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NDOW describes large postfire restoration push, AB578 funding and monitoring gains
Summary
The Nevada Department of Wildlife told the Sagebrush Ecosystem Council it treated roughly 151,000 acres in 2025 with herbicide and seeding, leveraged $2.7M in partner funds, and expects to use $800,000 of AB578 funds to revisit the largest 2024 fire scar this year; NDOW emphasized monitoring and the need for more staff and seed capacity.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife told the Sagebrush Ecosystem Council on April 16 that it has scaled up postfire restoration across the state and aims to prevent the conversion of burned sagebrush into annual-grass-dominated systems. Alexa Lions, NDOWs habitat restoration co-lead, outlined 2025 accomplishments and lessons learned.
"This year we treated about 151,000 acres and leveraged $2.7 million from federal, state, NGO and mitigation partners," Lions said, summarizing 2025 work that included roughly 61,000 acres of herbicide treatment, 90,000 acres of aerial seeding and about 1,000 acres of drill seeding.
NDOW emphasized that pre-emergent herbicide followed by seeding helps perennial species re-establish after fire. Lions told the council that NDOW will return to the Cottonwood Peak fire area with about $800,000 of AB578 Nevada Shared Stewardship funding to pursue additional treatments this coming fiscal year.
"Pre-emergent herbicide is one of our most effective tools for controlling invasive annual grasses," Lions said, showing contrasting photos of treated and untreated sites and noting that NDOW often follows herbicide with seeding in the optimal winter-snow timing window.
The department also highlighted an expanded monitoring program designed to evaluate treatment success. Lions reported: "To inform our treatments, we monitored 645 plots across 18 project sites in 2025," and added that NDOW now has roughly 5,200 unique sampling visits recorded since 2011.
Limits and needs: NDOW officials repeatedly told the council that capacity is a central constraint. The department currently has about seven full-time-equivalent restoration staff statewide and faces recurring challenges in local seed availability and logistical/NEPA hurdles.
"A big limiting factor is capacity," Lions said. "We feel like we could use quite a bit more [staff]. Funding and access to locally adapted seed are ongoing constraints."
Multiple council members pressed NDOW on partnerships and the role of grazing and other tools in fuels management; NDOW and partner agencies said they are exploring all tools and working closely with BLM and the Forest Service to prioritize landscape areas where high wildlife values and high probability of success intersect.
Provenance: NDOW presentation and Q&A recorded in the council transcript from the department presentation start (SEG 1009) through NDOWs monitoring discussion (SEG 1316-1319) and Q&A (SEG 1346-1404).
