Idaho NERP

Protective Cap/Biobarrier Experiment

Experiment at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Description: This is a field-scale replicated experiment to test the performance of four different cover designs for buried waste management. One cover is based on the RCRA Subtitle C while the other three are based on two decades of ecological research at the Idaho NERP.

Key Findings: During the summer, perennial plants can remove two times the

average moisture stored during the non-growing season. They remove the soil moisture reservoir and keep water from entering the waste zone. Small burrowing mammals and ants can be kept out by gravel or cobble barrier layers.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

This research provides recommendations for an effective, efficient, and economic waste cover design for shallow land burial in arid and semi arid regions.

Fire Ecology

Goal: Fire is an important and natural disturbance at all of the NERP's and an important process in structuring vegetation communities. This project seeks to increase our understanding of post-fire sagebrush-steppe response to guide natural resource management.

Key Findings: Two years after a fire, native vegetation that re-sprouted after the fire dominates the plant community with total vegetation cover at 80% of unburned sites. Elk and pronghorn appear to prefer recently burned areas during certain times of the year.

The results of this project can be used to develop informed management plans for post-fire recovery and the control of exotic species.

Threatened and Endangered Species and Species of Special Concern

Pronghorn on the DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Pronghorn antelope:
the most conspicuous and numerous of the big game species resident on the Idaho NERP.

Loggerhead Shrike:
a species of special concern, considered at risk in the sagebrush-steppe habitat, that is doing well on the Idaho NERP.

As a result of security measures, many of the DOE sites have become centers of biological diversity, with populations of endangered species and ecosystems that have recovered from past disturbances. Surveys for species that are designated threatened, endangered or of special concern at the national, state, or regional level have been conducted at all NERPs. Surveys at Idaho started in 1975 and include more than 22 species of concern and three big game animals. These data are useful for NEPA documents, project planning, and as potential target receptors for risk assessment.