Synergistic Monitoring – Addressing the Threats and Identifying Opportunities

For many years, land managers and scientists have been applying a variety of land treatments to improve or protect rangeland ecosystems. Collectively, we have studied the response of these treatments and wildfire events to identify opportunities for maintaining or improving Nevada sagebrush ecosystem health and functionality. In partnership with collaborators, we initiated a State-wide effort to capture, consolidate, and summarize implementation, monitoring, and research information for these events. We are conducting field studies to identify and fill information gaps. We seek a new and expanded information base that is available to Nevada land managers, scientists, and others interested in healthy and resilient sagebrush sites. We plan to identify the consequences of passive and active management; develop predictive tools for adaptive management; identify research needs; and increase accessibility to location, implementation and monitoring information for these events. Through the collaborative integration of our field study results with historic and current research and monitoring information, we seek to increase knowledge of landscape-level and site-specific ecological processes. This will further develop our ability to manage and predict rangeland health, integrity, resilience (after disturbance), and resistance (to undesired change under significant disturbance regimes) in the context of multiple-use management

Toxicosis from Range Lupine Ingestion in a Research Herd of Rafter 7 Merino Sheep

An outbreak of lupine alkaloid neurotoxicosis and death occurred in sheep grazed on rangeland areas of the Nevada Great Basin during the summer of 2023. Overall, 97 sheep died despite veterinary supportive care. Lupinus argenteus var. utahensis was implicated as the causative plant with high levels of lupanine (11.5 µg/mg) and spartiene (13.7 µg/mg) in collected and archived samples. Previous reports of sheep deaths due to lupine ingestion have not been recorded in this region. An increased abundance of the number plants producing seed pods having a high alkaloid content may have been associated with abnormally elevated levels of precipitation in the months leading to the event

Pumping-Jack

Patent for pumping jacks relating to oil wells

Modifications to United States Environmental Protection Agency Methods 1622 and 1623 for Detection of Cryptosporidium Oocysts and Giardia Cysts in Water

Collaborative and in-house laboratory trials were conducted to evaluate Cryptosporidium oocyst and Giardia cyst recoveries from source and finished-water samples by utilizing the Filta-Max system and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methods 1622 and 1623. Collaborative trials with the Filta-Max system were conducted in accordance with manufacturer protocols for sample collection and processing. The mean oocyst recovery from seeded, filtered tap water was 48.4% ± 11.8%, while the mean cyst recovery was 57.1% ± 10.9%. Recovery percentages from raw source water samples ranged from 19.5 to 54.5% for oocysts and from 46.7 to 70.0% for cysts. When modifications were made in the elution and concentration steps to streamline the Filta-Max procedure, the mean percentages of recovery from filtered tap water were 40.2% ± 16.3% for oocysts and 49.4% ± 12.3% for cysts by the modified procedures, while matrix spike oocyst recovery percentages ranged from 2.1 to 36.5% and cyst recovery percentages ranged from 22.7 to 68.3%. Blinded matrix spike samples were analyzed quarterly as part of voluntary participation in the U.S. EPA protozoan performance evaluation program. A total of 15 blind samples were analyzed by using the Filta-Max system. The mean oocyst recovery percentages was 50.2% ± 13.8%, while the mean cyst recovery percentages was 41.2% ± 9.9%. As part of the quality assurance objectives of methods 1622 and 1623, reagent water samples were seeded with a predetermined number of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts. Mean recovery percentages of 45.4% ± 11.1% and 61.3% ± 3.8% were obtained for Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts, respectively. These studies demonstrated that the Filta-Max system meets the acceptance criteria described in U.S. EPA methods 1622 and 1623

Forum: A Framework for Resetting Wild Horse and Burro Management

There are now over 130,000 head of wild horses and burros in the Bureau of Land Management program. Management tools in the original authorizations (Wild Horse and Burro Act; Public Rangelands Improvement Act) have been inhibited or banned by subsequent appropriation riders. The original framework for horse and burro management has been undermined, leading to on-range populations in excess of legally mandated levels. New, creative approaches to horse and burro management are required to bring populations back to legally mandated and ecologically appropriate levels. The Society for Range ManagementThe Rangelands archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information

Immunomagnetic Separation of Cryptosporidium parvum from Source Water Samples of Various Turbidities

Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedures which specifically capture Cryptosporidium oocysts and have the potential to isolate oocysts from debris have become commercially available. We compared two IMS kits (kit DB [Dynabeads anti-Cryptosporidium; product no. 730.01; Dynal A.S., Oslo, Norway] and kit IC1 [Crypto Scan IMS; product no. R10; Clearwater Diagnostics Company, LLC, Portland, Maine]) and a modification of kit IC1 (kit IC2 [Crypto Scan IMS; product no. R10; Clearwater Diagnostics Company, LLC]) at three turbidity levels (50, 500, and 5,000 nephelometric turbidity units [ntu]) by using water matrices obtained from different geographical locations. In deionized water, kit DB yielded recoveries between 68 and 83%, whereas the recoveries obtained with kits IC1 and IC2 were more variable and ranged from 0.2 to 74.5%. In water matrices with turbidity levels up to 500 ntu, the oocyst recoveries were more variable with kit DB; however, the recoveries were similar to those obtained in deionized water. In contrast, there were notable reductions in oocyst recoveries in the turbid matrices with kits IC1 and IC2, and the highest recovery (8.3%) was obtained with a 50-ntu sample. An examination of the effects of age on oocyst recovery with kit DB revealed that oocysts up to 16 weeks old yielded recoveries similar to the recoveries observed with fresh oocysts. These data indicate that all IMS kits do not perform equally well, and it is important to conduct in-house quality assurance work before a commercially available IMS kit is selected to replace flotation procedures for recovery of Cryptosporidium oocysts