Restoration
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Land managers face a mounting variety of challenges, including how to efficiently dispose of excessive woody residues on forest sites (especially in the Western United States), maintain and improve soil productivity, improve forest resilience to changes in climate (especially as it pertains to drought and fire), and increase the effectiveness of reforestation activities. The use of biochar, a charcoal that is not readily degraded and is made specifically for land application, may have a role in meeting these challenges. Moreover, biochar may provide nursery managers with opportunities to produce seedlings for reforestation and restoration in a more sustainable way, particularly by reducing irrigation inputs, as evidenced through several trials summarized here.
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Drylands encompass over 40% of terrestrial ecosystems and face significant anthropogenic degradation causing a loss of ecosystem integrity, services, and deterioration of social‐ecological systems. To combat this degradation, some dryland restoration efforts have focused on the use of biological soil crusts (biocrusts): complex communities of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, bryophytes, and other organisms living in association with the top millimeters of soil. Biocrusts are common in many ecosystems and especially drylands. They perform a suite of ecosystem functions: stabilizing soil surfaces to prevent erosion, contributing carbon through photosynthesis, fixing nitrogen, and mediating the hydrological cycle in drylands. Biocrusts have emerged as a potential tool in restoration; developing methods to implement effective biocrust restoration has the potential to return many ecosystem functions and services. Although culture‐based approaches have allowed researchers to learn about the biology, physiology, and cultivation of biocrusts, transferring this knowledge to field implementation has been more challenging. A large amount of research has amassed to improve our understanding of biocrust restoration, leaving us at an opportune time to learn from one another and to join approaches for maximum efficacy.
Description: Post-fire seeding has been widely implemented in the Great Basin in response to the threat of resource degradation and weed invasion following fire disturbance. The longstanding practice of seeding non-native forage grasses has worked well for some purposes, but seeding native species is a more sensible choice if natural vegetation recovery is a long-term objective. Seeding natives raises questions of cost, establishment ability and whether native species will be as effective as non-natives in outcompeting invasive annuals. We consider these issues in the context of a study where outcomes of native and non-native seed mixes were compared during an 18-year timeframe following wildfire. Successional trajectories of seeded treatments were compared with unseeded controls and late-successional reference communities to assess restoration potential of treatment options.
Presenters: Francis Kilkenny, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service and Jeff Ott, Research Biologist, USDA Forest Service.
Webinar presented by Rich Hatfield.
For the safety of our community during this pandemic, Restoring the West has chosen to take this years conference online. Restoring the West is teaming up with the Learn at Lunch Webinar Program to bring you a virtual conference, held over two days.
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This study applied a remote sensing change detection approach to map reductions in pinyon-juniper cover across the sage-grouse range and developed a method for rapidly updating maps of canopy cover. We found total conifer reduction over the past several years (2011−2013 to 2015−2017) amounted to 1.6% of the area supporting tree cover within our study area, which is likely just keeping pace with estimates of expansion. Two-thirds of conifer reduction was attributed to active management (1.04% of the treed area) while wildfire accounted for one-third of all estimated conifer reduction in the region (0.56% of the treed area). Results also illustrate the breadth of this management effort—crossing ownership, agency, and state boundaries.
This webinar will include two presentations:
Sagebrush in prisons project: Native plant propagation for restoration with Stacy Moore, Ecological Education Program Director, Institute for Applied Ecology
California sustainability in prisons project: Seed propagation of Mojave Desert native plants with Tyler Knapp, Ecological Education Coordinator, Institute for Applied Ecology
Description: Post-fire seeding has long been used to control erosion and suppress problematic invasive annuals like cheatgrass in dryland areas of the Great Basin. It is also a potential tool for restoring pre-fire vegetation by assisting successional processes. Non-native perennial plants have been widely seeded on account of their establishment ability, competitiveness and forage value, but may pose barriers to natural vegetation recovery. Seeding native species is a more sensible choice if restoration is a long-term objective, but there is a question of both cost and whether native species will be as effective as non-natives in outcompeting invasive annuals.
Presenters: Francis Kilkenny and Jeff Ott, RMRS research biologists
Visit the RTEC website.
The Rangeland Technology and Equipment Council (RTEC) is an informal organization of land managers, engineers, researchers, academics, and private industry representatives interested in developing new rehabilitation equipment and strategies.
Description: Due to loss of natural ecosystems and biodiversity around the world along the past decades, international initiatives are being developed to establish a foundation for the restoration of diverse ecosystems, prioritizing ecosystem biodiversity and resilience while also recognizing impacts on rural livelihoods and carbon storage. As programs have become more refined, a shift from revegetation with available material to using native plant materials of known genetic origin has been underway, and achieving increasing priority at an international level. Through research and collaborative partnerships, on local, regional and international levels, and between public and private sectors, approaches are being developed that addresses the challenges in using native genetic plant material in ecological restoration. Four study cases from different geographic locations and climatic conditions were selected to demonstrate the successes in using native genetic plant material, developing a baseline for native genetic resource management, and meeting challenges according to every ecosystem’s limiting factors. In Jordan’s desert ecosystem a developed native seed strategy has majorly improved seedling quality and post-planting survival rate. In the tropical ecosystem of Guinea Conakry, the major challenge is to identify best seed collection times and seed handling techniques to improve seed germination and propagation of native seedlings through seeds for the restoration of the Bossou corridor. Within Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, an emphasis is being made on the development of a traceability system for native genetic plant material used in restoration projects, considering the genetic variability within native species, starting with Cedrus atlantica. In Lebanon, considering the diverse ecosystems, a scheme for the selection of native plant material is developed within every restoration project, for dryland, riparian or forest ecosystems.
Speaker: Karma Bouazza, Lebanon Reforestation Initiative