The Rimrock Report

THE UNIVERSITY OF AR I Z O N A , SCHOOL OF NATURAL RE SOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Volume 7, Issue 3 July 2014 Grass Inside this issue: There is not a sprig of grass that shoots Grass 2-3 uninteresting to me. Thomas Jefferson Chris’ Hot Topic of 4-6 Range Thomas Jefferson; 3rd President of the United States, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat, statesman, inventor … range nerd. Who knew? Actually Plant of the “Week” 7-9 that should not be a big revelation. At least not to Rimrock Regulars. Y’all are pretty sharp, as opposed to being in the half of the class that makes the top half possible. Most of you will remember that Jefferson lived on a plantation called Monticello in Virginia Open Range 10 and that he instructed Lewis and Clark to document the flora and fauna they Coordinator Position encountered in their search for a northwest passage. But I still find it interesting that Better Rangeland 11-14 Thomas Jefferson found grass interesting. Maybe range folks are not that “out there” Photos Workshop after all. Maybe we are in good company. At this point I will resist the temptation to View from the Rim 15 say something about him not being the only US president that was interested in grass and just stick to the subject. Grass. As we have discussed in this space before, most of Just Me Talking 15 us in this country if we think about grass at all, probably take it for granted. It is something to play sports on, or a good place for a picnic (as long as there are no ticks, chiggers, ants, or other little critters in it). We mow it, water it, fertilize it, and mow it again. The average person is probably vaguely aware that cows eat grass. Some could answer correctly that grass is a plant and a few might know that plants “grass…the use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Fewer still could tell you what photosynthesis is unless original that is an “app” that I am not aware of. Grass, just plain old everyday grass. What’s the big deal? green Ranchers know what the big deal is; range cons technology know, soil scientists know, hydrologists know. But if I were a natural resources grad student and …” some pinheaded professor on the final exam asked me to write a “tweet” that would communicate the essence of grass to a 30- something urban professional in Boston or a congressional staffer in DC… how would I Sideoats Grama, V Bar V Ranch say that in 140 characters ? Well how about…

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Grass...continued

Grass, the original green technology. Solar powered renewable resource. Catches rain, occupies wind, holds soil. Food, fuel, fiber, and fun.

Derived in the early 15th century from the Old English word “graes” it comes from the same root word as “grow”. Grasses are a diverse family, ranging from wheat and corn to bamboo. Table 1 illustrates the taxonomic classification of grass. According to the NRCS Plant Table 1. Taxonomic classification hierarchy for a grass species. Database website, the family Kingdom Plantae Poaceae has 324 genera. Some Sub-kingdom Tracheobionta genera have only one species. For instance, Blepharoneuron contains Superdivision Spermatophyta only B. tricolepsis (Pine Division Magnoliaphyta Dropseed), Western Wheatgrass is Class Liliopsida the only example of Pascopyrum Subclass Commelinidae (P. smithii). Others such as Order Cyperales Bouteloua, named for two Spanish Family Poaceae botanists, contain many different Genus Aristida species (25). Notable among these would be my favorite, B. Species arizonica curtipendula (Sideoats Grama), as Common Arizona Three-awn well as Blue Grama (B. gracillis), Black Grama (B. eriopida) and Santa Rita Mountain Grama (B. eludens). Santa Rita Mountain Grama is found in southeast Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico (Figure 1) and is considered a threatened species. Festuca is another highly populated genus (85). Our own Arizona Fescue (F. arizonicus) is among 6 species named for states, i.e. F. californicus, idahoensis, hawaiiensis, and the not so obvious versuta (Texas) and brevissima (Alaska). How would you like to find F. aloha in your quadrat?

