Contributions of UNLV and PLI Staff Recognized at the Great Basin CESU Annual Meeting

Congratulations to Glendee Ane Osborne and Dr. Scott Abella! Both were in the spotlight during the annual meeting of the Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU), which was held December 8, 2008 in Reno.

Osborne, a graduate student in UNLV’s Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, received the 2008 Great Basin CESU Outstanding Student Contribution Award. She was nominated by her mentor, Dr. Karen Harry, UNLV associate professor of Anthropology, for completing a predictive model for archaeological site distribution based on vegetation, elevation, soil types, and other environmental factors. The model for Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Parashant National Monument was part of a larger CESU project funded by the National Park Service and awarded to UNLV’s Public Lands Institute. In addition to being the sole author on the predictive model, Osborne also completed several reports and presentations resulting from the project. PLI Executive Director Dr. Peg Rees presented the award to Osborne on Dr. Harry’s behalf during the CESU meeting.

Abella, assistant research professor in Vegetation Ecology, was selected as one of two presenters for the CESU Showcase. Abella highlighted vegetation monitoring and analysis at Lake Mead and demonstrated how the CESU project yielded high value-added results from collaborative agreements between land managers and university scientists. In a two-year period, all deliverables were met, which included surveying 1,747 kilometers of travel corridors for invasive exotic plant species on federal land in Clark County, removing more than 600,000 individual exotic plants, and monitoring of more than 12 rare native species to assist the National Park Service in meeting the monitoring requirements under the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. In addition to the monitoring, Abella noted that 29 articles have been published from the research, with Lake Mead managers co-authoring half of six published articles from CESU-funded projects.

“I am proud of Glendee Ane’s and Scott’s accomplishments,” said Rees. “UNLV’s importance as a research institution was prominent since half of the formal presentations at the CESU annual meeting were conducted by individuals from UNLV and PLI.”