The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Mother Lode Field Office (MLFO), California has tasked a GeomorphIS-Wild Ginger team to conduct botanical surveys of Special Status Plant (SSP) species within the MLFO area, to include surveys of suitable habitat to find new occurrences of SSP species as well as surveys to update previously documented Element Occurrences (EOs) of SSP’s for the California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB). Some of these Element Occurrences have not been verified in many years, making the information less reliable to land managers and resource specialists. Surveys will be conducted during appropriate phenological periods to best identify the target species. Survey results (including negative findings) will be collected using the mobile data collection platform Survey123 and ArcGIS online (AGOL). The surveys will take place in 2023 and 2024.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Jarbidge Field Office in Twin Falls, ID has contracted with GeomorphIS and team member Elliott Environmental Consulting to conduct Special Status Plant (SSP) inventories for Lepidium papilliferum (slickspot peppergrass) in 2023. The conservation of slickspot peppergrass, a federally listed Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), is a high priority for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Idaho Army National Guard (IDARNG), and others. Slickspot peppergrass occurs in southwestern Idaho in sagebrush steppe habitats, which are also the focus of widespread conservation concern. Data collected about slickspot peppergrass and its habitats are critical for conservation and adaptive management of the species. The GeomorphIS team will conduct inventories of slickspot peppergrass habitat in the Jarbidge Field Office using the established protocol. Data will be collected while walking survey transects, and includes slickspot location, size, and complexity, dominant plant community and
presence of slickspot peppergrass.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has issued a GeomorphIS-Elliott Environmental Consulting team a task order to conduct botanical surveys on the Lincoln National Forest (LNF), New Mexico. The contract will cover a variety of projects for each of the next five years, on three Ranger Districts across the LNF. Both large watershed scale planning units (i.e., greater than 10,000 acres) and small-scale planning units (less than 10,000 acres) may be assigned for botanical surveys for a suite of target rare plant species, including 6 federally-listed and 33 other rare plant species. The Scope of Work consists of completing rare plant survey tasks in accordance with three possible survey protocols that include an intuitive controlled survey for all species or species specific protocols for the Kuenzler’s hedgehog cactus and the Sacramento Mountains thistle.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Pacific Northwest Region (R6), has issued GeomorphIS a task order under it’s 10-year USFS R6 professional services Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), to conduct water rights site surveys and documentation. A GeomorphIS-Geosyntec team will conduct  surveys at designated water sources on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBS) and Colville National Forest, Washington. The surveys will be conducted following established written guidelines. Waters of the state belong to the public and can’t be owned by any one individual or group. A water adjudication is a state law-based court process to determine water rights in a particular basin, including who holds a valid water right, how much water can be used pursuant to that right, duration of that right, and priority during shortages. Water adjudication is currently the most definitive and legally binding way to make these determinations. The Forest Service is required to participate as a general claimant for State-based water rights and federal reserved water rights.

The National Park Service (NPS) has tasked a GeomorphIS-Siskiyou BioSurvey team to conduct an inventory of rare, sensitive and imperiled lichen and bryophyte species in four high use areas of the park – Paradise, Sunrise, Carbon River, and Ohanapecosh – to identify their presence and distribution so that they can be 1) protected from visitor trampling, 2) avoided during trail, road and other facility construction and reroutes, and 3) when avoidance is not possible, salvaged prior to construction projects and replanted. Covariate data of the associated habitat of target species will also be collected so the park can infer potential habitat in unsampled areas.

Cryptic vegetative taxa like lichens and bryophytes in Mount Rainier are critical for the ecosystem functioning, biodiversity maintenance, and the experience of a forested and montane national park in the Pacific Northwest. There is an ongoing need to protect these sensitive resources from impacts of increasing visitor use in popular park areas. However, knowledge of the lichen and bryophyte (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) species (cryptograms) in the park is insufficient, based upon limited herbarium specimens with a high degree of spatial uncertainty. Thirteen of the lichen species known to exist in the park are state or globally ranked as sensitive to critically imperiled (Washington Natural Heritage Program; Department of Natural Resources 2018 & 2019; NatureServe). There are an additional seven rare to sensitive lichen species that may occur in the park but have not been confirmed. Twenty two of the bryophyte species documented in the park and another two species which may occur are state or globally ranked as sensitive to endangered species (Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria; unpublished park data). Conservation, restoration, and environmental assessments require knowledge of the presence or sensitive, rare or threatened species to successfully protect these species from ongoing change within the park.