As alluded to above, providing food for herbivores is one of the most important functions of grass, but there are many others. Did you know for instance that there are medicinal uses for grass? Don’t get ahead of me. Seriously, several Native American cultures used Vanilla Grass (Hierochloe odorata) as a cold remedy. Ashes from Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) were used to relieve indigestion… Roots of Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) were chewed and then used to treat the wound in castrated colts.. (... and I am not recommending you use these, this is just for information purposes...). Did you know that Bamboo is a grass and is one of the most popular building materials in Asia. You can even make clothes and bedding out of it. And if you recycle it through a Giant Panda, or elephant, etc... you can get paper. Don’t believe me? Check out this website. Page 2

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Grass...continued

Need more Jeopardy study material? Crammin’ for Cash Cab? Here we go:

 Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is one of the primary feedstock sources of cellulosic ethanol production. Here are a couple different viewpoints on that: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/debunking-myths-about-nuclear-fuel-coal-wind-solar-2

 One school of thought on the origin of the term “grass roots” is that it originated in 1876 in a book about the Black Hills: “gold is found almost everywhere, in the bars, in the gravel and sand of the beds, even in the 'grass roots’ ”. It has of course been used most often since then as a reference to political movements which start at local levels.  There are approximately 24,000 lbs/acre of roots in typical tallgrass prairie.  Pioneers made sod houses by cutting bricks of soil held together by grass roots.  In general, Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing grass, sometimes as much as 4 feet per day. Indian Ricegrass, House Rock Valley  Marsh is grassland under water.  Albedo is the % of light reflected rather than absorbed. Green grass (0.25) has a higher albedo than bare soil (0.17). Fresh asphalt has an albedo value of 0.04 compared to fresh snow which has a value of 0.80- 0.90.  Curly Mesquite (Hilaria belangeri) and Vine Mesquite (Panicum obtusum) are not trees, they are grasses.  It is a myth that grass seeds found in the Egyptian Pyramids have been planted and germinated.  In 2012, Americans produced approximately 251 million tons of municipal solid waste. Of this amount, 13.5 % was from yard trimmings. This is enough dry matter to feed all the mature beef cows in the US for a month.  Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses are hollow from the top to the ground. There are several interesting versions of this little rhyme, I will let you look them up if you are interested...

Had enough yet? Yeah, I think we have made the point. Grass is pretty important. So here is just one more shot. A few weeks ago I was out looking at forest/range restoration sites with Steve Campbell, Navajo County Extension Director, and we were standing in a former dog-hair pine thicket/soon to be savannah, talking about ecosystem health in general when he said “Trees get the glory, but grass holds the world together”. Ranks right up there with Jefferson. Foxtail Barley, Mingus Mountain

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The Rimrock Report

Chris’ Hot Topic of Range

One of the most exciting things about Rangeland Ecology is how dynamic it is. There is no simple answer to any question, and land management is a practice of balancing art with science. Vegetation dynamics are influenced by variables such as soil type, precipitation, invasive species, and fire. One variable that is often ignored is atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

When atmospheric CO2 is mentioned, it is most often in association with influences on temperature and potentially resulting global issues such as melting glaciers and rising oceans. What is typically not mentioned is the direct impact CO2 has on plant growth. It is all about photosynthesis, the process Carbon Dioxide (Wikipedia) in which a plant converts CO2 and light into energy. Photosynthesis was covered in detail by Doug’s January Rimrock article titled, “The effects of global warming and rotational grazing on wolf predation of feral horses.” Don’t let that title fool you, that article really was all about photosynthesis.

In short, there are three main pathways of photosynthesis; C3, C4, and CAM. C3 is the primitive ancestral form of photosynthesis, developed some 2500 million years ago (MYA) in cyanobacteria and ruled the world when plants first took to land 450 MYA. At the time the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was high enough that simple diffusion was plenty to keep the engine of photosynthesis running smoothly and efficiently. C3 is a decent system, as far as primitive systems go, and the majority of today’s plants still use it. C3 dominated forest circa 400 MYA (Edward Riou)

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Chris’ Hot Topic of Range...continued

Well time continued ticking by; pine trees evolved in the Carboniferous age, Pangea came and went, flowering plants evolved during the Triassic, the K-T meteor caused a mass extinction, etc. Throughout this time CO2 fluctuated, but stayed relatively high (Figure 1). Then around 30 MYA CO2 levels started falling dramatically; decreasing to a low of 200 Parts Per Million (PPM) some 10 MYA (Figure 2). When CO2 drops below 500 PPM some C3 plants start to become carbon stressed since CO2 diffusion is slower at lower CO2 concentrations. The plant compensates by keeping leaf pores open longer, but that increases water loss. Higher oxygen (O2) concentrations relative to CO2 is also Figure 1: Estimated atmospheric CO2 for the past 600 million Years (Figure by problematic since O2 interferes with Robert A. Rohde; Global Warming Art project ) photosynthesis. Thus as CO2 decreased, strong selective pressure was created to find a more efficient form of photosynthesis. This was the introduction of C4 photosynthesis, a shiny new and improved photosynthetic pathway that independently evolved over 60 times across dozens of flowering plant taxa.

