Session: Fire & Emergency Rehabilitation with Native Seed
Thursday 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Ballroom 1
David Repass, Moderator
1:30 p.m.
Using Native Seed in Large-scale Post-fire Rehabilitation: issues and opportunities on the Hanford Reach National Monument
Heidi Newsome
Presentation (PDF)
The Hanford Reach National Monument lies within the Columbia Basin Ecoregion, the hottest and driest part of Washington State. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages these lands under mandates and policies for the National Wildlife Refuge system. Several large wildfires have occurred in the area since the creation of the Monument in 2000. Post-fire rehabilitation has been conducted on most of these burned areas. Re-seeding areas with native seed is a major component of post-fire rehabilitation treatments. Goals include limiting the spread and dominance of non-native cheat-grass (Bromus tectorum) while giving the native seed the opportunity to establish and increase. Issues associated with quantity and availability of native seed required for these large projects will be discussed. Differences among re-seeding techniques will be presented. Post-treatment monitoring data suggests successful re-seeding with native seed under the extreme environmental conditions of the site. Information from the post-treatment monitoring suggests that the rehabilitation efforts have set the shrub-steppe ecosystem on a trajectory toward recovery.
Heidi Newsome began her career as a wildlife professional working for the U.S. Forest Service in 1988. She has been a Wildlife Biologist for the National Wildlife Refuge System for the past 13 years and is currently a Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Burbank, Washington. Heidi has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology/biology from Santa Clara University (1990) and a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University (1997). She has worked in the Mid-Columbia Region since 1999. Her focus over the past several years has been shrub-steppe ecology and management, with emphasis on post-wildfire rehabilitation. Her duties at the Refuge Complex include native habitat restoration, invasive plant management, and wildlife surveys.
2:00 p.m.
Post-wildfire seeding in forests in the western US: effectiveness and trends over time
Donna L. Peppin
Presentation (PDF)
The use of post-fire seeding treatments for achieving specified rehabilitation objectives remains debatable. We conducted an evidence-based review to examine the effectiveness and effects of post-fire seeding treatments on soil stabilization and plant community recovery in forests in the western U.S. In addition, we reviewed U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) Burned Area Reports to determine trends in post-fire seeding over time. Of the 94 papers systematically reviewed, the majority of studies (78%) evaluating soil erosion in seeded versus unseeded controls showed that seeding did not reduce erosion relative to unseeded controls and that seeded sites rarely supported sufficient plant cover to stabilize soils within the first and second year post-fire. Of the papers evaluating seeding effectiveness for curtailing non-native species invasions, an almost equal percentage found seeding treatments to be effective (54%) or ineffective (45%). However, the majority of the treatments regarded as effective and ineffective (83% and 80% respectively) used non-native species, some of which were annuals that persisted beyond the first year post-fire. A majority of studies (60%) reported that seeding suppressed recovery of native plants. Over the years, there has been a trend of increasing use of native species and cereal grains/hybrids, with natives dominating seed mixes. According to 380 Burned Area Reports, total post-fire seeding expenditures have increased substantially. The percentage of the total burned area seeded has decreased, but the cost per hectare seeded has increased over time. The literature suggests that post-fire seeding does little to protect soil in the short-term, has equivocal effect on invasion of non-native species, and can have negative effects on native vegetation recovery with possible long-term ecological consequences. Before spending public funds on seeding, land managers should weigh the cost/benefit of these treatments.
While attending Northern Michigan University for her BS Donna Peppin became involved with the USDA Hiawatha National Forest (HNF) Native Plant Program working as the Assistant Native Plant Program Coordinator. She received a position with the San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado. During that time, she saw the need to make native plant expertise and materials available within the region and became a co-owner of a small wholesale native plant nursery. In 2005, Donna became the Native Plant Restoration Specialist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service on the Upper Peninsula Native Plant Project in Michigan. In 2009, she received a Master’s of Science in Forestry from Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry. While obtaining her MS, Donna completed a native plant materials market feasibility study for the southern Colorado Plateau region as well as an up-to-date review of post-fire seeding efforts in the western United States using an evidence-based systematic review technique.
2:30 p.m.
