We explored shrub parameters representing sagebrush ecosystems within a dynamic vegetation model and estimated gross primary production (GPP) for two sagebrush sites in the northern Great Basin. Comparison with observations from eddy covariance (EC) tower data showed our modeled results were encouraging, although some seasonal underestimates were apparent. We believe our findings on preliminary parameterization of shrub PFT is an important step towards subsequent studies on shrubland ecosystems.