Introduction

The Great Basin environment is influenced by three dominant factors population change and distribution, climate change and technology. Population has increased rapidly during the past decade from 2.9 million in 1990 to 4.9 million in 2004, and become more urbanized. In 2006 more than 60 percent of the basin population lived in urban and suburban areas. Climate change is of great importance to the environment in the Great Basin. The basin is a high desert area where both surges or episodic events and gradual changes will have important consequences, perhaps more so than in areas that have different environmental endowments. Finally, technology has both positive and negative impacts on the environmental condition of the Great Basin, influencing the activities of the population, industry and interaction with the environment.

The Great Basin is wedged between the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on the West, the Wasatch Branch of the Rocky Mountains on the East, and the Snake River on the North. The rough size of the Great Basin is about 900 miles North to South and 570 miles East to West. It includes the fast growing urban communities including Salt Lake City, Ogden-Layton, Provo- Orem, Reno-Sparks, Boise, Nampa, Logan, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Carson City, and Bend. Las Vegas, although not in the Great Basin, if defined on a drainage basis, has as well a major and increasing influence on its ecosystems. The urban and suburban populations are growing at a rate that will require different uses of water, create difficult urban rural interfaces, and is responsible for differing demands for environmental services by the population than in the past. Rural areas are experiencing changes as well including depopulation, slowed economic growth and development and an aging population.

Climate change is important and has the specter of increasing during this century. Estimates are that the climate has warmed by 0.6 to 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit during the past 100 years, and may warm from 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century (Environmental Protection Agency 1998 and Wagner 2003). With this change may come not only the gradual warming of the climate, but an increase in severe storms.

Technology was the third feature identified to have an overarching influence on the environment. This embraces many positive and negative factors. Examples of positive factors include the more water efficient residences, improved techniques of water management for the mining and agriculture industries, new concepts of societal organization and action with the growth of NGOs, and capacities for added mapping and the collection and organization of other information about the condition of the environment. Negative effects are present as well and include more easy capacities for human population to use wilderness areas, hunting and fishing pressures, increased and improved roads, and increased urban rural interface issues and urban sprawl.

Another unique feature of the Great Basin is the fact that the federal government owns most of the land, approximately 75 million acres or 72 percent. On this federal land is located much of the basic industry of the Great Basin economy. Mining, agriculture and the recreation industry are examples. These industries and resources are controlled by the federal government Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service as well as various state agencies. With the environmental degradation of the Great Basin there are conflicting pressures on these federal and state agencies on the best approaches to the management of these lands.

Environmental problems in the Great Basin are numerous and require attention. According to Noss et al, 1995 and Wisdom 2005, the Great Basin is one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the United States. A recent assembly of scientists from the land grant and other educational institutions in the Great Basin, representatives of federal and state agencies and the private sector identified six issues that are in need of more coordinated and careful attention if the degradation of the Great Basin is to be reversed. These were wild fires; water conservation and use; land use and health; the urban, rural and wild lands mosaic, culture and communities, and biodiversity.

The proposed Great Basin Environmental Program will not only support existing initiatives addressing the environment issues in the Great Basin, but will be more encompassing. The program will feature involvement from the communities, federal and state agencies and academic institutions in a comprehensive effort to reverse the environmental damage that currently exists, and develop policies and regulations that can provide an improved livelihood for the growing and changing distribution of the population and visitors to the Great Basin.