Jeremy D Maestas

United States Department of Agriculture | USDA · Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Woody encroachment into grasslands and shrublands disrupts ecosystem processes and reduces biodiversity. Tree removal is a widespread strategy to restore ecosystem services and biodiversity in impacted landscapes. However, tree removal can also increase the risk of invasion by exotic annual grasses. In western North America, juniper (Juniperus spp....

The Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has served as a primary delivery mechanism for Farm Bill investments in voluntary conservation of private rangelands in the western U.S. for fifteen years. Consistent with interagency effort s to extend conservation beyond sage-grouse to the entire sa...

This special issue of Rangeland Ecology and Management is dedicated to applying the Sagebrush Conservation Design (SCD) to improve conservation outcomes across the sagebrush biome in the face of pervasive ecosystem threats. This special issue provides new science and real-world examples of how we can implement the SCD to save a biome. The SCD is a...

The rangeland science discipline has produced innovative science, datasets, maps, and tools to support rangeland conservation and management, such as those presented in this issue. Yet, there is a persistent gap between science production and on-the-ground implementation of conservation and management actions, and many managers remain in “informati...

Sagebrush ecosystems across the western U.S. are in decline due to numerous threats, including expansion of coniferous woodlands and forests. The interagency Sagebrush Conservation Design effort recently quantified sagebrush ecological integrity (SEI) to map remaining core sagebrush areas (relatively intact and functional sagebrush ecosystems) and...

Water scarcity and climatic variability shape human settlement patterns and wildlife distribution and abundance on arid and semi-arid rangelands. Riparian areas-the transition between water and land-are rare but disproportionately important habitats covering just a fraction of the land surface (commonly < 2% in the western U.S.). Riparian areas pro...

Worldwide, trees are colonizing rangelands with high conservation value. The introduction of trees into grasslands and shrublands causes large‐scale changes in ecosystem structure and function, which have cascading impacts on ecosystem services, biodiversity, and agricultural economies. Satellites are increasingly being used to track tree cover at...

Worldwide, trees are colonizing rangelands with high conservation value. The introduction of trees into grasslands and shrublands causes large-scale changes in ecosystem structure and function, which have cascading impacts to ecosystem services, biodiversity, and agricultural economies. Satellites are increasingly being used to track tree cover at...

Historically, relying on plot-level inventories impeded our ability to quantify large-scale change in plant biomass, a key indicator of conservation practice outcomes in rangeland systems. Recent technological advances enable assessment at scales appropriate to inform management by providing spatially comprehensive estimates of productivity that ar...

Rangelands of the United States provide ecosystem services that benefit society and rural economies. Native tree encroachment is often overlooked as a primary threat to rangelands due to the slow pace of tree cover expansion and the positive public perception of trees. Still, tree encroachment fragments these landscapes and reduces herbaceous produ...

Spatial and temporal dynamics of rangeland fuels is a primary factor driving large wildfires. Yet detailed information capturing variation in fine fuels has largely been missing from rangeland fire planning and fuels management. New fuels-based maps of Great Basin rangeland fire probability help bridge this gap by coupling dynamic vegetation cover...

Wildfires are a growing management concern in western US rangelands, where invasive annual grasses have altered fire regimes and contributed to an increased incidence of catastrophic large wildfires. Fire activity in arid, nonforested ecosystems is thought to be largely controlled by interannual variation in fuel amount, which in turn is controlled...

Contemporary restoration and management of sagebrush-dominated (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems across the intermountain west of the United States increasingly involves the removal of expanding conifer, particularly juniper (Juniperus spp.) and pinyon pine (Pinus edulis, P. monophylla). The impetus behind much of this management has been the demonstrate...

Tree expansion among historic grassland and shrubland systems is a global phenomenon, which results in dramatic influences on ecosystem processes and wildlife populations. In the western US, pinyon-juniper woodlands have expanded by as much as six-fold among sagebrush steppe landscapes since the late nineteenth century, with demonstrated negative i...

Spatial regimes (the spatial extents of ecological states) exhibit strong spatiotemporal order as they expand or contract in response to retreating or encroaching adjacent spatial regimes (e.g., woody plant invasion of grasslands) and human management (e.g., fire treatments). New methods enable tracking spatial regime boundaries via vegetation land...

On the Ground •New geographic strategies provide the landscape context needed for effective management of invasive annual grasses in sagebrush country. •Identifying and proactively defending intact rangeland cores from annual grass invasion is a top priority for management. •Minimizing vulnerability of rangeland cores to annual grass conversion in...

•Invasive annual grasses pose a widespread threat to western rangelands, and a strategic and proactive approach is needed to tackle this problem. •Oregon partners used new spatial data to develop a geographic strategy for management of invasive annual grasses at landscape scales across jurisdictional boundaries. The geographic strategy considers an...

In this era of global environmental change and rapid regime shifts, managing core areas that species require to survive and persist is a grand challenge for conservation. Wildlife monitoring data are often limited or local in scale. The emerging ability to map and track spatial regimes (i.e., the spatial manifestation of state transitions) using ad...

