Precision Restoration Using innovative technology to ...Dr. Jay Kerby, Southeast Oregon Project Manager The Nature Conservancy 2 Outline •Restoration challenges in sage-steppe. •Borrowing

Precision Restoration TreatmentsDr. Jay Kerby, Southeast Oregon Project Manager The Nature Conservancy

1

Precision Restoration

Using innovative technology to overcome ecological barriers to restoration of sage-steppe

Jay Kerby1,3, Matthew D. Madsen2, Chad Boyd2, Tony Svejcar2 & Garth Fuller1

1. The Nature Conservancy

2. USDA–Agricultural Research Service 3. Presenter


2

Outline

• Restoration challenges in sage-steppe. • Borrowing concepts and technology from

agriculture. Precision Agriculture is “fertile” ground to borrow from.

• Examples of Precision Restoration delivering results.


3

Sage-steppe challenge


4

Establishing native bunchgrasses

• Difficult to achieve “on-demand”


5

Technology • Rangeland drills • Seed storage


6

Plant Science • Materials, sources • Seed zones


7

Precision Agriculture

plant ecology + GIS + technology => cost-effective practices


8

What does industrial farming and sage-steppe seeding have in common?

• Failure is expensive. – Ecological – Economic – Social

• Challenges are numerous and variable in space/time. – soil crusting – freezing temperatures – competition from weeds – drought & desiccation – soil water repellency – saline and sodic soils – improper planting depth – predation – infertile soils

• Cost-effective deployment of technology makes a difference – examples


9

ABA B

C D

Precision Restoration: example

Madsen et al. 2012

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

FEID PSSP

Biom

ass

per b

unch

gras

s clu

ster

(g)

controlagglomerate

a

b

c

d


10

(a) (b)

(c)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

untreated pellet

Seed

lings

/pot

*

Madsen et al. 2013

Wyoming sagebrush

Seed pods/pellets


11


Physical soil crust Seed pods

Miller-Homestead fire (2012) 186K acres


12

Boyd and Lemos (2013) have shown that freezing even for short durations can cause significant mortality of germinated

but non-emergent bunchgrass seedlings

Unfrozen

2-Day freeze

4-Day freeze

6-Day freeze

8-Day freeze

16-Day freeze

0

D

ensi

ty (s

eedl

ings

.pot

-1)

5

10

15

20

25A

A

B

C C BC BC

Precision Restoration: example

Solution: Hydrophobic seed-coating that repels water and delays

germination.


13

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Clay South Clay Flat Clay North Loam South Loam Flat Loam North

Ger

min

atio

n Pr

opor

tion

Bluebunch Winter Germination

Fall Drill - Control Fall Drill - Hydrophobic

Established seedling density equal between treatments

Established seedling density 2 times higher from hydrophobic-coated seeds


14


Winter seedling mortality Hydrophobic

seed coating

Miller-Homestead fire: South aspects with loamy soils


15

Conclusions

• Rangeland seeding has adopted and benefited from many agronomic concepts and technologies.

• Expecting native seeds to be universally successful “on-demand” is untenable.

• Barriers to successful seeding are heterogeneous, but can be predicted and solutions designed that overcome.

• Precision Restoration envisions using GIS and seed technology to deploy cost-effective sage-steppe restoration seeding.


16

• Commitment from The Nature Conservancy and USDA-ARS

• Generous funding from the Priscilla Bullitt Collins Foundation

• Excited by potential to engage the Great Basin LCC and additional partners for synergy, collaboration, and shared resources

Documents

Precision Restoration Using innovative technology to ...Dr. Jay Kerby, Southeast Oregon Project Manager The Nature Conservancy 2 Outline •Restoration challenges in sage-steppe. •Borrowing