Technical Abstract: Increasing salinity of formerly productive soil in the James River valley in east central South Dakota is an increasing concern for crop producers. This problem arises when water evaporates from poorly drained and subirrigated soils and leaves salts on the soil surface. Replacing evaporation from the soil surface with transpiration through deep-rooted salt-tolerant perennial plant species may help remediate soil salinity by utilizing excess soil moisture which, in turn, will help leach salts through the soil profile. The first step needed to accomplish this goal is to identify plant species that germinate under saline conditions. A laboratory assay was developed and used to evaluate germination of 16 perennial grass species in a soil with an electrical conductivity ranging from non-saline (2 dS/m) to very strongly saline (14 dS/m). Russian wildrye and tall wheat grass germinated at 14 dS/m while streambank wheatgrass, Nutall alkaligrass, slender wheatgrass, and switchgrass (‘Sunburst’) germinated at 11 dS/m. The laboratory assay correctly identified the 3 species that grew under saline conditions in the field as well as several other species that merit further field evaluation.