Today our rangelands tend to be a mix of C3 (cool season) and C4 (warm season) plants. The competitive dynamics between the two vary, but basically revolve around efficiency and the water loss with less efficient photosynthesis. C3 dominated rangelands tend to be in areas with more reliable rainfall, cooler temperatures, and higher relative humidity while C4 dominated grasslands tend to be in areas that experience frequent drought conditions and higher temperatures (Figure 3). Figure 2: Estimated atmospheric CO2 for the past 65 million years (Geoff At least that’s how these plant Zeiss ; IIPC AR5)

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Chris’ Hot Topic of Range...continued

Figure 3: Left: C3 Bluebunch Wheatgrass dominated rangeland in Oregon. Right: C4 Blue Grama dominated rangeland in Arizona. associations have been recorded in the past. The future is less certain. In 1900 atmospheric CO2 was at 300 PPM; last year we hit a record 400 PPM (Figure 4). What does a 40% increase in atmospheric CO2 mean? That’s a difficult question to answer. Typically it means faster plant growth with C3 becoming more efficient. However, less predictable precipitation and increased temperatures will still favor C4 photosynthesis. So exactly how C3 vs C4 dynamics play out will depend on local conditions, but it may not mirror the past nearly as much as we would like. Also, the increased vegetation growth does sound nice, but nitrogen and other essential minerals are not increasing. An increased carbon to nitrogen ratio means more abundant but less nutritious forage. For livestock operations this may possibly increase the need for protein supplementation. Figure 4: Atmospheric CO2 for the past 1000 years (Etheridge et al. 1998)

So the future is still relatively unknown and hard to predict, but it is fascinating seeing it all play out. As atmospheric CO2 continues to exponentially increase, we can expect more pronounced changes in vegetation dynamics and a greater departure from historic plant communities. Will C4 plants still hold their own as we move away from the conditions that evoked its evolution? Will C3 plants retake land lost in the last few million years, or will the changing climate and increased climatic variability make C4 the most important plant type of the future? Hard to say, but as land managers we are on the front lines of this brave new world. Exciting times!

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Volume 7, Issue 3

Plant of the “week” by Guest Writer Doug Tolleson

Three-awns

You might be a range nerd if you don’t lump three-awns. But I have to admit that I do most of the time. Three- awns often fall into that type of plant that just end up as one big group. Like annuals, prickly pear, cholla…. I started wondering why. I know some of them look a lot alike. Kind of like tobosa/galleta or one-seed vs. Utah juniper. But a lot of them don’t really look alike and we still tend to lump them. We tend not to go to the effort of learning the species name. It could be that most are not considered good livestock or wildlife feed. Many have stringy leaves and those famous awns, not very palatable. They are not always found on the most productive sites. So, they become “ARIST” or “Aristida” or “3- awns” on our monitoring forms. But really, what could be that hard about it?

Let’s take a couple of species found here in Arizona and compare them. Figure 1 contains examples of Purple Three-Awn (Aristida purpurea) and Arizona Three-Awn (Aristida arizonica). They don’t look anything alike, right? Let’s consult a plant key and see how different they are.

Ok, I am looking at Arizona Flora (Kearney and Peebles) ... are they annual? no, perennial... so far - so good. Next... column of the awn distinctly twisted, 3-5 mm long, panicle narrow, the branches appressed, floriferous nearly to the base... arizonica. Or, panicle branches very slender, more or less flexuous, lemma conspicuously scabrous in lines, awns terete at base... purpurea. No sweat. Well maybe we should consult our glossary of botanical terms.

Appressed: Pressed closely, but not fused; e.g. leaves against a stem.

