopefully other agencies and funds will become available. NDOW has rearranged its priorities to make this possible and will step up now, get contracts in place for the highest priority work, to reseed fire-affected areas this fall and winter before the cheatgrass dominates the landscape in the spring.”

The cheatgrass invasion has caused sagebrush ecosystems to become one of the most threatened land types in the United States. Healthy sage brush landscapes benefit from infrequent (35-450 year interval) low-intensity fires that renew the ecosystem. Cheatgrass has drastically altered the natural fire regime, shortening the fire cycle to as few as three to five years in some areas.

Other state and federal agencies coordinating restoration efforts include: Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Division of Forestry, Elko County, and National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which is also offering special funds to help rehabilitate private lands damaged by wildfires during 2006. Contact the local NRCS office or visit them online at www.nv.nrcs.usda.gov for more information.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) protects, restores and manages fish and wildlife, and promotes fishing, hunting, boating safety and wildlife related activities. NDOW’s wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are primarily funded by sportsmen’s license and conservation fees and a federal tax on hunting and fishing gear. Support wildlife and habitat conservation in Nevada by purchasing a hunting, fishing, or combination license. For more information, visit www.ndow.org.