“Growth in the desert takes a long time. Our restoration work is giving a necessary jumpstart to natural processes, but our time scale for success is multiple decades before these sites approach a truly natural state.”
— DASH HIBBARD - Staff Restoration Ecologist

The Walker Basin Conservancy has acquired over 18,000 acres associated with water acquisitions, forming the basis of one of the largest salt desert habitat improvement projects in the Great Basin. As water use is reduced on this retired agricultural land, the Conservancy restores native plant communities to stabilize the soils, reduce dependence on irrigation, and improve habitat for the many native species that depend on these communities.

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The Conservancy works on formerly irrigated old fields and in the floodplains and riparian areas associated with them. The fields we work on come to the Conservancy in a wide variety of conditions, from long fallow upland fields with very little vegetation, native or otherwise, to fields that may have been cleared of shrubs and used as pasture that are reestablishing with native vegetation, to recently farmed alfalfa hay fields.

Field conditions are assessed to determine what an appropriate native plant community to restore is, then to construct the best way to establish those communities. In some instances, sites are on track toward restoration already, in which case allowing those beneficial processes to continue, a strategy called passive restoration. In many cases, there is a need to employ active restoration, such as planting, seeding, and irrigating, to put fields on a track toward a natural plant community.

 
 
 
“Few groups are presented the chance to transform tens of thousands of acres. As we improve public access and habitat, we continue to learn and develop new practices in dryland restoration.”
— Peter Stanton - Executive Director

A Leader in Restoration & Stewardship

The Conservancy’s restoration work is unique in the arid west in its focus on the driest environments in the Great Basin and on highly disturbed old fields.  The Conservancy uses established conservation science to guide our restoration efforts and allow for adaptive management strategies. There is no established guidebook for this work – our projects are unlike most restoration in the Great Basin. Once a restoration plan is in place, restoration teams do the hard work of prepping fields, growing native plants for restoration in our native plant nursery, planting, seeding, irrigating, weed control, and monitoring to make those restoration visions a reality.

Stewardship activities balance agricultural interests, cultural activities, wildlife habitat, and recreational use while achieving mandated soil stabilization goals. Some of the projects include reducing instream sedimentation through restoration of riparian habitat, improving irrigation infrastructure, and reducing overall water usage through establishment of native plant communities adapted to our arid environment.

map of stewardship projects

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See the restoration progress and approaches on former agricultural fields where the Conservancy utilizes the best available science to improve habitat.

native plant Nursery

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The Conservancy’s native plant nursery in Yerington provides plant material that is well adapted to the arid conditions experienced in the Walker Basin for our revegetation projects. We produce native shrubs, grasses, and forbs from the seed we have collected locally.

Native Seed Initiative

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There is a shortage of locally adapted native seed that restorationists in Nevada need to successfully restore hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlands each year. The Conservancy is working with many partners to research production techniques and grow native seed to help fill these needs.

cONSERVATION SCIENCE

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As conservation scientists, we recognize the fundamental connection between ecological and human systems and use natural and social sciences to work on conservation solutions that maximize the preservation of biodiversity while also improving human well-being.

AMERICORPS

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The Walker Basin Conservancy’s AmeriCorps program gives members the opportunity to make an impact that will last longer than their lifetime. AmeriCorps members work with the Conservancy to restore landscapes that benefit the Walker Basin — from the river’s headwaters down to the lake.

native plant restoration

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As water is protected to Walker Lake, the Conservancy is restoring formerly irrigated fields to native plant communities that are adapted to our arid conditions, self-sustaining without supplemental irrigation, and provide habitat for native wildlife.