Treesearch

The Twist Hollow restoration site on BLM land near St. George, Utah, had been badly disturbed by sand mining, rock quarrying, dumping, off-road vehicles and target shooting prior to its closure and treatment. In December 1992 the site was sculpted and drill seeded with Indian ricegrass (Stipa hymenoides), sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus), galleta (Hilaria jamesii), gooseberryleaf globemallow (Sphaeralcea grossulariifolia) Palmer penstemon (Penstemon palmeri), fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) and winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) in an effort restore natural vegetation and...

Pinyon and juniper trees are expanding into mountain sagebrush communities throughout their ranges. Fire is used to restore these sagebrush communities, but limited information is available on seedling establishment of native shrubs and herbs. We examined effects of spring prescribed fire in the Great Basin on emergence and survival of five species (Artemisia tridentata vaseyana, Festuca idahoensis, Poa secunda, Eriogonum umbellatum and Lupinus argenteus) common to these communities. Data were collected in three microsites (undertree, undershrub and interspace) on a burned and unburned...

Understanding historical ecosystem diversity and wildlife habitat quality can provide a useful reference for managing and restoring rangeland ecosystems. We characterized historical ecosystem diversity using available empirical data, expert opinion, and the spatially explicit vegetation dynamics model SIMPPLLE (SIMulating Vegetative Patterns and Processes at Landscape ScaLEs) for a landscape of approximately 946,000 ac in eastern Wyoming. We used SIMPPLLE to simulate plant community dynamics as a result of historical disturbance events (for example, fire, bison grazing, and prairie dog...

Throughout the southwestern U.S., riparian gallery forests of cottonwood and willow are being invaded by woody exotics, primarily Russian olive and salt cedar. We wondered what effect this might have on native pollinator populations. Pollinators are indispensable contributors to biodiversity, ecosystem health, and human food production. Recent declines in pollinator abundance and health, such as catastrophic declines in honey bee populations due to Colony Collapse Disorder, has renewed interest in native pollinators and the ecosystem services they provide. Insects were collected from...

We used Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis (IW-FIA) data to identify conditions where pinyon-juniper woodlands provide security cover, thermal cover, and suitable amounts of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata spp.) forage to mule deer in Utah. Roughly one quarter of Utah's pinyon-juniper woodlands had a big sagebrush component in their understory. Security cover was the least abundant habitat component investigated and only an estimated three percent of Utah's pinyon-juniper contained forage, security, and thermal cover concurrently. Area of potential mule deer habitat was...

An understanding of existing ecosystem conditions is necessary for planning efforts that include formulation of landscape conservation goals and implementation strategies. In support of a landscape planning effort for a 946,000-ac mixed-ownership area in eastern Wyoming, we used remote sensing and field sampling to assess existing ecosystem conditions of terrestrial ecological sites. We used SPOT 5, 33-ft (10-m) multi-spectral satellite imagery combined with NRCS ecological sites to create a geographic information system layer of vegetation cover by ecological site. We then integrated the...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone species in high-elevation ecosystems of the western United States. Unfortunately many fragile subalpine ecosystems are losing whitebark pine as a functional community component due to the combined effects of an introduced disease, insects and succession. Planting whitebark pine is one part of a multifaceted restoration strategy (Keane and Arno 2001). Once seedlings are established, they have the potential to be a long term seed source where existing trees have been lost. The practice of growing and planting whitebark pine is relatively new...

Limber pine plays an important role in the harsh environments in which it lives, providing numerous ecological services, especially because its large, wingless seeds serve as a high energy food source for many animals. Limber pine populations are declining due to a combination of white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, drought, and fire suppression. Outplanting of seedlings is a common strategy to aid in restoration efforts, but the success of revegetation methods in limber pine habitats is little known. To aid in restoration efforts in Waterton Lakes National Park, in southwestern...

Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis) populations in the southern Rocky Mountains are severely threatened by the combined impacts of mountain pine beetles and white pine blister rust. Limber pine's critical role in these high elevation ecosystems heightens the importance of mitigating these impacts.

The high elevation five-needle white pines are facing numerous challenges ranging from climate change to invasion by a non-native pathogen to escalation of pest outbreaks. This website (https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/highelevationwhitepines/) serves as a primer for managers and the public on the high elevation North American five-needle pines. It presents information on each of the five high elevation five-needle pines, their ecosystems and the factors that threaten them.