The nevada agricultural experiment station (NAES) has continuously and systematically reviewed and focused on programs to address nevada's highest priority needs related to forestry research

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $379,282 to the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station (NAES), a division of the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents, on October 1, 2025, under the Cooperative Forestry Research program (CFDA 10.202).

NAES will conduct forestry research addressing ecosystem response to environmental change in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, with emphasis on climate-adaptive and fire-resilient forest and rangeland management. Specific research activities include understanding and forecasting how climatic changes alter the distribution and abundance of woodlands in the Great Basin using remote sensing and tree-ring data; partnering with the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station to plan landscape-level restoration activities in pinyon-juniper woodlands under changing climate and fire regimes; mapping wildland fuels across scales from individual plots to entire states; measuring the effects of forest fuel reductions on carbon and nitrogen stocks in Sierra Nevada forests; and identifying environmental relationships underlying wood formation in trees domestically and internationally.

The period of performance runs from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2027. Work is performed in Reno, Nevada. This is a formula grant under the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research program, which supports forestry research in production, utilization, and protection of forestland and trains future forestry scientists.

NAES fully subscribes to and supports the university's goal to achieve recognition as a 'fully engaged' institution and is committed to the principles of accessibility and program utility that have guided the land grant university system for more than 150 years. Critical issues in the state to be addressed by NAES include the protection and management of our natural and environmental resources. Forests and related rangelands worldwide are increasingly under stress due to the many interacting components of global environmental change, including warming climate, extended drought, altered fire regimes, invasive species, and the legacy of historical land uses and inappropriate management practices. NAES overarching goal is to develop fundamental understanding of ecosystem response to environmental change that will inform the climate adaptive and fire resilient management of forests and related rangelands throughout the great basin and sierra nevada. Studies will specifically address understanding and forecasting how changes to climatic conditions alters the distribution and abundance of woodlands in the great basin using diverse datasets including remote sensing and tree rings. Other related studies will partner with USFS rmrs to plan landscape level restoration activities in pinyon juniper woodlands, in the context of changing climate and fire regimes. Other projects will address the challenges of mapping wildland fuels at scales ranging from individual plots to entire states; measuring the effects of forest fuels reductions on carbon and nitrogen stocks in forests of the sierra nevada; and identifying environmental relationships underlying wood formation in trees both in the U.S. And abroad.