PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 10: Restoration and Adaptive Management
Tuesday, August 9, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Success of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) control and native plant restoration techniques on western rangelands.
Landmesser, Jacob*,1, Jones, Tom2, Monaco, Tom 2, Nowak, Robert1, Pyke, David3, Schupp, Gene4, 1 University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV2 USDA-ARS, Logan, UT3 USGS, Corvallis, OR4 Utah State University, Logan, UT
ABSTRACT- Native plant restoration and weed control in western rangelands involve economic concerns that force us to choose management techniques based on application over large areas with limited input of time and labor. Historically, this has involved the use of herbicide application and large-scale seedings often using non-native species (eg. crested wheatgrass (Agropyron desertorum)). A more ecologically sound approach to weed control would be to use native plant species. Our goal was to test the applicability of seeding native plant species with a range drill in native plant restoration and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) control on Great Basin rangeland. We were also interested in how the establishment of certain native plant species was related to cheatgrass density and density of other non-native plant species. We established eight sites across two precipitation zones in four states in the Great Basin and tested the establishment success of 29 accessions comprising 18 native plants seeded using a modified Truax© range drill. We also applied an herbicide treatment to determine the applicability and practicality of multiple management techniques. We collected density data once a month for three months corresponding to aspects of the life cycle of cheatgrass as well as one aboveground biomass collection. These data indicated that cheatgrass and the native species both responded negatively to herbicide treatment as expected, whereas the other non-native species responded positively to herbicide treatment. We also determined that certain accessions showed differences in establishment success based on location, which has immense implications for management.
Key words: weed conrol, cheatgrass, management techniques