Heading Towards Resilience: Use of Natives and Non-natives in Post-fire Assisted Succession and to Protect Unburned Native Communities
Karen L Prentice
Presentation (PDF)
The use of native species is preferred to non-native for emergency stabilization and rehabilitation projects on public lands. However, this preference often conflicts with objectives to show results within three years, to stabilize the site against additional losses, and to keep financial expenditures low. Introduced seeds can play a valuable role in the creation of fuel breaks to protect unburned, native communities and to stabilize disturbed lands in the intermountain west for eventual recovery to all native or mostly native plant communities. Native seeds frequently do not establish within short time frames, are not amenable to low intensity seeding techniques such as aerial seeding, are often not available in the necessary quantities, and may be cost prohibitive. Introduced seeds may be available, more likely to establish within a short time frame, useful for establishing favorable microsites, amenable to low intensity seeding techniques (such as aerial applications), and economical. Careful use of non-natives to protect unburned communities and in the initial phases of site stabilization can reduce the immediate demand for native seed and defer the use of native seed until such time as site conditions are stabilized and weather predictions are favorable.
Karen Prentice is the child of two biologists and was raised in the mountain meadows and on the beaches of Washington state. She received her BA from The Evergreen State College in 1990 and her MS from Colorado State University in 2000. The direction of her professional life and critical ecological lessons were learned while working for Dave Buckner’s company, ESCO, throughout much of the 1990’s. She has been employed by the Bureau of Land Management’s Ely District since 2000 and has held several job titles including Rangeland Management Specialist, District Noxious and Invasive Weed Specialist, Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Coordinator, Special Projects Manager and, currently, Rehabilitation Manager. She feels that we are not capable of “restoring” the vast, disturbed acreages of the intermountain west but that we do have the responsibility giving disturbed ecosystems a push that will speed their transit to balance. Native and introduced plant materials each play a role in this critical responsibility.
3:30 p.m.
Utilization of Native Annuals for Restoration
Ryan Busby and Mark Paschke
Presentation (PDF)
Establishment of quick vegetative cover and jumpstarting native plant community development is the focus of most restoration activities. Often times this is accomplished with seed mixes comprised of a fast growing introduced species, such as annual rye, and slow growing native species, with the intention of the native species replacing the introduced ones over time. Unfortunately, the introduced species are often highly competitive with the native species to the point that the natives die and undesirable species result. An alternative is to plant native annual species that are naturally replaced by perennial native plants. These species may be better suited to not only compete with invasive colonizers, but facilitate the establishment of desirable natives as well. Several studies will be discussed where native annuals have been used for restoration.
Ryan Busby is an ecologist at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Champaign, IL. For the past 8 years, he has worked in this position conducting research to sustain Army training and testing lands, with a focus on native plant restoration and invasive species management. He has a B.S. in Botany from Western Illinois University, a M.S from the University of Illinois in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, and is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at Colorado State University, where his dissertation research is studying the ecology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with cheatgrass.
4:00 p.m.
The Challenges of Large Scale Wildfire Stabilization and Rehabilitation Efforts within the Great Basin
Jack Brown
Presentation (PDF)
The Milford Flat Wildfire burned 363,052 acres from July 6th to July 15th, 2007 in Millard and Beaver Counties Utah. High winds, low humidity and an abundance of fine fuels caused a rapid moving fire front resulting in the largest wildfire in recorded Utah history. Stabilization and Rehabilitation success was only possible due to the cooperation of a large and dedicated Interagency word force that was already organized. Many challenges were overcame including planning and funding, contracting, archaeological clearances, logistics for equipment/supplies & materials, a short timeframe and attempting to reverse the root problem for the wildfire = the Fire - Cheagrass Positive Feedback Cycle.
Jack Brown is from a farming and ranching background. He has a BS + two years from Fort Hays State College, Hays Kansas with a major in Wildlife Biology with all electives in Botany and Range Mgmt. Jack’s career includes three years as a District Biologist with the Kansas Fish and Game Commission in Central Kansas; one year as a Rangeland Management Specialist for the BLM at Kanab, Utah; three years as a Wildlife Biologist for the BLM at Kanab, Utah; 18 years as a Wildlife Biologist for the BLM in the Salt Lake Field Office; and 12 years for the BLM at the Utah State Office as the Emergency Stabilization & Burned Area Rehabilitation (ES&BAR) Coordinator and Great Basin Rehabilitation Initiative (GBRI) Coordinator.
4:30 p.m.
Discussion: Fire & Emergency Rehabilitation with Native Seed
David Repass
