Successful Great Basin Rangeland rehabilitation: Takes more than effort

Authors: Clements, Darin; Harmon, Daniel

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2024
Publication Date: 2/11/2025
Citation: Clements, D.D., Harmon, D.N. 2025. Successful Great Basin Rangeland rehabilitation: Takes more than effort. Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts. 78:57.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Great Basin is the largest desert in North America and is well documented on how difficult it is to restore or rehabilitate degraded Great Basin rangelands. Many researchers have reported on the failures associated with seeding Great Basin rangelands due to aridity and high weather fluctuations, invasive weeds (cheatgrass), size and scope of landscapes needing rehabilitation, and seed availability. With larger and more frequent wildfires, resource managers and land owners are in dire need of improving on-the-ground restoration/rehabilitation practices and better understanding those practices that significantly limit the chances of being successful in these efforts. Site potential is more than the actual site description with soils and plants that should occupy the site. Past disturbances, or lack of disturbances also play a role in the overall potential of the site. Effective weed control practices will most likely be an important component in improving site potential as well as understanding the variability of annual precipitation. Wildfires in the Great Basin are very common during the summer months, especially once cheatgrass has cured providing a fine-textured early maturing fuel. It is not uncommon for land management agencies to not receive post-fire rehabilitation funding in time to purchase seed and set up contracts to perform post-fire rehabilitation in a timely manner. This delay virtually handcuffs land managers from implementing rehabilitation through seeding operations at the optimum fall to early winter timing, especially for drill seeding methods. Seeding species that are very difficult to establish, seeding numerous species in the same seed mix and seeding species at lower than suggested rates can all decrease the chances of rehabilitation success. Most importantly, the seed species selected in the seed mix must have the inherent potential to germinate, emerge, establish, and persist in that given environment. Although there are numerous reports of failed rangeland rehabilitation efforts, there are also numerous successes that have not received their fair share of recognition. Given that land managers are often handcuffed through bureaucracy, there are opportunities for Federal Government Agencies to partner with State and local governments that do not have the same fiscal year which allows for the purchase of seed, contracting effective weed control practices and implementing seeding operations at a more favorable timing for the cold desert of the Great Basin. By focusing on stated goals and objectives, such as establishing perennial grasses to reduce cheatgrass associated wildfire threats, resource managers can apply proper seeding rates and methods to meet these stated goals and objectives and improve wildlife habitat and sustainable agriculture practices.