United States Department of Agriculture Proceedings: Forest Service Intermountain Wildland Shrub and Research Station General Technical Report INT-GTR-315 Arid Land Restoration April 1995 Symposium SHRUB RESEARCH CONSORTIUM USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory*, Provo, Utah, E. Durant McArthur (Chairman); Brigham Young University*, Provo, Utah, Daniel J. Fairbanks; USDA Agricultural Research Service, Renewable Resource Center*, Reno, Nevada, James A. Young; Utah State University*, Logan, Frederick D. Provenza; State of Utah, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources*, Salt Lake City, David K. Mann; University of California, Los Angeles, Philip W. Rundel; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, William K. Lauenroth; University of Idaho, Moscow, Steven J. Brunsfeld; University of Montana, Missoula, Don Bedunah; Montana State University, Bozeman, Carl L. Wambolt; University of Nevada-Reno, Paul T. Tueller; University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Stanley D. Smith; Oregon State University, Corvallis, Lee E. Eddleman; New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, Kelly W. Allred; Texas A & M System, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, San Angelo, Darrell N. Ueckert; Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Ronald E. Sosebee; USDA Agricultural Research Service, High Plains Grassland Research Station, Cheyenne, D. Terrance Booth; USDA Agricultural Research Service, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Jerry R. Barrow; USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Renewable Resource Center, Reno, Nevada, Robin J. Tausch; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, James R. Ehleringer; Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, Cyrus M. McKell; Washington State University, Pullman, Benjamin A. Zanora; University of Wyoming, Laramie, Rollin H. Abernethy; Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, Washington, Steven O. Link; E G & G Energy Measurements, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada, W. Kent Ostler; *Charter members Proceedings: Wildland Shrub and Arid Land Restoration Symposium Las Vegas, NV, October 19-21, 1993 Compilers: Bruce A. Roundy, Professor, Department of Botany and Range Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Formerly at School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson. E. Durant McArthur, Project Leader and Research Geneticist, Shrubland Biology and Restoration Research Work Unit, Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Intermountain Research Station, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Provo, UT. Jennifer S. Haley, Resource Management Specialist, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boulder City, NV. David K. Mann, Program Manager, UWIN Program, Habitat Section, Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, Salt Lake City, UT. Publisher: Intermountain Research Station Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture 324 25th Street Ogden, UT 84401 Contents Page Bruce E. Roundy Introduction: wildland shrub and arid land restoration .......................................................... 1 E. Durant McArthur Overview.................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Edith B. Allen Restoration ecology: limits and possibilities in arid and semiarid lands ...................................................................................................................... 7 Stephen B. Monsen Implications of early Intermountain range and watershed E. Durant McArthur restoration practices ........................................................................................................... 16 Steven G. Whisenant Landscape dynamics and arid land restoration .................................................................. 26 Restoration and Revegetation ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Laurie B. Abbott Seed fate of warm-season perennial grasses .................................................................... 37 Bruce A. Roundy Sharon H. Biedenbender Jerry R. Barrow Natural methods of establishing native plants on arid rangelands ..................................... 44 Kris M. Havstad Jayne Belnap Reestablishing cold-desert grasslands: a seeding experiment in Saxon Sharpe Canyonlands National Park, Utah ...................................................................................... 46 S. H. Biedenbender Replacing Lehmann lovegrass with native grasses ........................................................... 52 B. A. Roundy L. Abbott Kevin W. Blomquist Effects of soil quality and depth on seed germination and Glen E. Lyon seedling survival at the Nevada Test Site .......................................................................... 57 Mark Briggs Evaluating degraded riparian ecosystems to determine the potential effectiveness of revegetation ............................................................................... 63 Margaret A. Brooks Evaluating roadside revegetation in central Arizona .......................................................... 68 Janelle L. Downs Restoration of big sagebrush habitat in southeastern Washington .................................... 74 William H. Rickard Larry L. Cadwell Raymond Franson Health of plants salvaged for revegetation at a Mojave Desert gold mine: year two ............................................................................................................ 78 Michael P. Gonella Characterization of rare plant habitat for restoration in the Maile C. Neel San Bernardino National Forest ......................................................................................... 81 H. D. Hiatt Reseeding four sensitive plant species in California and Nevada ...................................... 94 T. E. Olson J. C. Fisher, Jr. Mark Holden New arid land revegetation techniques at Joshua Tree Carol Miller National Monument ............................................................................................................ 99 T. N. Lakhanpal Regeneration of cold desert pine of N.W. Himalayas (India)— Sunil Kumar a preliminary study ........................................................................................................... 102 Page Bruce A. Roundy Lessons from the past—Gilbert L. Jordan’s revegetation research in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts ......................................................................... 107 Robert D. Slayback Restoring Mojave Desert farmland with native shrubs ..................................................... 113 Walter A. Bunter L. Robert Dean Wayne Tyson Ecosystem restoration: theory, practice, and evidence .................................................... 116 M.Carolyn Watson Water requirements for establishing native Atriplex species Bruce A. Roundy during summer in southern Arizona.................................................................................. 119 Steven E. Smith Hossein Heydari Bruce Munda Bruce L. Welch Beyond twelve percent purity ........................................................................................... 126 Von K. Winkel Effects of gravel mulch on emergence of galleta Juan C. Medrano grass seedlings ................................................................................................................ 130 Charles Stanley Matthew D. Walo Von K. Winkel Effects of seedbed preparation, irrigation, and water W. Kent Ostler harvesting on seedling emergence at the Nevada Test Site ............................................ 135 Warren D. Gabbert Glen E. Lyon Irene S. Yamashita Results of four revegetation treatments on barren Sara J. Manning farmland in Owens Valley, California................................................................................ 142 Ecology .................................................................................................................................................................................. 149 Bertin W. Anderson Growth factors for woody perennials at western Sonoran Joseph A. Atkins Desert wash revegetation ................................................................................................. 151 Roger D. Harris J. P. Angerer Spatial and temporal variability of microbes in selected soils V. K. Winkel at the Nevada Test Site .................................................................................................... 157 W. K. Ostler P. F. Hall Julie Beckstead Effects of afterripening on cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Susan E. Meyer squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) germination ..................................................................... 165 Phil S. Allen R. R. Blank The soil beneath shrubs before and after wildfire: J. A. Young implications for revegetation ............................................................................................. 173 F. L. Allen W. R. J. Dean Dryland degradation: symptoms, stages, and hypothetical cures .................................... 178 Suzanne J. Milton Morné du Plessis W. Roy Siegfried W. D. Gabbert Plant succession on disturbed sites in four plant associations B. W. Schultz in the northern Mojave Desert .......................................................................................... 183 J. P. Angerer W. K. Ostler J. Arthur Hayes A bitterbrush dieback in the upper Gunnison River Basin, Colorado ..............................