Nevada’s Forest, Range and Watershed Action Plan lists eight significant issues or threats to the state’s natural resources and identifies 22 priority landscapes where the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) will focus effort. It also provides strategies for how the NDF and cooperators will address their mitigation and management actions collaboratively through a Shared Stewardship approach.
To focus attention and investment of time, energy and resources into geographic areas of the state, the Priority Landscapes section provides a comprehensive geospatial analysis using 29 available data sets selected for their ability to address threats to ecosystems, values at risk, and collaborative opportunities across the state. The resulting priority map was used to designate 22 Priority Landscapes with similar geography, hydrography, ecosystems, and other characteristics that account for approximately 60 percent of the land area in Nevada.
Conserve Nevada’s wildland communities, endangered flora, and water resources
Nevada seeks to manage the key issues and threats to ensure that working landscapes and ecosystems are conserved for all the values and benefits provided. High priority landscapes such as mixed confer forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, sagebrush ecosystems, and riparian-wetlands are all important to human health and welfare, wildlife populations and habitats, local economies and cultures, infrastructure integrity, water quality and quantity, and biodiversity. Within the context of sustainable ecosystems, Nevada encourages and supports the active management, use and conservation to ensure ecological, human and economic vitality.
Protect State’s natural resources from wildland fire and native and exotic forest pests
Nevada has and will continue to take action to restore fire-adapted landscapes and reduce the risk of wildfire impacts to our ecosystems and communities. Nevada typically experiences cycles of drought, wildfire and flooding that can threaten the long-term viability of natural ecosystems and built environments. Strategic restoration and rehabilitation pursued by Nevada’s land management agencies ensures that functional vegetation is reestablished following disturbances and mitigates the threats of wildfires and floods. Nevada’s forests in the wildland and urban settings are also threatened with decline resulting from changes in state demographics, the economy, water conservation programs, as well as from a warming and drying climate. Nevada monitors forest conditions regularly, diagnosis outbreaks, and provides technical guidance and funding support to landowners who need to take action to prevent large-scale insect and disease outbreaks.
Enhance native plant communities, watersheds, and the services they provide
Nevada has a strong track record of proving assistance to communities that are planning for and reducing wildfire fuel. However, the increase in the scale and intensity of wildfire in Nevada as well as the rapid growth of communities has promulgated the need to rapidly increase the number of current Community Wildfire Protection Plans, Firewise USA sites, and Ready, Set, Go! Programs across the state. In addition, Nevada provides incentives to maintaining lands with natural ecosystems through conservation easements and other designations that enable the land to continue to provide on and off-site benefits such as potable water, clean air, forest products, and recreation opportunities. Nevada also supports conservation education programs that connect youth and adults to their local ecosystems to teach them about their values and benefits. Nevada’s management strategies for native vegetation communities also includes facilitating adaptation to climate changes to ensure that public benefits from them can be enjoyed into the future.
Best Management Practices
Nevada’s best management practices (BMPs) program is regulatory for some water quality BMPs. The agencies responsible for BMPs policy development are the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Nevada Conservation Commission.
Click here to view the most recent BMPs recommendations on the state forestry agency website.
