The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was established in June of 1984. The project aimed to restore the restore spring sources and outflow channels and associated riparian habitats that were previously degraded by agriculture, road-building, and water diversions, and now were dominated by invasive species.
Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions
Nature-Based Solutions Case Study Search
This database contains over 400 implementations of nature-based solutions. Use the filters to identify the case studies most relevant to you.
While all cases here exemplify applications of NBS strategies, they were gathered from various sources and not all were written using the framing of nature-based solutions. To qualify as a nature-based solution, a project must provide benefits to both people and nature. In some instances, the human benefits are present but not emphasized in the case write ups; these cases were included because they still provide useful information to learn from.
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26,000 acres of Eastern Mojave Desert near Las Vegas, Nevada, is a specially managed area that receives Mojave Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) translocations. A 2011 Revised Recovery Plan aims to increase population densities of the tortoise by increasing native plant coverage and reducing invasive plant presence.
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After the 2018 Martin Fire, the USDA and the Nevada Department of Wildlife completed a restoration project on public and private land to rehabilitate the burned rangeland. Using herbicide and previously tested experimental seed mixes, the project sought to control cheatgrass and establish both native and non-native perennial plant species to lessen the long-term wildfire damage on the rangeland.
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The project aimed to restore riparian grass and sedge meadows currently dominated by Artemisia tridentata var. Tridentata. The project also served as research to study the effect on soil water and temperature, plant species establishment, and abiotic responses by water table depth, burning, and Artemisia. All Artemisia was killed as a result of the burn.
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Since 2016, the USFWS and Get Outdoors Nevada (GON) have been working in partnership to engage southern Nevada community members with outdoor spaces like Desert National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) through education and creation of urban wildlife habitat for pollinators and the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii).
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Valley Electric Association (VEA) and USFWS worked together to construct a wildlife-friendly solar power generation facility in the Mojave Desert near Pahrump, Nevada. VEA set solar panels higher above the ground (42 inches) relative to the industry standard (24 inches) and placed openings every 260 feet along the perimeter fence to allow wildlife passage.
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