Location: Range and Meadow Forage Management Research
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Bluebunch wheatgrass and Sandberg's bluegrass can be harvested and stored. Restoring invaded and degraded rangelands is central to recovering the health and function of rangeland throughout the western United States. Federal land managers and livestock producers throughout the western United States have found restoration of these systems to be very difficult because native plants rarely establish from seeds. ARS scientists in Burns, Oregon, are working on a novel restoration system that includes using buds collected from native plant crowns and stored for planned restoration efforts. It appears buds of bluebunch wheatgrass and Sandberg’s bluegrass can be harvested by mechanically scraping the subsurface of the soil to capture the top half of the plants’ crown. Crowns are then washed with pressurized water to remove soil. Crown material can be stored successfully at about 40 degrees F. Bud longevity is associated with the amount of material that supports and surrounds the group of buds. The greater the amount of supporting material, the longer the stored bud remains viable. This is critically important to developing the new system of restoration because crowns must be easily collectible and storable to be useful to managers.
Review Publications
Hamerlynck, E.P., O'Connor, R.C. 2021. Photochemical performance of reproductive structures in Great Basin bunchgrasses in response to soil-water availability. AoB Plants. 14(1). Article plab076. https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plab076.
Smith, J.T., Allred, B.W., Boyd, C.S., Davies, K.W., Jones, M.O., Kleinhesselink, A.R., Maestas, J.D., Morford, S.L., Naugle, D.E. 2021. The elevational ascent and spread of exotic annual grass dominance in the Great Basin, USA. Diversity and Distributions. 28(1):83-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13440.
Boyd, C.S., O'Connor, R.C., Ranches, J., Bohnert, D.W., Bates, J.D., Johnson, D.D., Davies, K.W., Parker, T., Doherty, K.E. 2022. Virtual fencing effectively excludes cattle from burned sagebrush steppe. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 81:55-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2022.01.001.
Johnson, D., Boyd, C.S., O'Connor, R.C., Smith, D. 2022. Ratcheting up resilience in the northern Great Basin. Rangelands. 44(3):200-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2021.12.009.
Davies, K.W., Boyd, C.S., Bates, J.D., Hallett, L.M., Case, M.F., Svejcar, L.N. 2022. What is driving the proliferation of exotic annual grasses in sagebrush communities? Comparing fire with off-season grazing. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 82:76-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2022.02.009.
Boyd, C.S. 2022. Managing for resilient sagebrush plant communities in the modern era: We’re not in 1850 anymore. Rangelands. 44(3):167-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2022.02.002.
