PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #61: Arid Lands Restoration.
Presiding: S. Loftin
Wednesday, August 7. 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM. Mohave Meeting Room, TCC.
Restoring the dominant native plant species in the Mojave Desert.
OSTLER, KENT*,1, HANSEN, DENNIS1, ANDERSON, DAVID1, 1 BECHTEL NEVADA, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
ABSTRACT- Many of U.S. Department of Defense training and testing areas occur on arid and semiarid lands. Testing and training activities are often devastating to vegetation in these arid lands. Natural recovery of disturbances in arid areas is a very slow process requiring that mitigation measures be implemented. Because of the extreme and variable conditions associated with deserts, active revegetation efforts are often not successful particularly when it comes to establishing the dominant species that existed at sites prior to the disturbance. The U.S. Department of Defense has recognized the need to use these areas on a sustainable basis so they are implementing measures to document disturbances and are investigating ways to mitigate the impact of their activities. Our research has focused on revegetating disturbances at Fort Irwin - the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert of California with an emphasis on seeding of the native dominant species at various disturbance levels. This presentation describes a series of experiments in the laboratory and the field that focused on establishing two dominant species, creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and white bursage (Ambrosia dumosa). The key to successfully establishing these species by seeding is threefold, 1) removal of seed-coat inhibitors 2) proper soil moisture and 3) proper temperatures during germination. Field treatments included novel irrigation designs, surface treatments to enhance moisture retention and timing of seeding. These treatments were examined at two locations at Fort Irwin that have different soil conditions. These trials are part of a larger effort to assess new and cost effective ways to restore arid areas disturbed by military training. This work was supported by SERDP under work order AGRW74RDV90120347.
KEY WORDS: Restoration, Mojave Desert, Native species, Creosote bush