Owyhee

Owyhee Site

Location:	Elko County, NV, near the McCleary Wells, southern Owyhee Desert
Land Management Agency:	Bureau of Land Management Elko Field Office
SageSTEP Site Manager:	Maggie Gray
Plots:	Four 200-acre core plots (Control, Burn, Mechanical, Herbicide)
Elevation:	5300-5400 ft
Topography:	0-10% slopes of all aspects
Common Vegetation:	Wyoming big sagebrush, viscid rabbitbrush, Sandberg bluegrass, squirreltail, Indian ricegrass, bluebunch wheatgrass, basin wildrye, and cheatgrass
Soils:	Fine-silty to fine-loamy, mixed, mesic
Fire Regime:	Historically, several decades. Many of these communities experienced an increased fire return interval with settlement and overgrazing. Cheatgrass invasion can cause larger fires and reduce this interval to 10 years or less.
Representative Land Base:	Several million acres in western and central Utah, southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and eastern Oregon
Grazing:	Plots are located on an active grazing allotment, and will be fenced for the duration of the study to exclude livestock.
Treatments Implemented:	Fall 2008. For more information about treatments, click here.
Wildfire Activity:	All Owyhee plots burned completely in July 2018, but site will continue to be monitored for wildfire effects.

Updated 2009

Lisa Ellsworth
Project Co-coordinator
Dpt. Fisheries & Wildlife
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97330
Email
(541) 737-0008

Beth Newingham
Project Co-coordinator
GB Rangelands Research
USDA Ag. Res. Service
Reno, NV 89512
Email
(775) 784-6057 ext. 233

Lael Gilbert
Outreach Coordinator
Utah State University
5215 Old Main Hill
Logan, Utah 84322-5215
Email
(435) 797-8455