Awn: Fine bristle-like appendage; e.g. terminating or on the back of glumes and/or lemmas of some grass Figure 1. Aristida purpurea (top), courtesy of spikelets. Matt Lavin – Wikipedia Commons, and Aristida arizonica (bottom), courtesy of Western New Bract: Modified leaf associated with flower or Mexico University. inflorescence, differing in shape, size or color from other leaves.

Flexuous: Zig-zagging, bent alternately in different directions, often referring to a stem.

Floriferous: Having or producing many flowers.

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Plant of the “week” ...continued

Glume: Bracts subtending the floret(s) of a sedge, or similar plant; in grasses forming the lowermost organs of a spikelet.

Lemma: The lower of 2 bracts enclosing a grass flower.

Panicle: A compound raceme; an indeterminate inflorescence in which the flowers are borne on branches of the main axis or on further branches of these.

Raceme: An indeterminate inflorescence in which the main axis produces a series of flowers on lateral stalks, the oldest at the base and the youngest at the top; cf. spike.

Scabrous: Rough to the touch with short hard emergences or hairs.

Spikelet: A unit of the inflorescence especially in grasses, sedges and some other monocotyledons, consisting of one to many flowers and associated bracts (glumes).

Terete: Circular in cross-section; more or less cylindrical.

Did that help? In Blue Collar Plant language that would be basically: arizonica has a narrow seedhead with branches on the main stem axis that are flattened against the stem and with flowers all along the stem... and purpurea has slender sort of zig-zag branches in the seed head and the outside of the flowers feel rough. Got it? I am sure you have caught on by now that three –awns do have distinguishing characteristics, but they may not be that obvious to a lot of us and if multiple species fall within a similar functional group, we will likely continue lumping them in the field. But three-awns still perform a lot of the important functions that grass is famous for. They produce oxygen, intercept precipitation, hold soil in place, make good quail nests, burn well, etc… and there are a lot of them. Aristida has 120 records on the NRCS plants database. Distribution of the genus includes the 48 contiguous states plus HI, USVI, and PR. I’ll bet Thomas Jefferson would find three-awns interesting. So, I decided to give three-awns some respect and talk more about some of the individual species. Here are a few interesting facts:

 Arizona three-awn (A. arizonica) has mature leaf blades that are flat and curling. Often found in piñon- juniper sites. Note; it is sometimes mistaken for (A. purpurea).  California three-awn (A. californica) is also known as Mohave three-awn and it likes dry sandy habitats. Aristida purpurea, Courtesy of Yavapai County Native and Naturalized Plants.

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Plant of the “week” …..continued

 Purple three-awn (A. purpurea) is a widespread species and has several integrating varieties. e.g. Fendlers (A. fendleriana) and Wrights (A. wrightii) three-awns.  Santa Rita three-awn is a variety of California three-awn, i.e. var. glabrata Vasey.  Other common names include: wiregrass, speargrass, and needlegrass.  Mainly found in semi-arid to arid regions and abundance can indicate disturbed or deteriorated range, sometimes due to heavy grazing.  The awns can get into wool and eyes and cause damage to livestock.

So next time you are out monitoring and come across a three-awn, maybe you could take a little time to find out which one it is. Or if it is 100o or it is cold and the wind is blowing straight sideways; you could just call it ARIST and keep going... and figure it out next time. Aristida purpurea, seeds with 3 awns. Courtesy of University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.

Aristida purpurea-dominated roadside in Yavapai County. Courtesy of one University of Arizona Extension Specialist who really needs to go to a photography workshop.

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The Rimrock Report

Position Announcement: Program Coordinator

V Bar V Ranch Experiment Station, University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Salary Range $29,443-$35,552 annually

