United States Department of Agriculture Restoring Western Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Ranges and Wildlands Report RMRS-GTR-136-vol. 1 September 2004 Volume 1 Chapters 1–17, Index Abstract ______________________________________ Monsen, Stephen B.; Stevens, Richard; Shaw, Nancy L., comps. 2004. Restoring western ranges and wildlands. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-136-vol-1. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Pages 1-294 plus index. This work, in three volumes, provides background on philosophy, processes, plant materials selection, site preparation, and seed and seeding equipment for revegetating disturbed rangelands, emphasizing use of native species. The 29 chapters include guidelines for planning, conducting, and managing, and contain a compilation of rangeland revegetation research conducted over the last several decades to aid practitioners in reestablishing healthy communities and curbing the spread of invasive species. Volume 1 contains the first 17 chapters plus the index. Keywords: rehabilitation, revegetation, plant ecology, seed, plant communities, wildlife habitat, invasive species, equipment, plant materials, native plants A B A—Reseeding on the Boise River watershed, 1937. B—Rangeland drill. C—Elk on burned winter range. D—Sampling soil, north-central Nevada. E—Aerial seeding. Front covers on all three volumes: Desert Experimental Range Utah. Photo by John Kinney. Restoring Western Ranges and Wildlands Compilers Stephen B. Monsen Volume 1 Richard Stevens Nancy L. Shaw Chapters 1–17, index C D E i The Compilers _____________________________________ Stephen B. Monsen (retired), Botanist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah Richard Stevens, Project Leader (retired), Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Great Basin Research Center, Ephraim, Utah Nancy L. Shaw, Research Botanist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise, Idaho The Authors _______________________________________ James N. Davis is Project Leader, Big Game Range Trend Program, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. Sherel K. Goodrich is Ecologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Ashley National Forest, Vernal, Utah. Kent R. Jorgensen was Wildlife Biologist (deceased), Great Basin Research Center, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Ephraim, Utah. Carlos F. Lopez was Soil Scientist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. E. Durant McArthur is Project Leader and Research Geneticist, U.S. Department of Agricul- ture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. Stephen B. Monsen was Botanist (retired), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. He is currently a private natural resources consultant and volunteer worker for the Rocky Mountain Research Station. David L. Nelson was Plant Pathologist (retired), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. He continues contractual and volunteer work for the Rocky Mountain Research Station. Nancy L. Shaw is Research Botanist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise, Idaho. Richard Stevens was Project Leader (retired), Great Basin Research Center, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Ephraim, Utah. Arthur R. Tiedemann was Project Leader and Range Scientist (retired), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. John F. Vallentine was Professor (Emeritus), Department of Integrative Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Gordon A. Van Epps was Associate Professor (retired), Snow Field Station, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah State University, Ephraim, Utah. Bruce L. Welch is Plant Physiologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah. Steven G. Whisenant is Professor, Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. G. Richard Wilson was Director (retired), Utah State Seed Laboratory, Utah Department of Agriculture, Salt Lake City, Utah. ii Foreword E. Durant McArthur, Project Leader, Shrubland Biology and Restoration Research Work Unit, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah Restoring Western Ranges and Wildlands has had a literature of the Science Citation Index during the past fairly long gestation period. The final product of three several decades (ISI Web of Science, online). volumes had its beginnings in 1983. At that time I sat with a group of administrators and researchers research administrators of the Intermountain Forest in a 1983 meeting in the conference room of the Shrub and Range Experiment Station (now part of the Rocky Sciences Laboratory in Provo, Utah, as we laid out Mountain Research Station) had obtained funding plans for writing and compiling Restoring Western from the Four Corners Regional Commission (FCRC) Ranges and Wildlands by subject areas and possible to produce a series of research summary syntheses to contributors. The lead compilation roles in the effort aid agriculture and natural resource values and man- were assigned to Stephen B. Monsen, by this time a agement for the Four Corner States (Arizona, Colo- Botanist with the Intermountain Forest and Range rado, New Mexico, and Utah) and surrounding areas. Experiment Station, and Richard Stevens, Project The FCRC, now defunct, was formed in 1965 as one of Leader of the Habitat Restoration Unit of the Utah five Federal regional commissions to aid regional Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife development in economically distressed areas. Restor- Resources. Steve and Richard also took on major ing Western Ranges and Wildlands was intended to writing assignments. But delaying the publishing supplant the successful, out-of-print, Restoring Big date were continuing research assignments, other Game Range in Utah (Plummer and others 1968) with demands on the compilers’ time, a shift in revegetation a broader geographic coverage and new knowledge philosophy toward holistic landscape management gained during the intervening years. Restoring Big and emphasis on using native plants, and retirement Game Range in Utah was published by the Utah of both Steve Monsen and Richard Stevens. A third Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish compiler was added to the team—Nancy L. Shaw, a and Game. The authors, in addition to A. Perry Research Botanist on the Shrubland Biology and Res- Plummer (a Project Leader and Range Scientist for the toration Research Work Unit posted in Boise, Idaho. Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Sta- She worked tirelessly to see the project completed. All tion), were Division of Fish and Game Biologists Donald three compilers deserve kudos for completion of this R. Christensen and Stephen B. Monsen. The three massive project. were part of an integrated Federal and State workgroup Many people have helped the authors and compilers lead by Mr. Plummer and located at the Great Basin complete this work. I extend appreciation to dozens of Research Center in Ephraim, Utah (for additional reviewers of the individual chapters but especially to details see McArthur 1992). This volume served land Robert B. Ferguson, retired Scientist from the Inter- managers well. There are many dog-eared copies in mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, and offices and libraries in Utah and elsewhere around the the late Homer D. Stapley, Scientist, from the Utah West. It has been cited many times in peer-reviewed Division of Wildlife Resources, who each reviewed iii most of the manuscript. The manuscript was initially Nancy Chadwick, Lillie Thomas, Loa Collins, and prepared on several computer hardware and accompa- Suzy Stephens, performed exceedingly well in editing, nying software word processing systems. The prepara- integration, layout, and design. Many of the line draw- tion and integration of the manuscript was facilitated ings of plant species that are on the chapter introduc- by Pat Ford, Nancy Clark, and Roberta Leslie of the tory pages and illustrate the species in chapters 20 Shrub Sciences Laboratory, and Scott Walker, Nalisa and 21 were prepared by Rocky Mountain Research Bradley, and Chris Wade of the Utah Divison of Technician Annielane J. Yazzie. Wildlife Resources, Great Basin Research Center in This work represents the continuing collaboration of Ephraim, Utah. Others who contributed to the project the Rocky Mountain Research Station and the Utah include Rocky Mountain Research Station employees Division of Wildlife Resources. Both organizations who worked on indexing (Jan Gurr), reference compi- contributed materially to publication costs including lation (Karl Soerensen and Felicia Martinez), and support from the Federal Pittman Robertson W-82-R proofreading and general assistance (James Hall, Jim Project for wildlife habitat restoration. Other substan- Spencer, Darren Naillon, Kelly Memmott, Gary tial support came from the Forest Service State and Jorgensen, Melissa Scholten, Danielle Scholten, John Private Forestry National Fire Plan, Bureau of Land Kinney, Ann DeBolt, Matthew