Mountain Big Sagebrush Restoration in Former Dryland Pasture Elizabeth C. Bailey,1,2 Eric T. Thacker,¹ Thomas A. Monaco,3 and Kari E. Veblen1,2 ¹ Utah State University (USU) Department of Wildland Resources, ²USU Ecology Center, 3 USDA-ARS Forage and Range Research Lab
Restoration Potential of Dryland Pastures
There are approximately 96 million acres of grassland pasture and range in the United States.1 Many of these grassland pastures are dominated by intentionally introduced forage grasses, such as smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), which are sod-forming grasses that have invaded grasslands and disturbed areas across North America.2,3 With the abandonment of agricultural lands becoming increasingly common, expanding wildland restoration efforts, including dryland pastures, could help expand the total extent of wildlife habitats.4,5 Dryland pastures also provide unique opportunities (relative to wildland restoration settings), such as greater accessibility by machinery and crews or availability of irrigation infrastructure.
Tubeling and Wildling Transplants
There has been increased interest in planting greenhouse-grown "tubelings" (containerized plants) to improve restoration outcomes. However, using "wildlings" (larger plants transplanted from a nearby intact stand) remains relatively unexplored (Figure 1). Survival of tubelings versus wildlings and under what conditions these techniques are most suitable are unclear. We explored the short-term survival of tubelings and wildlings of mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana) in the context of dryland pasture rehabilitation and compared costs between the methods (Figure 1).
1
Figure 1. Sagebrush Tubelings (top) and Wildlings (bottom)