Range Restoration Update November 22nd

Range Restoration Update November 22nd

November 25, 2013

Dan Mummey describes late season seeding and soil preperation strategies for a number of restoration areas.

Restoration Update November 22nd

We finished seeding crested wheatgrass restoration areas to sainfoin and winter wheat this week. East crested was the last area seeded. The recommended sainfoin seeding rate for non-irrigated lands is 34 lbs. per acre. We increased this rate to 44 lbs. per acre to produce a dense stand.

Orchard House hill was the last large area planned for seeding this fall. We finished seeding in the dark the night before a cold front arrived. Surface soil was frozen solid the next morning.

Our seeding strategy is designed to decrease heterospecific seedling competition and increase spatial heterogeneity. This design produces patches of forbs and grasses at three spatial scales.

Row configuration #1 & #2.

The results from our “nurse-plant” study showed little difference in bitterbrush seedling growth when plants were grown next to bottlebrush squirreltail or without competition. We used this information to direct how bitterbrush is drill-seeded on Orchard House hill. Bitterbrush, bottlebrush squirreltail, and small amounts of Sandberg bluegrass were seeded to a single row.

Native seeding areas are represented by red polygons. Blue polygons enclose areas seeded to cover crops (sainfoin and winter wheat). Food plots areas are depicted in green.