Aim In the western United States, sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) and salt desert shrublands are rapidly transitioning to communities dominated by exotic annual grasses, a novel and self‐reinforcing state that threatens the economic sustainability and conservation value of rangelands. Climate change is predicted to favour annual grasses, potentially pus...

In the Great Basin, coniferous trees are expanding their range at a rate higher than any other time during the Holocene. Approximately 90% of the expansion has occurred in ecosystems previously dominated by sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.). Transitions from open, sagebrush steppe to woodlands are considered a threat to the greater sage‐grouse ( Centroce...

On the Ground •Rangeland management has entered a new era with the accessibility and advancement of satellite-derived maps. •Maps provide a comprehensive view of rangelands in space and time, and challenge us to think critically about natural variability. •Here, we advance the practice of using satellite-derived maps with four guiding principles d...

Rangeland production is a foundational ecosystem service and resource on which livestock, wildlife, and people depend. Capitalizing on recent advancements in the use of remote sensing data across rangelands, we provide estimates of herbaceous rangeland production from 1986 to 2019 at 16-d and annual time steps and 30-m resolution across the western...

Wildfires are a growing management concern in western US rangelands, where invasive annual grasses have altered fire regimes and contributed to an increased incidence of catastrophic large wildfires. Fire activity in arid, non-forested ecosystems is thought to be largely controlled by interannual variation in fuel amount, which in turn is controlle...

Woody plant expansion into shrub and grasslands is a global and vexing ecological problem. In the Great Basin of North America, the expansion of pinyon–juniper (Pinus spp.–Juniperus spp.) woodlands is threatening the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) biome. The Greater Sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage‐grouse), a sagebrush obligate species, is...

Coniferous trees, principally juniper (Juniperus spp.) and pinyon pine (Pinus spp.), have increased considerably in cover and density in the western United States since European settlement with wide ranging consequences for sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems. A continuum of vegetation types exists across the region, from conifer-encroached shrub...

Rangelands of the United States provide ecosystem services that benefit society and rural economies. Native tree encroachment is often overlooked as a primary threat to rangelands due to the slow pace of tree cover expansion and the positive public perception of trees. Still, tree encroachment fragments these landscapes and reduces herbaceous produ...

Operational satellite remote sensing products are transforming rangeland management and science. Advancements in computation, data storage and processing have removed barriers that previously blocked or hindered the development and use of remote sensing products. When combined with local data and knowledge, remote sensing products can inform decisi...

Aim In the western US, sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.) and salt desert shrublands are rapidly transitioning to communities dominated by exotic annual grasses, a novel and often self-reinforcing state that threatens the economic sustainability and conservation value of rangelands. Climate change is predicted to directly and indirectly favor annual grass...

Rangeland production is a foundational ecosystem service and resource upon which livestock, wildlife, and people depend. Capitalizing on recent advancements in the use of remote sensing data across rangelands we provide estimates of herbaceous rangeland production from 1986-2019 at 16-day and annual time steps and 30m resolution across the western...

In the absence of technology-driven monitoring platforms, US rangeland policies, management practices, and outcome assessments have been primarily informed by the extrapolation of local information from national-scale rangeland inventories. A persistent monitoring gap between plot-level inventories and the scale at which rangeland assessments are c...

Data layer depicts estimated percent cover of herbaceous annuals at 30m resolution on rangelands across the sagebrush biome during the period 2016-2018. Non-rangeland areas, such as forests, water, crops, and development are excluded. These data are a weighted average of three sources; the Rangeland Analysis Platform, USGS-Harmonized Landsat Sentin...

Operational satellite remote sensing products are transforming rangeland management and science. Advancements in computation, data storage, and processing have removed barriers that previously blocked or hindered the development and use of remote sensing products. When combined with local data and knowledge, remote sensing products can inform decis...

Management of expanding pinyon-juniper woodlands in sagebrush habitats has become a prominent strategy for sagebrush conservation, with spatially targeted tree removal efforts designed to benefit sage-grouse increasing over the past decade. This webinar will highlight recent literature on wildlife response to pinyon-juniper management across the We...

Summary of conifer expansion threat in sagebrush ecosystems as described in chapter for WAFWA's Sagebrush Conservation Strategy. Video replay: https://youtu.be/m1eHscKU6f8

One of the primary conservation threats surrounding sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Intermountain West of the United States is the expansion and infilling of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis, P. monophylla) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands. Woodland expansion into sagebrush ecosystems has demonstrated impacts on sagebrush-associated flo...

Conservationists are increasingly convinced that coproduction of science enhances its utility in policy, decision-making, and practice. Concomitant is a renewed reliance on privately owned working lands to sustain nature and people. We propose a coupling of these emerging trends as a better recipe for conservation. To illustrate this, we present fi...

Screening is a strategy for detecting undesirable change prior to manifestation of symptoms or adverse effects. Although the well-recognized utility of screening makes it commonplace in medicine, it has yet to be implemented in ecosystem management. Ecosystem management is in an era of diagnosis and treatment of undesirable change, and as a result,...

Assessing landscape patterns in climate vulnerability, as well as resilience and resistance to drought, disturbance, and invasive species, requires appropriate metrics of relevant environmental conditions. In dryland systems of western North America, soil temperature and moisture regimes have been widely utilized as an indicator of resilience to di...

