The Great Basin is North America's northernmost and largest desert lying between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. The native ecosystems of this desert were altered significantly by the introduction of domestic livestock and invasive species in the late 1800's and more recently by increases in wildfires and human occupation and recreation. The largest land manager in the Great Basin is the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management which manages 35 million hectares of public land. Support for the application of science to improve the management of public lands is found in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Support for improving linkages between science and restoration of public lands in the Great Basin is called for in the BLM 's Great Basin Restoration Initiative's strategy (Healing the Land). This Initiative was implemented in 1999 to promote proactive restoration to resolve three vegetation/fire issues in the Great Basin:

1. Cheatgrass ( Bromus tectorum) Wildfires

2. Conifer Encroachment

3. Perenial Invasive Species

Projects:

Great Basin Native Plant Selection and Increase Project

Coordinated Intermountain Restoration Project (CIRP)

Integrating Weed Control and Restoration for Great Basin Rangelands

A Regional Experiment to Evaluate Effects of Fire and Fire Surrogate Treatments in the Sagebrush Biome 

Ecologically Based Invasive Plant Management

Great Basin Science Delivery Project

Restoration is, “a set of actions that promotes plant community diversity and structure that allows plant communities to be more resilient to disturbance and invasive species over the long-term.”