Sagebrush steppe is one of the most threatened ecosystems in North America. Significant portions of sagebrush steppe have been converted to agriculture and grazed rangeland, and remaining steppe is being invaded by invasive plants and altered by increasingly frequent, large fires.
To make decision-making across the National Park Service (NPS) easier and more effective with regards to sagebrush steppe conservation, we assembled geodatabases (databases containing geographical and spatial data) for individual parks. The geodatabases include information from previous work, such as inventories, monitoring, and assessments, for mapping of sagebrush steppe. The maps are developed with ecosystem resilience to fire and resistance to annual grass invasion in mind. The goal of the work is to facilitate collaborative sagebrush steppe conservation across national park lands and larger steppe landscapes.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
