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NVPMC

Great Basin Plant Materials Center (NVPMC)
Serving areas in the States of Nevada, Oregon, California, and Utah

Established: 2006
Size: 120 acres, 84 irrigated
PMC Operation: NRCS
Land Ownership: University of Nevada, Reno

Great Basin PMC partners with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Monarch butterfly on narrow-leaved milkweed.The Great Basin Plant Materials Center (NVPMC) is the newest Plant Materials Center in the United States. The NVPMC’s service area includes most of Nevada and portions of eastern California, southern Oregon, and western Utah. The Great Basin Plant Materials Center will be a source of native plants and technology for the low precipitation and high salinity areas found in the Great Basin.

Invasive plants and animals have changed many ecosystems in the Great Basin. The Center’s priorities include methods to reduce the harm done by invasives, re-establish desirable vegetation, and develop native plants to rehabilitate landscapes disturbed by invasive species, wildfire, and drought. The NVPMC collects, selects, and tests native plants to replenish native vegetation, expand the economy, and provide alternative sources of energy for Great Basin ecosystems challenged by climate change, drought, wildfire, and invasive species.

The soil, water, and air resources in the Great Basin face an environmental crisis. The damaging effects of repeated wildfires, expansion of land area infested with invasive weeds, and prolonged drought have left large areas of the hydrographic Great Basin on the verge of severe ecosystem degradation. The Center will develop native plant materials adapted to the extreme conditions found in the Great Basin.

Highlights

HIGH QUALITY, PRODUCTIVE SOILS

Conserve and enhance soil resources with plant science and technology
  • Develop native grasses and shrubs to restore sagebrush steppe habitat, mitigating the effects of invasive exotic downy brome (cheatgrass) and the repeated intense wildfires it fuels, which alter the chemistry and biology of rangeland soils.
  • Conduct research on improved methods for revegetation of disturbed sites to enhance greater sage-grouse habitat.
  • Demonstrate alternative crops and cropping systems to improve soil health and productivity in Great Basin agriculture.

WATER QUALITY

Improve water quality and quantity with plant science and technology
  • Revegetation of disturbed riparian corridors after control of invasive perennial weeds to mitigate the threat of reduced water supply to the desert terminal lakes in the Great Basin.
  • Demonstrate low water use alternative crops for Great Basin agricultural production.

AIR QUALITY

Improve air quality with plant science and technology
  • The native plants and technology developed at Great Basin PMC can be used to stabilize vulnerable soil of abandoned farmlands and other disturbed sites to reduce the frequency and severity of hazardous dust storms.

Great Basin Plant Materials Center
2055 Schurz Highway
Fallon, NV 89406
Telephone: 775-423-7957
Fax: 775-423-3430