The Great Basin Native Plant Project - Making the Landscape Nexus Sustainable

The interagency Great Basin Native Plant Project (GBNPP) is a collaborative interagency network and keystone of BLM’s Plant Conservation Program of the Bureau of Land Management.  Plant communities of the Great Basin are threatened by the incursion of invasive species, altered fire regimes, energy development, and climate change. About 40 percent of the sagebrush ecosystem has been lost over the last century and half of the remaining sagebrush occurs in the Great Basin. Use of native plants to restore disturbed communities is a priority for both the USDI Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Forest Service to provide diversity, improve ecosystem health, provide adaptation to climate change and meet resource objectives such as restoration of greater sage-grouse habitat. BLM initiatives and policies such as the 2002 USDI/USDA Report to Congress, the Great Basin Restoration Initiative, BLM’s Standards for Rangeland Health, the Healthy Lands Initiative, and 1740 Renewable Resources Improvements and Treatments support the restoration of native ecosystems. This project includes projects directed by researchers from a variety of disciplines to meet the objectives of improving the supply of native plant materials and restoration strategies for their use in the Great Basin.