Survivability of Wyoming big sagebrush transplants

Authors: Clements, Darin - Charlie; Harmon, Daniel - Dan

Submitted to: Rangelands
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/29/2018
Publication Date: 5/6/2019
Citation: Clements, D.D., Harmon, D.N. 2019. Survivability of Wyoming big sagebrush transplants. Rangelands. 41(2):88-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2018.11.008.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2018.11.008

Interpretive Summary: Wyoming big sagebrush is a dominant shrub species on millions of acres of rangelands throughout the Intermountain West, and plays a critical role in the health and diversity of many wildlife species. Restoration practices to re-establish Wyoming big sagebrush on degraded habitats has largely been met with sub-marginal success, yet the need to restore or rehabilitate Wyoming big sagebrush has become increasingly important due to extensive losses of big sagebrush habitats, fragmentation, and sensitive sagebrush obligate species. Lack of success from seeding rangelands either by ground application or aerially has prompted some resource managers to look more closely at transplanting methodologies. Transplanting of Wyoming big sagebrush is largely done using cone-size containers or bare-stock plants and is recommended to be conducted in spring. This study was initiated in 2012 to test fall versus spring transplanting. Fall transplanting success averaged 65% with a range of 41-82%, while spring transplants averaged 41% with a range of 13-65%. The cold desert of the Great Basin receives the majority of its precipitation during winter months, therefore providing a more reliable source of available precipitation for newly transplanted Wyoming big sagebrush seedlings. A significant part of increasing big sagebrush transplanting success is the combination of increased container size and moving the timing of transplanting from spring to fall due to an increase in favorable and reliable precipitation.

Technical Abstract: Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata subsp. wyomingensis [Beetle & A. Young] is a dominant shrub species on millions of acres of rangelands throughout the Intermountain West, and plays a critical role in the health and diversity of many wildlife species. The accidental introduction and subsequent invasion of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) throughout the Intermountain West has truncated secondary succession by providing a fine- textured, early maturing fuel that increases the chance, rate, spread and season of wildfires. Big sagebrush communities that historically burned every 60-110 years are now burning as frequent as every 5-10 years, simply too short of a period of time to allow for the return of this critical shrub species. Wyoming big sagebrush communities are very susceptible to invasion by exotic weeds. Natural recruitment of Wyoming big sagebrush is well reported, yet the natural recruitment of Wyoming big sagebrush following wildfire is very limited. Lack of success from seeding rangelands either by ground application or aerially has prompted some resource managers to look more closely at transplanting methodologies. Transplanting of Wyoming big sagebrush is largely done using cone-size containers or bare-stock plants and is recommended to be conducted in spring. This study was initiated in 2012 following decades of observations concerning big sagebrush and other critical shrub species transplanting efforts and associated failures. Fall transplanting success averaged 65% with a range of 41-82%, while spring transplants averaged 41% with a range of 13-65%. The cold desert of the Great Basin receives the majority of its precipitation during winter months, therefore providing a more reliable source of available precipitation for newly transplanted Wyoming big sagebrush seedlings. A significant part of increasing big sagebrush transplanting success is the combination of increased container size and moving the timing of transplanting from spring to fall due to an increase in favorable and reliable precipitation.