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Project Profile: Resilient Sagebrush Ecosystems (NPSage)

Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park, City Of Rocks National Reserve, Craters Of The Moon National Monument & Preserve, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Grand Teton National Park

A young person holding a brown bag of collected seeds
Seed collection for restoration and post-fire recovery “workhorse” bunchgrass species in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in early July 2024.

NPS / Tom Rodhouse

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
National Seed Strategy; Invasive Species | FY22 - 24 $1,664,102

Inflation Reduction Act
Restoration | FY24 $1,660,000

The National Park Service is expanding the NPSage collaborative ecosystem restoration projects to integrate climate vulnerability planning and resiliency enhancement actions in parks across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Northern California, and Arizona. The approach integrates targeted treatments of invasive annual grasses, fuels reductions, and native plant restoration within the project areas and with partners across the landscape.

Why? The Sagebrush Biome is losing 1.3 million acres every year, with 75% of the lost acres due to invasive annual grasses. The National Park Service manages 3 million acres of sagebrush shrublands and steppe. These park lands are at risk of losing their intact sagebrush ecosystems due to increased drought and fires that convert them to invasive annual grasslands. This puts animals like Gunnison and greater sage grouse, pronghorn, and unique songbirds at risk. It also threatens important ecosystem services like carbon and water storage, stream flow regulation, and pollinator diversity.

What Else? NPSage uses the Resist, Accept, Direct framework and implements Nature Based Solutions such as re-establishment of fire-resilient and weed invasion-resistant native perennial bunchgrasses to build and enhance landscape resilience. This project has a high cumulative ecological value, with an impact beyond its immediate footprint. It contributes to the restoration of habitats in ecosystems that are threatened by climate change, fire, and invasive species, leverages extensive partnerships with other agencies, and contributes to workforce development through youth employment, including Tribal youth.

Learn More About This Project

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  • NPS Establishes NPSage Initiative to Restore Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystems

    • Sites: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Upper Columbia Basin Inventory & Monitoring Network, Big Hole National Battlefield, Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park,
    Two NPS staff knealing next to plants growing in a nursery

    Artemisia species, commonly known as sagebrush, are far from being the only species on the landscape. The sagebrush biome is composed of a rich mosaic of thousands of diverse plant species, which are largely driven by differences in climate, soil and elevation. These distinct sagebrush plant and animal communities occur in approximately 70 park units across the western U.S— all of which are experiencing significant threats from wildfire and droughts.

  • Park Managers look to Bipartisan Infrastructure Law projects to break cycle of fire-driven ecosystem losses in the West

    • Sites: Arches National Park, Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Colorado National Monument,
    rows of tall grasses being grown for restoration

    Park managers look to Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to break the cycle of fire-driven ecosystem losses in the West. The project focus, as part of a larger program that the National Park Service calls its NPSage Initiative, is on collaborative work to build capacity across four priority seed zones of the Intermountain Region: 17 parks in the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains ecoregions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

  • Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate

    Investing in Ecosystems

    A person in uniform uses a tape measure to check the height of vegetation.

    The National Park Service is investing in the long-term environmental health of national parks for people and wildlife. Projects made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act are building climate resilience, addressing climate change impacts, and restoring healthy lands and waters at parks and in surrounding communities across the country. The projects have created jobs and support for local economies.

  • Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding ensures long-term success of native plants in Western U.S. national parks

    • Sites: Inventory and Monitoring Division, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Upper Columbia Basin Inventory & Monitoring Network, Grand Teton National Park, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument,
    A person reaches down into waist high, brown grasses to collect seeds

    Thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, NPS projects in the West hope to collect native seeds to aide in accelerating repairs to damage due to wildfire, mining, flood, or other causes.

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Last updated: August 16, 2024