Utah
 | | | ||||||||||
What's NewNational Native Seed Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico - April 2013 The National Native Seed Conference will be held at the El Dorado Hotel in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. This conference, which is being organized by the Native Seed Network, is made possible through the support of the national office of the BLM as well as other agencies and organizations. It is designed to bring land management agencies, research organizations, native seed industry, and restoration professionals together to share practical information needed to improve our ability to efficiently and effectively restore our native ecosystems. This, the Second National Native Seed Conference, will include the joint meetings of the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program and the Great Basin Native Plant Selection & Increase Project. To make hotel reservations call the hotel directly at 800-955-4455 or send email to: rez@eldoradohotel.com. Indicate the group code Native Seed Network to receive rooms at conference rates of $83.00 per night plus taxes. The cut-off date for reservations at this rate is Friday, March 15. To register for the conference and for more information, please visit the Native Seed Network.
|
| |||||||||||
|
|
Dedication of BLM’s Native Plant Demonstration Garden at the University of Utah Rio Mesa Center - September 2012
Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP) funded the establishment of a native plant demonstration garden through the University of Utah and their Rio Mesa Center northeast of Moab along the Dolores River. On Sept. 29, BLM Utah State Director, Juan Palma, and University of Utah President, David Pershing, were on hand to dedicate this garden and celebrate the partnership between the BLM and the University.
The demonstration garden is designed to represent some of the Colorado Plateau’s major ecosystems and will be used to teach students of all ages the importance of native plants and resilient native plant communities for a variety of sustainable values. It is anticipated that university students will be involved in developing interpretive materials for use by grade school and high school students that will be brought to the Rio Mesa Center from nearby communities.
In addition to the demonstration garden, the BLM has funded the development of research (common garden) sites at Rio Mesa. It is the BLM's vision that Rio Mesa will become a collaborative research center where individuals from a variety of universities and agencies will come to conduct studies that will improve our ability to successfully restore native ecosystems. From the identification of native seed from the Colorado Plateau that can be commercially developed, to determining the best methods for ecosystem restoration, the center will provide opportunities for moving the native plant program forward. Included as well, will be research related to the effects of climate change on these native systems and how individual species might respond to these changes over the near- and long-term.
|
|
| BLM-UT State Director, Juan Palma (L) and University of Utah President, David Pershing (R) plant native grasses in the BLM’s native plant demonstration garden at the University’s Rio Mesa Center | |
|
|
|
Ecological Society of America 97th Annual Meeting: Life on Earth: Preserving, Utilizing, and Sustaining our Ecosystems
The CPNPP sponsored an Organized Oral Session at the 2012 Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. The following presentations were included in the program and are available for viewing here.
Organized Oral Session OOS-28 – Restoration of Colorado Plateau Ecosystems: Establishing Resilient Communities in the Face of Climate and Land Use Change
Restoration of degraded ecosystems on the arid and semi-arid lands of the Colorado Plateau requires the collaboration of diverse specialists, each with a refined understanding of how his/her research fits into the broader picture of building a highly interacting community that provides a suite of services.
OOS 28 - 1 Baker, B1, R Gillies2, SYS Wang2 and T Wood3, (1) The Nature Conservancy, (2) Utah State University, (3) U.S. Geological Survey. Climatic implications for restoration of ecosystems on the Colorado Plateau under a changing climate.
OOS 28 - 2 Strittholt, J, T Sheehan and B Ward, Conservation Biology Institute. Mapping landscape intactness for BLM rapid ecoregional assessments.
OOS 28 - 4 Wood, T1, M Choo2, T Nakazato2, M E Miller3, (1) U.S. Geological Survey (2) University of Memphis, (3) National Park Service. Population genetic structure in three foundational grassland species: Implications for restoration in Arches and Canyonlands National Park.
OOS 28 - 6 Pendleton1, R, B Pendleton1, SE Meyer1 BA Richardson1, TC Esque2, and SG Kitchen1, (1) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, (2) Geological Survey, Western Ecological Science Center. Ecological dynamics of blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima), an iconic landscape dominant.
OOS 28 - 8 Eisenberg, C and DE Hibbs, Oregon State University. How predators influence communities: fire, wolves, elk and aspen trophic cascades, case studies form the Rocky Mountains.
|