The 2008 Joint Meeting of the Society for Range Management and the America Forage and Grassland Council.

Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 10:10 AM

Coupling Science and Monitoring to Rehabilitate Burned Mojave Desert Shrublands

Lesley DeFalco, Sara J. Scoles-Sciulla, and Todd C. Esque. Interior, usgs.gov, USGS, Las Vegas Field Station, 160 N. Stephanie St., Henderson, NV 89074

Multiple lightning strikes ignited wildfires that burned thousands of acres of creosote bush – Joshua tree shrublands in southern Nevada and northwest Arizona during the summers of 2005 and 2006. BLM implemented replicated seeding treatments including hand seeding, aerial seeding, and aerial seeding followed by mechanical dragging. While the effectiveness of post-fire seeding has been recently criticized, quantitative monitoring is necessary for resource managers to make informed decisions about managing post-fire landscapes. Monitoring during one and two years after seeding treatments were applied to burned creosote bush – Joshua tree shrublands determined that 1) seeding treatments should be implemented before the arrival of effective winter rainfall that can begin as early as October in the northeast Mojave Desert, 2) seeds that are broadcast after effective winter rain events can remain viable on the soil surface for the following year but at lower numbers than initially applied, and 3) variability in the establishment of seedlings is not only directly influenced by the abundance of rainfall but also indirectly through the rainfall-mediated competitive effects of the non-native annual grass red brome. These results emphasize the importance of a regional approach that integrates science and monitoring for understanding the drivers of plant establishment when rehabilitating burned Mojave Desert shrublands. Rehabilitation success, under current and predicted climate scenarios, will be best understood through long-term post-treatment monitoring across a broad range of sites where climate and site attributes can be measured concurrently with vegetation responses.

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