Restoration
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This report contains descriptions of USGS sage-grouse and sagebrush ecosystem research projects that are ongoing or were active during 2018 and is organized into five thematic areas: Fire, Invasive Species, Restoration, Sagebrush, Sage-Grouse, and Other Sagebrush-Associated Species; and Climate and Weather.
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Abstracts of Recent Papers on Range Management in the West. Prepared by Charlie Clements, Rangeland Scientist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV.
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Overcoming land management and restoration challenges to achieve sustained yield of multiple uses on public lands has been the focus of the Annual Restoring the West Conferences for many years.
By law the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and many other governmental agencies must manage their lands for “sustained yield” of “multiple-uses” like outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish “without … impairment of the productivity of the land”. Demand for these resources on public lands, and for ecosystem services and other previously unanticipated outputs, is increasing greatly. Management has gotten more complicated as uses and users have increased. At this conference researchers and managers share ideas about and examples of compromise, collaboration, and creativity that can improve management and restoration of public lands for sustained yield of the many resources we value.
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This paper identifies actions needed in order to improve provenance decision-making. Priority actions include embedding provenance trials into restoration projects; developing dynamic, evidence-based provenance policies; and establishing stronger research-practitioner collaborations to promote provenance choice and implement research outcomes for future restoration projects. Understanding how a changing climate will impact future restoration projects is also an important consideration when making decisions around provenance.
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This study found that fire frequency and a coarse measure of grazing use were not highly predictive of seed bank dynamics, with the exception that sites that burned <10 years ago had greater above-vs. below-ground similarity. Shrub cover predicted multiple below-ground characteristics: Ericameria nauseosa was associated with increased density of introduced species, Chrysothamus viscidiflorus was associated with increased densities of native annual species, and Artemisia tridentata was associated with increased richness of rare native species. Shrub cover estimates were predictive of seed bank composition, and suggest that areas dominated by A. tridentata would have the greatest restoration potential within their seed banks.
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More than 135 conservation partners recently met in Boise, Idaho during the Sage Grouse Initiative’s 8th annual workshop. This year’s workshop focused on wildfire, weeds and rangeland restoration.
Over the course of two days we heard from ranchers, firefighters, researchers, local non-profits and public land managers about the amazing results that come from working together locally to achieve a shared vision: healthy sagebrush rangelands for people and wildlife.
View technical note.
This technical note provides conservation practitioners with information on simple yet effective “Zeedyk” restoration techniques. The emphasis here is on structures that can be built by hand to address shallow headcuts or small incised channels (< 4 ft deep) impacting meadows and low-to-moderate gradient (< 3% slope) intermittent/ephemeral drainages in sagebrush rangelands. The note provides examples and lessons learned from partners in the Gunnison Climate Working Group who have been implementing a landscape-scale project using these techniques in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado. The note provides information and references to help practitioners identify opportunities, prioritize treatments, and design projects in similar watersheds across the West.
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This study approach revealed interactive, ecological relationships such as novel soil-surface effects on first year establishment of sagebrush across the burned landscape, and identified ‘‘hot spots’’ for recovery. The approach could be expanded across sites and years to provide the information needed to explain past seeding successes or failures, and in designing treatments at the landscape scale.
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This guide offers an integrated approach to facilitate the successful establishment of native plants and pollinator habitat along roadsides and other areas of disturbance associated with road modifications. It guides readers through a comprehensive process of initiating, planning, implementing, maintaining and monitoring a roadside revegetation project with native plants and pollinator habitat.
Access application and maps.
The ERA Tool is a map-based, searchable application to select native plants for restoration and pollinator habitat enhancement by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level III Ecoregions. Since ecoregions are areas of similar climate and topography that contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species, they are an ideal organizing unit for selecting plants for restoration. State floras, on the other hand, have many species that only occur in some ecoregions and are not appropriate choices for restoration elsewhere.
Contact: Mark Skinner, USDA Forest Service, 503-312-1656, [email protected]
The ERA is part of a comprehensive national revegetation learning project called Roadside Revegetation: An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants and Pollinator Habitat. Learn more http://www.nativerevegetation.org