A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records within the Intermountain Western United States - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program - Project 08-S-08

Knutson, Kevin C.; Pyke, David A.; Wirth, Troy A.; Pilliod, David S.; Brooks, Matthew L.; Chambers, Jeanne C.

doi:10.3133/ofr20091099

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In general, there have not been major advances in the tools and technologies used to implement restoration strategies within the rangeland context. For example, each year managers spend tens of millions of dollars seeding vegetation on western rangelands, predominately with aerial or drill seeding technologies (Knutson et al, 2009). The practice of aerial seeding has changed little since its inception and rangeland seed drills are a rudimentary outgrowth of early 20th Century row crop agriculture.…”

Section: Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saving the sagebrush sea: An ecosystem conservation plan for big sagebrush plant communities

Davies¹,

Boyd²,

Beck

et al. 2011

Biological Conservation

420

389

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Vegetation change and anthropogenic development are altering ecosystems and decreasing biodiversity. Successful management of ecosystems threatened by multiple stressors requires development of ecosystem conservation plans rather than single species plans. We selected the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) ecosystem to demonstrate this approach. The area occupied by the sagebrush ecosystem is declining and becoming increasingly fragmented at an alarming rate because of conifer encroachment, exotic annual grass invasion, and anthropogenic development. This is causing rangewide declines and localized extirpations of sagebrush associated fauna and flora. To develop an ecosystem conservation plan, a synthesis of existing knowledge is needed to prioritize and direct management and research. Based on the synthesis, we concluded that efforts to restore higher elevation conifer-encroached, sagebrush communities were frequently successful, while restoration of exotic annual grass-invaded, lower elevation, sagebrush communities often failed. Overcoming exotic annual grass invasion is challenging and needs additional research to improve the probability of restoration and identify areas where success would be more probable. Management of fire regimes will be paramount to conserving sagebrush communities, as infrequent fires facilitate conifer encroachment and too frequent fires promote exotic annual grasses. Anthropogenic development needs to be mitigated and reduced to protect sagebrush communities and this probably includes more conservation easements and other incentives to landowners to not develop their properties. Threats to the sustainability of sagebrush ecosystem are daunting, but a coordinated ecosystem conservation plan that focuses on applying successful practices and research to overcome limitations to conservation is most likely to yield success.

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Section: Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saving the sagebrush sea: An ecosystem conservation plan for big sagebrush plant communities

Davies¹,

Boyd²,

Beck

et al. 2011

Biological Conservation

420

389

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consider the issue of post-fire rehabilitation. In a given year rangeland managers may spend tens of millions of dollars seeding (i.e., ''rehabilitating'') perennial grasses on semiarid western rangeland following wildfire (Knutson et al 2009), and these expenditures, in and of themselves, can be viewed as a success under the programmatic model. However, the biological reality is that successful germination and establishment of perennial plants following post-fire seeding can be extremely low (Lysne and Pellant 2004), particularly with native species and at lower elevations (Hull 1974;Richards et al 1998).…”

Section: Programmatic Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Complex Problems in Rangeland Ecosystems

Boyd

Svejcar

2009

Rangeland Ecology & Management

107

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Management of rangelands, and natural resources in general, has become increasingly complex. There is an atmosphere of increasing expectations for conservation efforts associated with a variety of issues from water quality to endangered species. We argue that many current issues are complex by their nature, which influences how we approach them. We define a complex problem as one that varies in time and space. In other words, one answer may not be correct for all sites or during all years. For simple problems a generalized answer may be sufficient, and even for complex problems, general rules provide a good starting point. However, we suggest that it is important to distinguish between simple and complex problems. Several key obstacles emerge when considering complex natural resource problems, namely, 1) no single entity can handle all aspects of the problem and 2) significant knowledge gaps exist and will continue to exist into the future. We suggest that overcoming these obstacles will benefit from 1) a framework for effective partnerships and 2) a mechanism for continuous learning. Managing complex problems will require some combination of the following: 1) a process-based understanding of the problem (i.e., what causes variation in time and space), 2) adaptive management, and 3) effective coordination of research and management. There are many examples of organizations applying portions of these approaches to complex problems; however, it seems that in many cases the process has simply evolved in that direction rather than being a planned strategy. We suggest that as a profession we need to have a discussion about the nature of the problems we are addressing and how researchers and managers can jointly address these problems. Resumen El manejo de pastizales naturales, y de los recursos naturales en general, se ha tornado cada vez más complejo. Existe un ambiente de expectativas crecientes en cuanto a los esfuerzos de conservación asociados con una variedad de temáticas que abarcan desde la calidad del agua hasta especies en peligro de extinción. Sostenemos que mucha de la problemática actual es intrínsecamente compleja, y que dicha complejidad incide en el modo en que abordamos esta problemática. Definimos un problema complejo como aquel que varía a trave´s del tiempo y el espacio. Es decir que una respuesta podría no ser la solución correcta para todos los sitios ni para todos los añ os. Las respuestas generales son casi siempre suficientes para la resolución de problemas sencillos, y aún el caso de problemas complejos, las reglas generales constituyen un buen punto de partida. No obstante, sugerimos que es importante distinguir entre problemas sencillos y complejos. Existen varios obstáculos clave que emergen cuando se consideran problemas complejos asociados con los recursos naturales: 1) ninguna entidad por si sola puede abordar todos los aspectos de un problema y 2) existen vacíos de conocimiento considerables que continuarán existiendo en el futuro. Proponemos que sortear estos obstáculos producirá como...

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“…In the western US alone, current restoration efforts rely on the use of hundreds of metric tons of native plant seeds, which translates to material and seeding costs of tens of millions USD annually (Knutson et al . ; Kildisheva et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed germination and dormancy traits of forbs and shrubs important for restoration of North American dryland ecosystems

et al. 2018

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In degraded dryland systems, native plant community re-establishment following disturbance is almost exclusively carried out using seeds, but these efforts commonly fail. Much of this failure can be attributed to the limited understanding of seed dormancy and germination traits. We undertook a systematic classification of seed dormancy of 26 species of annual and perennial forbs and shrubs that represent key, dominant genera used in restoration of the Great Basin ecosystem in the western United States. We examined germination across a wide thermal profile to depict species-specific characteristics and assessed the potential of gibberellic acid (GA ) and karrikinolide (KAR ) to expand the thermal germination envelope of fresh seeds. Of the tested species, 81% produce seeds that are dormant at maturity. The largest proportion (62%) exhibited physiological (PD), followed by physical (PY, 4%), combinational (PY+PD, 4%), and morphophysiological (MPD, 1%) dormancy classes. The effects of chemical stimulants were temperature- and species-mediated. In general, mean germination across the thermal profile was improved by GA and KAR for 11 and five species, respectively. We detected a strong germination response to temperature in freshly collected seeds of 20 species. Temperatures below 10°C limited the germination of all except Agoseris heterophylla, suggesting that in their dormant state, the majority of these species are thermally restricted. Our findings demonstrate the utility of dormancy classification as a foundation for understanding the critical regenerative traits in these ecologically important species and highlight their importance in restoration planning. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records within the Intermountain Western United States - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program - Project 08-S-08

Cited by 13 publications

References 3 publications

Saving the sagebrush sea: An ecosystem conservation plan for big sagebrush plant communities

Saving the sagebrush sea: An ecosystem conservation plan for big sagebrush plant communities

Managing Complex Problems in Rangeland Ecosystems

Seed germination and dormancy traits of forbs and shrubs important for restoration of North American dryland ecosystems

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