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Nevada

Strategies for managing and sustaining groundwater-dependent ecosystems

December 05, 2023

River Fork Ranch Preserve, NV
River Fork Ranch, NV Groundwater interacts with surface waters at River Fork Ranch, NV © Chip Carroon / TNC

Report

  • Strategies for Managing and Sustaining Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems in Nevada

    Ten strategies for managing and sustaining GDEs

    Report includes ten strategies for managing and sustaining groundwater-dependent ecosystems in Nevada. The strategies collectively are likely to address almost all of the stressors and threats in Saito et al. (2022) and improve the resiliency of GDEs over the long term.

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  • Strategies for managing and sustaining groundwater dependent ecosystems in Nevada handout

    Handout on NV GDE strategies

    This 2-page handout summarizes the 10 strategies for managing and sustaining groundwater dependent ecosystems in Nevada

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Strategies

Strategies to manage and sustain groundwater-dependent ecosystems and the services they provide involve knowledge, governance, management and awareness. We therefore developed the following ten strategies:

  1. Science and Monitoring

    Increase understanding of co-benefits of healthy and restored GDEs, including carbon dynamics Strategy 1

  2. Science and Monitoring

    Increase monitoring and reporting over space and time Strategy 2

  3. Policy

    Enact policies to reduce current excessive groundwater withdrawals and appropriation to protect GDEs Strategy 3

  4. Policy

    Enact policies to prevent future groundwater withdrawals and overappropriation to protect GDEs Strategy 4

  5. Policy

    Include requirements for maintaining or protecting GDEs in regulations, codes, and laws for land and water management and economic development Strategy 5

  6. Management

    Include consideration of GDEs in permitting guidance and large-scale planning documents to identify and prioritize areas for protection and management of GDEs Strategy 6

  7. Management

    Increase the pace and scale of restoration of GDEs in time and space Strategy 7

  8. Management

    Incorporate collaboration, including public-private partnerships, to manage and sustain GDEs Strategy 8

  9. Education and Outreach

    Increase awareness of the value of GDEs and the need to protect and reduce impacts to them Strategy 9

  10. Education and Outreach

    Increase communication among water users, administrators, managers, and academics about GDEs Strategy 10