Rangeland Ecology & Management

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RESTORATION USING NATIVE PLANT MATERIALS IN THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU OF WASHINGTON
Author
Sheridan, Chris
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

Agriculture has removed over 50% of Washington's shrub-steppe. Much of the remaining shrub-steppe is degraded and fragmented; less than 1% is protected in an ecological condition similar to historic or reference condition.� Furthermore, the majority of shrub-steppe in Washington has been classified as having low resistance/low resilience due to its climate.� Thus, effective restoration is simultaneously critical and difficult to accomplish.� Beginning in 2002, BLM in Washington began to restore historic wheat fields seeded with non-native grasses to native grasses, forbs, with primary funding from the BLM's Native Plant Materials Development Program. Beginning in 2006, BLM began monitoring changes in plant densities and presence in treated sites, to assess the effectiveness of restoration. This talk will report monitoring results, including changes in the density and presence of: native grasses, native forbs, non-native grasses, and non-native forbs.� Results will include consideration of trend in treated sites, and comparison of treated sites to native references and sites seeded with non-native species.�Our results demonstrate that within low resistance/low resilience sites, intensive restoration treatments can: a) dramatically increase cover by native grasses; b) reduce cover by non-native species; c) replace plant groups not associated with the reference state of the ecological site (e.g., invasives and seeded grasses) with native plants that are associated with ecological reference condition.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV