RENO, Nevada -– State, federal, and non-profit organizations plan to sign a cooperative Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for proactive sagebrush conservation and restoration across Nevada and the Bi-State area along the California/Nevada border.

The purpose of this MOU is to provide a collaborative framework to accomplish common goals related to the restoration, enhancement, and conservation of sage-steppe habitat.

“This partnership is modeled on the highly successful Burley Project in Idaho and will allow Nevada partners to cooperatively pool resources across the state,” says Pheasants Forever SGI Field Capacity Coordinator Michael Brown.

The primary components to this partnership and MOU are to: control invading conifers in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds; implement practices across landownership’s designed to reduce the risk of fire and invasive species in the Great Basin Region; and restore and enhance wet meadow habitats in mutually agreed upon priority watersheds across state, federal, and private property to accelerate sagebrush ecosystem conservation.

Participating non-profit groups and agencies include: Pheasants Forever; NRCS-Nevada; BLM-Nevada; U.S Fish and Wildlife Service; Nevada Department of Wildlife; the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest; and the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The MOU signing will occur October 19 in Reno, Nevada.