The Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP): A Test of State-and-Transition Theory

Authors

James McIver, Oregon State University
Mark W. Brunson, Utah State UniversityFollow
Steve Bunting, University of Idaho
Jeanne C. Chambers, USDA Forest Service
Nora Devoe, USDI Bureau of Land Management
Paul Doescher, Oregon State University
James Grace, USGS National Wetlands Research Center
Dale Johnson, University of Nevada, Reno
Steve Knick, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystems Science Center
Richard F. Miller, Oregon State University
Mike Pellant, USDI Bureau of Land Management
Fred Pierson, Northwest Watershed Research Center
David Pyke, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystems Science Center
Kim Rollins, University of Nevada, Reno
Bruce Roundy, Brigham Young University
Eugene W. Schupp, Utah State UniversityFollow
Robin Tausch, USDA Forest Service
David Turner, USDA Forest Service

Document Type

Report

Publisher

United States Department of Agriculture

Publication Date

4-2010

First Page

1

Last Page

21

Abstract

The Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP) is a comprehensive, integrated, long-term study that evaluates the ecological effects of fire and fire surrogate treatments designed to reduce fuel and to restore sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities of the Great Basin and surrounding areas. SageSTEP has several features that make it ideal for testing hypotheses from state-and-transition theory: it is long-term, experimental, multisite, and multivariate, and treatments are applied across condition gradients, allowing for potential identification of biotic thresholds. The project will determine the conditions under which sagebrush steppe ecological communities recover on their own following fuel treatment versus the communities crossing ecological thresholds, which requires expensive active restoration.

Comments

General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-237

Recommended Citation

McIver, J.D.; Brunson, M.; Bunting, S.C., and others. 2010. The Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP): a test of state-and-transition theory. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-237. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 16 p.