On the Ground •Maximizing efficiency and effectiveness of limited resources to conserve America's vast western grazing lands requires a science-based approach. •Working Lands for Wildlife, USDA's approach for conserving America's working lands, co-produces scientific tools and quantifies outcomes that help guide future implementation and improve d...

Plant invasions can affect fuel characteristics, fire behavior, and fire regimes resulting in invasive plant-fire cycles and alternative, self-perpetuating states that can be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. Concepts related to general resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive plants provide the basis for managing landscapes to...

The Low-Tech Process Based Restoration of Riverscapes Pocket Guide is an illustrated and condensed version of the Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu). The pocket guide is designed to fit in your pocket (4 x 6") to use as a reference in the field.

A recent paper by Coe et al. (2018) calls into question juniper removal for sagebrush obligate species based on results from a correlative study of mule deer habitat use. Our rebuttal clarifies limitations of inference in their study regarding mule deer habitat quality, highlights the importance of winter forage on demography with omitted literatur...

- Riverscapes are composed of connected floodplain and channel habitats that together make up the valley bottom. - The scope of degradation of riverscapes is massive. Tens of thousands of miles of riverscapes are in poor or fair condition. - Structural-starvation is both a direct cause of degradation, as well as a consequence of land use changes...

The purpose of this design manual is to provide restoration practitioners with guidelines for implementing a subset of low-tech tools —namely beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS)—for initiating process-based restoration in structurally-starved riverscapes. While the concept of process-based restoration in riverscapes...

Chapter Two of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) Low-tech process-based restoration principles are critical to understand as both the basis for effectively applying low-tech restoration treatments and managing expectations about timing and magnitude of outcomes. We propose an...

Chapter 6 of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu) •Key phases of restoration project implementation include obtaining regulatory consultations and permits, construction, monitoring and adaptive management. •Application of beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structure...

Chapter 7 of the Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes - Design Manual (http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu)

Here, we present an example of how resilience-based state-and-transition model (STM) concepts are informing strategic, multi-scale efforts to prioritize conservation and restoration strategies in North America's sagebrush biome. Defining ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to cheatgrass invasion for generalized ecological types in th...

The North American semi-arid sagebrush, Artemisia spp., biome exhibits considerable climatic complexity driving dynamic spatiotemporal shifts in primary productivity. Greater and Gunnison sage-grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus and C. minimus, are adapted to patterns of resource intermittence and rely on stable adult survival supplemented by occasio...

Innovations in machine learning and cloud‐based computing were merged with historical remote sensing and field data to provide the first moderate resolution, annual, percent cover maps of plant functional types across rangeland ecosystems to effectively and efficiently respond to pressing challenges facing conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem...

Restoration of riparian and wet meadow ecosystems in semi‐arid rangelands of the western U.S. is a high priority given their ecological and hydrological importance in the region. However, traditional restoration approaches are often intensive and costly, limiting the extent over which they can be applied. Practitioners are increasingly trying new r...

Introduction to applying resilience and resistance concepts for UDWR habitat managers.

Gully erosion and channel incision are widespread problems reducing the function and resilience of wet meadows and riparian areas. The loss of natural water storage capacity in these systems is of concern in low-precipitation areas where wet-mesic areas represent a small fraction of the landscape but are disproportionately important to wildlife and...

Imperiled species recovery is a high-stakes endeavor where uncertainty surrounding effectiveness of conservation actions can be an impediment to implementation at necessary scales, especially where habitat restoration is required. Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) represents one such species in need of large-scale habitat restoration. It...

Much interest lies in the identification of manageable habitat variables that affect key vital rates for species of concern. For ground-nesting birds, vegetation surrounding the nest may play an important role in mediating nest success by providing concealment from predators. Height of grasses surrounding the nest is thought to be a driver of nest...

In the arid sagebrush ecosystem of the American West, wetlands and other mesic habitats—such as riparian areas and wet meadows—comprise less than 2% of the landscape yet they are disproportionately important to people and wildlife. As summer heat dries out soils in sagebrush uplands, species like sage grouse—along with livestock and many other wild...

The expansion of coniferous trees into sagebrush ecosystems is a major driver of habitat loss and fragmentation, resulting in negative impacts to wildlife. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) respond directly to conifer expansion through decreased breeding activity, nesting, and overall survival; thus, small amounts of conifer expansion...

Conifer woodlands have expanded into sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems and degrade habitat for sagebrush obligate species such as the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Conifer management is increasing despite a lack of empirical evidence assessing outcomes to grouse and their habitat. Although assessments of vegetation recovery a...

In the arid American West, water is as good as gold. Wet “mesic” habitats—places where water meets land—comprise less than 2 percent of the entire landscape. Yet neither people nor wildlife can survive without them, as evidenced by the early homesteaders who followed scarce water when they settled the West. Today, most vital water resources are on...

The Science Framework is intended to link the Department of the Interior’s Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy with long-term strategic conservation actions in the sagebrush biome. The Science Framework provides a multiscale approach for prioritizing areas for management and determining effective management strategies within the sagebrush...