By Alex Drokin, free lance writer in Austin, Texas. Biologists are now closer to understanding fisher (Pekania pennanti) survival and mortality rates following a multiyear study. New research published in The Journal of Wildlife Management, found that fishers in California’s Sierra National Forest have an annual survival rate of 0.69, with the largest percentage of deaths resulting from predation. The research may…
As the dust settles on GBI’s Cave Springs excavation block project, the careful and exacting work begins for the categorization of prehistory findings rendered at the heart of the Great Basin. Collaborating with the Bureau of Land Management, Battle Mountain District, University of Nevada, Reno, University of California, Davis, California State University, Sacramento, and the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, principal investigators…
For the 2017 field season the institute is pleased to announce new partnerships with the Utah State University and the BLM National Operating Center. As the Bureau addresses sage grouse habitat and the effectiveness of fuels treatment, GBI field crews will be collecting data on aquatic systems as well as resiliency and response to Pinyon Juniper removal. Utilizing AIM lotic protocols,…
As upland monitoring technicians for the BLM’s Tonopah Field Office, we spent the last six months working in some of Nevada’s truly lonely and beautiful landscapes.
The spring of 2013 gave rise to an extensive Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) bloom in the Mojave Desert that lasted for weeks. Joshua trees are pollinated only by the yucca moth while the female lays eggs inside the flowers. When the larvae (caterpillars) emerge, they feed exclusively on Joshua tree seeds; a remarkable example of co-evolution. Interestingly, 13,000 years ago the now-extinct…
Summer Will Be Here Before You Know It. Great Basin Naturalists at Galena is gearing up for eight weeks of Summer Exploration Camp featuring new weekly themes, some returning favorites, and more activities to get your children exploring the outdoors. Five weeks of Residential Camp will be offered, in which campers stay at the beautiful WeChMe Lodge located in the…
On January 20th, 2014, twenty NCC AmeriCorps members and five GBI staff volunteered their time with the Las Vegas chapter of Habitat for Humanity, to celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. The AmeriCorps members worked on two of the eight homes Habitat will build this year to support families in need. At the building site, located in…
GBI boots hit the ground in the southern reaches of Wyoming for our first season in the “Cowboy State.” GBI has supported botany programs for the BLM in California, Idaho and Nevada, and now has responded to the state office in Wyoming to support the implementation of “Seeds of Success,” a national strategy to preserve and protect native plant species….
GBI returned to the Black Rock Desert this summer, for a second year, to support the BLM’s efforts to provide educational information to the estimated 52,000 festival attendees. Situated next to Center Camp, the interpretative team invited participants to learn more about the BLM’s mission, activities, and policies. Reproductions of the newly developed interpretive panels displayed at the Visitor Center…
“This is a wonderful beginning to what I hope to be a long-term collaboration between our institutions. This type of field work effectively advances science-based resource management education and practices.” Dr. Donald Rodriguez, CSUCI Natural Resources Chair.
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