Get reliable science

The Great Basin in the western United States has a fire regime that has gone from every 40-100 years to ten years or less. The destruction of native plant communities, watersheds, and subsequent soil movement reduces habitat for wildlife and livestock grazing, diminishes recreational opportunities, and results in more dangerous and costly firefighting. Restoration efforts have resulted in collection of native seed becoming an important aspect of multiple-use on public lands, but available seed quantities are frequently too inadequate to revegetate large areas. Restoration of native shrubs are integral to the proper function of these ecosystems and Wyoming Big Sagebrush is an important native shrub for restoration because of its wide distribution in the Western U.S. where it dominates over 60 million ha and provides essential habitat and forage. This study was designed to determine if thinning native stands on a multi-acre research site could improve seed yields in established populations of Big Sagebrush. Stands were either chemically thinned or strip killed, mechanically thinned or strip killed, or left as a natural stand. At both locations, the frequency of Western Wheat grass and Cheatgrass increased when compared to the natural stand. One year after application the seed yields were not significantly higher than the natural stand. Multiple years of data are needed to allow sagebrush health to recover and get back into seed production but mechanical thinning and strip killing showed some promise as seed yields were similar to the natural stand after the first year of recovery.