Available ~ Sept 2014, application period will open soon

The successful candidate will work closely with the Rangeland Management Specialist at the V Bar V Ranch Experiment Station to develop and deliver extension programming. This person will assume responsibility for Range Rocks!, an outdoor-oriented youth education program primarily focused on rangeland ecology and management. Subject matter may include grazing animal nutrition, ecological monitoring, or application of technology in agriculture and natural resources. Educational activities coordinated by the incumbent will take place in both indoor and outdoor “classrooms”. Students in this extension program learn hands-on “real life” skills; in the field as much as possible. The Program Coordinator will be expected to work both independently and within a team setting including collaboration with University of Arizona extension personnel and other area educators. Familiarity with rangeland ecology and management and outdoor experiential learning is required. The ability to work outdoors in a variety of weather conditions is a necessity. This person will be responsible for developing and delivering lesson plans, maintaining project documentation, and should be competent in basic word processing, graphic presentation, and spreadsheet software as well as social media applications. Experience with distance education including video production is desired. Other activities will include contributing to a quarterly range-oriented newsletter, The Rimrock Report, as well as helping to organize and evaluate workshops, field days, and other University of Arizona outreach activities. B.S. degree in rangeland/natural resources or environmental science, and two years experience is required, an M.S. is preferred. The Camp Verde/Cottonwood/Sedona area is approximately 1.5 hrs north of Phoenix, 1 hr south of Flagstaff and 1 hr east of Prescott. The area has a small town atmosphere with good shopping, educational, medical, cultural, and recreational opportunities.

Interested individuals should contact:

Doug Tolleson Rangeland Management Specialist, V Bar V Ranch 2830 N. Commonwealth Drive Suite 103 Camp Verde, AZ 86322 928-554-8999 [email protected] http://cals.arizona.edu/vbarv/rangeprogram/

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Volume 7, Issue 3

Better Photos-Better Rangelands Workshop

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Better Photos-Better Rangelands Workshop...continued

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Better Photos-Better Rangelands Workshop...continued

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Better Photos-Better Rangelands Workshop...continued

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The view from the Rim

I think July 4th is a great time to hear more from Thomas Jefferson.

 No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.  In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.  He who knows best knows how little he knows. Picture courtesy of www.whitehouse.gov/about/  One man with courage is a majority. presidents/thomasjefferson

The University of Arizona Phone: 928-554-8991 School of Natural Resources and the Environment Fax: 928-554-8996 V Bar V Ranch Cell: 928-821-3222 2830 N. Commonwealth Drive Suite 103 E-mail: [email protected] Camp Verde, AZ 86322 Web: http://cals.arizona.edu/aes/vbarv/ Note: Please email me if you would like to be added to the “mailing” list for this newsletter. Just me talking...

Where to start? As I write, I am sitting under the ramada by Lemke Lake at Mingus Springs, now known as James 4-H Camp. Another NRCWAY is in the books, everybody is heading down the mountain and I am taking advantage of a little peace and quiet and cool weather. This year’s theme was range and forestry. Several students are talking about careers in range, most want to come back next year, nobody went to the ER. We have three great candidates for SRM high school youth forum. Overall, a great camp. Good job Kim, Susan, Mary, Jeff, John, Andrew, Chris and all the others who made it so. Things are happening around the V Bar V Range Program too. We have been getting papers published (see June issues of Rangelands, and Stewardship) and others submitted (keep an eye out in Rangelands). We are working on more. We have received another grant from Western Center for Risk Management Education to continue our drought scenario workshops. We will be part of a collaborative group doing a drought/adaptive grazing management education project on the Tonto NF. And we are working on proposals to keep the Arizona Cooperative Rangeland Monitoring Program going with BLM. Chris and I have been monitoring cow body condition and diet quality on the ranch, along with utilization and production. We are working with Mike Crimmins to do a pilot study comparing precipitation monitoring with old and new technology on a few area ranches. The Extension Centennial celebration for northern Arizona will be at the ranch (Mahan Park) later this month (24th). That will be a great opportunity to look back at what Extension has accomplished here in Arizona. The Arizona Section SRM is meeting with Navajo County Extension to talk about and tour range/forest restoration efforts in the Show Low area on August 14-15. Then on Saturday the 16th we will have our photography workshop. Ranch Explorers will be at Mahan Park on August 22nd. Last but not least, we are looking for someone to join our team and work with the Range Rocks! program as well as plug into our other extension range education activities (see job announcement in this issue). We should be hiring several new extension folks in Arizona this coming year, so keep an eye on the UA Human Resources website as well as our facebook page. Well that is probably about enough. I am trying to stay focused. I plan to shift gears now and get back to working on the literature review for a journal paper… but the breeze is blowing and bass are jumping like crazy in the pond. Dang, that was a big one… Till next time,, Doug

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