Restoration
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Irrigation trials were conducted over multiple years for two perennial Eriogonum species, E. umbellatum and E. heracleoides. Averaged over 11 years, seed yield of E. umbellatum was maximized by 209 mm/year of spring precipitation plus irrigation. Averaged over 6 years, seed yield of E. heracleoides was maximized by 126 mm/year of applied water. Both species required relatively small amounts of irrigation to help assure seed yield, and the irrigation needed for E. umbellatum could be adjusted by taking spring precipitation into account.
This project and it’s associated resources, can be accessed here.
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This interactive map and database highlights aspen research as it relates to regions in primarily North America.
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This study used historical and projected weather to predict changes in landscape composition and structure under two different climates, three restoration strategies, and two different fire management scenarios. They found that, without active restoration treatments, whitebark pine cannot survive. Management intervention actions such as planting rust-resistant seedlings and employing proactive restoration treatments, can return whitebark pine to some high mountain settings in western North America to create resilient upper subalpine forests for the future.
Large wildfires have dominated the news in much of the western U.S. this past summer. Conservancy scientists working in rangelands and forests are engaged in many efforts to understand, cope with or avoid the effects of these fires. In fact, one Conservancy field crew working in the Northern Great Basin Experimental Range (NGBER) was chased from their beds and field work by one of these fires for a few days. They were collecting data on novel restoration approaches to reduce the vulnerability of sagebrush habitat to large wildfires beforehand and recover more successfully after the fires. This involved replacing one of the key culprits contributing to wildfires in the west, cheatgrass, with native plant species.
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It is widely recognized that forest restoration needs to be scaled up to landscapes. This webinar described the findings from the project “Go big or Go Home?” in the eastern Cascades of Oregon. The goals of the project were to analyze how forest collaboratives and Forest Service managers can plan and manage at landscape scales, and determine how scientific research, participatory simulation modeling, and innovations in collaborative participation can contribute to the process.
Talk 1: Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director, Xerces Society: Best Management Practices for Pollinators: Creating Practices that are Meaningful and Implementable for Rangelands
Talk 2: Jim Cane, Research Entomologist, USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit: Calculated Floral Resource Withdrawal by Managed Honey Bees in Light of Native Bee Reproduction
Talk 1: Dave Waldien, Affiliated Scholar, Christopher Newport University: Management Considerations of Pollinating Bats on Wind and Solar Farms
Talk 2: Peter Beesley, Vegetation Program Manager, Expert – Pacific Gas and Electric Company: Utility Right-of-Way Management that Supports Pollinators and Safe Energy Transmission
Talk 1: Mary Rowland, Research Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service; and Sandy DeBano, Associate Professor – Invertebrate Ecology, Oregon State University: Native Bees and Large Mammals: Vertebrate – Invertebrate Interactions in Riparian Natural Areas
Talk 2: Thomas Kaye, Executive Director and Senior Ecologist at the Institute for Applied Ecology: Partnering with Pollinators: Prairie Restoration to Support Diverse Pollinating Insects
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Data, weather, and tools to provide timely and site-specific information about long-term patterns of weather and microsite variability for rangeland restoration planning and management.