Thomas D. Landis

Roadside revegetation of forest highways: new applications for native plants

Road revegetation with native plants is both a challenge and an opportunity. A new partnership between the Western Federal Lands Highway Division of the Federal Highway Administration and the USDA Forest Service is focusing on the use of native plants for forest highway road revegetation and road obliteration projects. This emphasis is leading to new applications for many native plant species, as well as development of new stock types, innovative equipment, and monitoring techniques. The process of road planning and development has become more holistic and comprehensive, allowing engineers and biologists to work in partnerships to bring about desired results. Unique challenges of road revegetation projects include harsh conditions, high visibility, and a lack of available information and techniques. Road revegetation offers unique opportunities, including long lead times that facilitate advanced seed procurement and nursery development of native plants, as well as allowing time to evaluate different installation techniques. Two projects highlighting some innovative road revegetation strategies and native stock types are discussed: one along a scenic section of a river on steep mountainous terrain, another on a well-traveled, visually sensitive road near a ski area. Strategies included developing and testing hydroseeding mixes and application techniques with native shrub, forb, and grass species; developing seeded mats for establishing native grasses on severe sites such as gabion walls; and overcoming obstacles to obtaining and increasing high-quality local native plant seed. Because little information is available on revegetating roads with native plants, a new manual is being created to help meet the challenges ahead.

Native plant containers for restoration projects

The choice of container is one of the most important considerations when growing or ordering native plants for a restoration project. Container characteristics affect not only growth and production efficiencies in the nursery, they can also have important consequences after outplanting. The challenging conditions on restoration sites require containers with characteristics that are significantly different from standard containers used for horticultural crops. Unfortunately, plant specifications for many restoration projects are written using traditional horticultural pot dimensions, and we feel that this oversight is adversely affecting survival and growth after outplanting.

Forbs: Foundation for Restoration of Monarch Butterflies, other Pollinators, and Greater Sage-Grouse in the Western United States

ABSTRACT: Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), other pollinators, and Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are currently the focus of increased conservation efforts. Federal attention on these fauna is encouraging land managers to develop conservation strategies, often without corresponding financial resources. This could foster a myopic approach when allocating resources and setting restoration priorities, and at best, allow for inefficiencies in the usage of land management resources, or, at worst, pit one species (or suite of species, e.g., pollinators) against another (e.g., sage-grouse). Instead, investing holistically by linking conservation of these fauna may provide improved leverage of available resources and more benefit to the landscape. Fortunately, on the western US rangelands, these fauna can all benefit from restoration that increases the abundance and diversity of forbs. Establishing high density islands of outplanted forb seedlings may be a way to expedite restoration. Managers establishing forbs for pollinators (including monarchs) would further increase food availability for greater sage-grouse and vice versa. Adding milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) in appropriate areas to forb mixtures for restoration is warranted because they are excellent nectar sources for pollinators in general and the sole host for monarch larvae in particular. Here, we provide an overview of why forb species are keystone for monarch butterflies, other pollinators, and Greater Sage-Grouse and how seeding and outplanting seedlings of specific forbs are critical to restoration efforts.

Native Plants on Disturbed Roadsides: Introduction to a New Integrated Approach

The ecological effects of roads impact about 15% of the land area of the US—an area equivalent in size to all the protected areas of the country combined. The ecological health of roadsides and road-impacted areas has not been adequately addressed. Most road projects today involve modifications to existing roads rather than new construction. As roads are modified section by section, a tremendous opportunity arises to remedy the oversights of the past, improving conditions for healthier ecosystems. The challenge is to move beyond regulation-driven mitigation approaches and into proactive environmental stewardship. Native plants are a foundation of ecological health and function. Revegetating with native plants is a key practice for managing environmental impacts. To be successful, native vegetation issues cannot be considered as an afterthought to larger road planning and construction processes. Instead, they must be an integral part of the process of designing and constructing roads. A partnership between the Federal Highway Administration and the USDA Forest Service has developed an approach to revegetation that is goal-oriented, context-sensitive, and collaborative. This is an interdisciplinary, interagency team approach with early (3-y minimum) collaboration, shared objectives, and clear guidelines. Cooperation allows time and funding for growers to produce the quality and quantity of native plant materials required. Two new publications, Roadside Revegetation: An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants and A Manager’s Guide to Roadside Revegetation Using Native Plants are available.

Propagating native Salicaceae for riparian restoration on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona

The USDA Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Hopi Tribe Office of Range Management have been working together on native plant restoration projects in northeastern Arizona. The aggressive exotic plants, Russian-olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L. [Elaeagnaceae]) and salt-cedar (Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. [Tamaicaceae]), have invaded many wetland and riparian areas on the Hopi Reservation, excluding willows (Salix L.), cottonwoods (Populus L.), and other native plants. The tribe has been mechanically removing the invasives and has asked for help in propagating native species to plant in these project areas. Although much information is available on how to collect willows and cottonwoods and propagate them, some unique challenges exist on Hopi lands. Some species are common, while others are very rare and in some cases only a few individual plants exist. The scattered locations of streams, wetlands, and seeps must be considered during plant material collections to ensure that both genetic and sexual diversity are adequately represented. Another challenge is the determination of target plant stock types that are appropriate on the diverse hydrologic conditions on the various project sites. Collected plant materials were taken to the NRCS Plant Materials Center in Los Lunas, New Mexico, for both seed and vegetative propagation.

Meeting the challenge of the nineties : proceedings, Intermountain Forest Nursery Association, August 10-14, 1987, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma /

This proceedings is a compilation of 27 articles on various phases of forest nursery management. Specific topics include: seed treatments, soil management, cultural practices, seedling quality, and nursery pests. Results of a discussion on the nursery competition issue are also presented.