Public land management agencies, conservation organizations, and landowners are interested in expanding the biodiversity of rangeland plantings. While the establishment of native grasses and shrubs on Great Basin sage-steppe sites is increasingly successful, the establishment of native forbs remains notoriously low. In the Great Basin, this could be due to low soil water, fluctuating soil temperatures, and soil pathogens. We compared the efficacy of two main treatments for enhancing native forb germination and establishment: snow fences and N-sulate fabric. We replicated these treatments plus a no-treatment control across three sites in the Great Basin (two in Utah, one in Idaho) in a randomized complete block design. Sites spanned a latitudinal gradient to encompass different precipitation and temperature regimes. Within main treatments, we additionally examined whether fungicide and hydrophobic seed coatings enhanced germination and seedling establishment. We tested the effects of treatments on 12 native forb species. We determined germination via buried germination bags, and we counted seedlings monthly from March to July 2016. Seed coatings generally increased germination at all sites, suggesting that fungicide and hydrophobic coatings provide an advantage that is sustained across latitudinal gradients. The effect of snow fence and N-sulate treatments on actual seedling establishment varied by site, with snow fences increasing establishment at the most southerly site, and N-sulate increasing establishment at one of the two northerly sites. Despite the increase in establishment at some snow fence and N-sulate treatments, densities of established native forbs remained low across treatments. Our findings suggest that while restoration treatments that alter biotic and abiotic conditions can enhance native forb germination and establishment in the Great Basin, additional work is needed to increase total establishment rates.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.