Across the country, many organizations have separately developed approaches to addressing the conservation of biological diversity. Some such as the Interior Columbia Basin and Sierra Nevada assessment projects have encompassed years and many millions of dollars to accomplish, and have been largely federally-driven. What we have to present is a model for a relatively inexpensive, rapid ecological assessment that reaches across ownerships and organizational missions to address the conservation of biological diversity in a partnership approach based on best science and expert opinion.

Presenters from The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Service would report on the Utah High Plateaus assessment that includes portions of four national forests, several BLM field offices, Ute Tribal, and state and private lands in a consolidated, interdisciplinary manner.

We believe that this process provides a model that is exportable to other regions of the country and provides a cost efficient and effective model for others to consider.