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In the western United States, direct seeding is a common practice that attempts to restore native plant communities and ecological function back into the ecosystem. However, many invasive annual weed species such as Bromus tectorum have a faster germination time than commonly seeded native species, which appears to give them an advantage in dealing with harsh temperature and soil moisture environments. We evaluated the ability of seed priming and microsite manipulation through deep furrowing to improve seedling establishment in a Wyoming big sagebrush ecological site near Vernon Utah. Within a randomized block split-plot design, Pseudoroegneria spicata and Linum lewisii seed was either left untreated, pelleted, or primed and pelleted. Seeds were planted in the spring (March), at either a 5 mm depth below the soil surface or at the same depth in the bottom of a 120 mm deep furrow. Both priming and deep furrowing increased seedling density for both species with the combination of the two treatments producing the highest treatment response. For example, in the first month after planting, primed seed of L. lewisii and P. spicata in deep furrows had 303-128% more seedlings, respectively, than untreated seed not planted in deep furrows. By the end of the growing season differences between these two treatments declined to 151-94% more seedlings, respectively. These results indicate that rapid germination of primed seeds and the use of deep furrows to improve plant microsite conditions may assist seedlings in establishing earlier in the growing season and better compete with invasive species.