FA BLM CESU Cooperative Extension Monitoring Agreement, Gila District

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Project Background Information: Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs) provide research, technical assistance, and education to federal land management, environmental, and research agencies and their partners. The partners serve the biological, physical, social, cultural, and engineering disciplines needed to address natural and cultural resource management issues at multiple scales and in an ecosystem context. The multi-disciplinary structure of CESUs makes them well-suited to address federal agency needs for sustainability science. The Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (DSCESU) is a cooperative network of ten federal, eight university, and seven nongovernmental agencies studying and managing natural and cultural resources across the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Formed in 2000, and encompassing the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan deserts, the DSCESU has been involved in more than 400 projects. The purpose of this agreement is to establish a framework upon which the DSCESU Cooperative Extension Program and Gila District BLM jointly plan a collaborative range monitoring program. Project Objective: Arizona BLM desires to enter into new agreement(s) with DSCESU partner, extending an AZ BLM agreement, to provide students and interns or entry-level professionals for the following reasons. The DSCESU and BLM have been working cooperatively on this project with for nearly 15 years. This agreement involves natural resources on public lands. 1) Provide a basis for high quality scientific research and technical assistance for natural resource management on public lands. 2) Provide the most up-to-date scientific research on natural resource issues on public lands. 3) Create an on-going effective and efficient partnership between the BLM and CESU Member. 4) Enable undergraduate and graduate students to interact with Federal agency personnel and to experience on-the-ground resource management. 5) Assist the BLM in efficient and cost effective public land management by inventorying, monitoring, assessing, interpreting, educating, and informing natural resources, settings, and conditions so that these public lands and the NLCS units can continue to be managed for the public benefit.

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