Controlling Cheatgrass in Ponderosa Pine and Pinyon-juniper Restoration Areas


Book Description

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is widespread throughout western North America and is a significant concern for land managers conducting restoration treatments in southwestern ponderosa pine and pinyon-juniper forests. It is common on a few restoration treatment areas in northern Arizona, on severely burned mature/old growth pinyon-juniper sites at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado (Floyd et al. 2006), throughout wildfire areas in Zion National Park in southern Utah (U.S. National Park Service 2007), and on areas consumed by wildfire in northern Arizona (Sieg et al. 2003). There is concern that cheatgrass populations may expand further with an increase in the scale and frequency of restoration treatments in southwestern ponderosa pine and pinyon-juniper ecosystems.




Restoring Spatial Pattern to Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests


Book Description

Until recently, forest managers have largely ignored the value of maintaining dynamic spatial patterns in forested ecosystems. In the America Southwest, where the norm in overstocked forests that are extremely susceptible to catastrophic fires and/or insect infestations and disease, restoring a spatial pattern of openings and tree groups would help alleviate these threats and move the forests within their historic range of variability. This ERI working paper focuses on restoring a dynamic spatial pattern to ponderosa pine forests in the American Southwest. It also addresses basic questions that land managers and others have about how to restore active spatial patterns across the forested Southwest.







Proceedings--ecology and Management of Annual Rangelands


Book Description

Annual weeds continue to expand throughout the West eliminating many desirable species and plant communities. Wildfires are now common on lands infested with annual weeds, causing a loss of wildlife habitat and other natural resources. Measures can be used to reduce burning and restore native plant communities, but restoration is difficult and costly.







Proceedings


Book Description







Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land


Book Description

Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land is the first practical guidebook to give restorationists and would-be restorationists with little or no scientific training or background the “how to” information and knowledge they need to plan and implement ecological restoration activities. The book sets forth a step-by-step process for developing, implementing, monitoring, and refining on-the-ground restoration projects that is applicable to a wide range of landscapes and ecosystems. The first part of the book introduces the process of ecological restoration in simple, easily understood language through specific examples drawn from the authors’ experience restoring their own lands in southern and central Wisconsin. It offers systematic, step-by-step strategies along with inspiration and benchmark experiences. The book’s second half shows how that same “thinking” and “doing” can be applied to North America’s major ecosystems and landscapes in any condition or scale. No other ecological restoration book leads by example and first-hand experience likethis one. The authors encourage readers to champion restoration of ecosystems close to where they live . . . at home, on farms and ranches, in parks and preserves. It provides an essential bridge for people from all walks of life and all levels of experience—from land trust member property stewards to agency personnel responsible for restoring lands in their care—and represents a unique and important contribution to the literature on restoration.







Integrating Domestic and Wild Ungulate Grazing Into Forest Restoration Plans at the Landscape Level


Book Description

What issues will restorationists, ranchers, and managers of public lands face as landscape-scale forest restoration efforts, such as those funded by the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, begin to intersect with grazing interests on public lands? At this juncture, restoration planners, land managers, and others have yet to address this important ecological-social aspect of landscape-scale forest restoration process. And for their part, many ranchers dont yet realize these restoration efforts are being planned and how they may affect them. This ERI white paper provides land managers, ranchers, and others with insights from recent research literature to a set of issues that will likely arise as landscape-scale restoration efforts proceed across the Intermountain West. These issues include ensuring quality habitat for domestic and wild ungulates, how long to S2restS3 treated areas before allowing domestic livestock grazing, how to integrate grazing with prescribed fire, grazers as vectors as well as regulators of unwanted plant species, the potential of grassbanks as a conservation strategy, and improving grazing monitoring protocols to match the scope of landscape-scale restoration.