The Mohave Ground Squirrel at Fort Irwin, California. A State Threatened Species.

Properly designed and implemented inventory, assessment, and monitoring programs are important components of environmental compliance for U.S. Army training installations. In earlier work, a statistically rigorous and quantitative assessment and monitoring program for arid and semiarid ecosystems was developed and initiated in the Mojave Desert. The program was implemented in March 1983 at Fort Irwin, CA, the Armys National Training Center NTC, to monitor woody perennial vegetation and vertebrate populations. Data from that program, and ongoing work by the author, have produced analytical capabilities to quantitatively assess the effects of training activities on ecosystems at landscape scales. Such assessments are needed to determine environmental mitigation and management priorities, and future monitoring and research needs. This report discusses the ecology and biology of the Mohave Ground Squirrel-a State threatened species-summarizes the geophysical characteristics and environment of Fort Irwin, and describes the Army training mission at the NTC. Priorities are discussed for environmental management and mitigation, based on sound ecological principles and the authors cumulative research on the Mojave Desert ecosystem.