# Presentation: 506336

## PLANT MATERIALS TO SOLVE RESOURCE PROBLEMS

- DAN OGLE
- PLANT MATERIALS SPECIALIST
- Idaho-Utah

## Plant Materials are at very the heart of resource conservation efforts

- They are used in all resource disciplines including:
- Agronomy
- Biology
- Range
- Forestry
- Engineering

- Planting rangeland, forestland and riparian areas can be difficult and requires:
- Patience
- Time
- $$$$

## Complete a Careful Analysis of the Planned Planting 

- 	Good management practices applied properly to existing vegetation may be more cost effective than
-   re-vegetation.

## Before Any Planting Determine

- Goals
- Erosion control
- Reduced fire hazard
- Wildlife habitat
- Increased/better quality forage
- Earlier/Later growing period or season
- Others

- Is Planting Practical?
- Will the soil and water holding capacity of the soil allow seeding or replanting
- Do undesirable or invasive plants dominate or have potential to dominate the site

## Principals to Follow to Ensure a Successful Seeding or Planting

- Obtain Quality Seed or Plants
- Certified Seed ensures you are getting the species you want with standards that ensure good viability
- Do not transplant conservation grade plants  – order plants that are at least one level above conservation grade

## Ensure Good Soil Preparation

- Weed Free – Very firm seedbeds are best
- Soil should be well tilled to reduce weed competition and packed to ensure good soil to seed contact and good moisture retention
-  or
- Site should be treated with appropriate herbicides to eliminate or reduce weed competition
- Tree/shrub plantings should be deep ripped when possible to reduce rooting restrictions

## Seeding and Planting

- Seeding
- Planting with a drill is recommended (if possible) vs. broadcast planting
- Place seed at the recommended depth – shallower depth is better than too deep
- Time of seeding – either very late fall or very early spring for dryland seedings – never during the hottest period of the year

## Seeding and Planting

- Transplanting
- Tree and shrub plantings should generally occur as early in spring as possible
- Never plant trees and shrubs during the hot summer period

## Species to Seed or Plant

- The species to seed or plant depends on:
- Climate – average annual rainfall (limiting factors are accentuated in dry climates)
- Site exposure
- Elevation
- Temperatures
- Soil Type
- Purpose of planting
- Availability of plant materials

## Species to Seed or Plant

- Species must be tolerant of soil restrictions:
- Droughtiness
- Fine or coarse textures
- Presence of restrictive pans
- Wetness or excessive drainage
- Salinity or Sodicity
- Acidity
- Shallow depth
- Soil Toxicities
- Severe nutrient imbalances

## Other factors when choosing a species

**1. Competitive ability of species**
**2. Longevity**
- Annuals – appropriate to prepare site for future long-lived plantings and for short-term erosion control
- Short-lived perennials – appropriate as cover crop for long-lived perennial planting mixtures
- Long-lived perennials – appropriate for rangeland and forestland plantings
**3. Distinctive growth habits of the species**

## Other factors when choosing a species

- Species should be selected on the basis of:
- What they contribute to your objectives
- That are adapted to the site conditions
- That can be planted with available manpower
- That can be planted with available equipment and
- That meet  economic constraints

## PLANNING

**Complete good inventories**
- 	Don’t jump to species selection before you have completed a good inventory and have determined your objectives
**Resource Information**
- Always utilize the best sources of information available to you when selecting species:
- http://www.id.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/plant.html
- http://plants.usda.gov/

## Planning

**Do a complete job of planning:**
**Ensure full resource protection**
**Ensure you meet your planning goals**
- Don’t fall into the trap of single practice planning where you are doing an excellent job of planning and installing a practice, but have not considered associated resource needs

## FOREST ROADSIDE SEEDING: METHODS & SEED MIXTURES

**Mark Stannard,  PMC Leader,  Pullman  **
**Dan Ogle,  Plant Materials Spec.,  Boise **
**Frank Gariglio,  State Forester,  Lewiston**

**Notes:**
Title Slide to introduce talk and check focus

## Roadside Seeding:

**How to**

**What to**

**Notes:**
What to plant is covered in the second portion of this talk.  Let’s face it, there a number of choices out there.  Some are good, some better.  Not seeding is never a choice.  Nature abhors a vacuum.  When you create bare soil, you have created a vacuum.  Mother nature will fill the void... and 9 times out of 10 it will be a weed because weeds are especially well adapted to roadsides.

## It Ain’t Just Spreading Seed!!

**Notes:**
How many of you have ever painted a house or a car??

  Slapping a coat of paint on a rusty metal carcass or peeling rotten wood may look good initially....  But, unless you do a good job of prep work, the results are always short lived.  The same goes for roadside seedings.  You gotta prep the site if you expect the plants to work.

## Site Preparation

**Water Management Properly Designed & Installed**

**Notes:**
Forest roads are especially prone to water erosion.  This road has some serious engineering flaws.  Even the best vegetative cover rarely if ever is a good substitute for well placed culverts, water bars, and other hard facing practices.  Vegetation is part of the “toolbox” road builders use.

## Site Preparation

**Weed Control**

**Notes:**
Weed control is important.  This site is relatively weed free and needs cover.  If weeds have moved in, don’t seed until you have the weeds under control or you will just waste time, seed, and money.

## Site Preparation

**Seed to Soil Contact**

**Notes:**
You want mineral soil exposed.  This soil is well exposed. 

Seed to Soil contact is essential for good emergence.  When the seed is in lightly buried in “firm Soil”, water moves from the soil to seed with little problem.  

Ideally, this site would be allowed to settle a few days before seeding to prevent the seed from being deep buried by normal soil settling activity.

Waiting until the following spring would not be desirable because too much settling would have occurred and the surface would be sealed off.  The seeds would sit on the surface and feed the birds. 

## Broadcast 

**Broadcast **
**Seeding**

**Notes:**
Broadcast seeding is one of the most cost effective means to seed irregular surfaces such as road cuts and fills.  The size of the equipment varies from the organ grinder that the gentleman is using, to larger equipment such as the helicopter spreader.
  Spreaders that mount on ATVs are really handy!

## Slide 22

**Notes:**
Broadcast seeding does have its drawbacks.  This is blue wildrye seed.  Notice how it is sitting on the soil surface.  These seeds have little chance of making it.  

The soil is too sealed and few small cracks are available for safe sites.  A smaller seeded specie such as bentgrass ( 2 miilion seeds/lb vs 130,000 blue wildrye seeds/lb) would have a better chance of establishing on this soil surface.

Also, there is quite a few weeds in this slide.  These weeds have a head start and will compete.  

## Hydroseeding

**Notes:**
Hydroseeding is one of the preferred techniques used by highway departments.  Big units like this can spread seed a long ways up slope.  This saves having to clamber up the hill and broadcast seed.

It can be expensive but if you have a lot of cut slopes... it is a real charmer.

We prefer to see this done in 2 stages.  Stage one applies the seed and a small amount of mulch + tackifier.  Stage 2 applies tackifier and more mulch.  This keeps the seed near the soil surface where it belongs.

## What to Plant???

**Notes:**
Now we come to the second portion of the talk.  What to plant is pretty exciting stuff. 

The most common materials are grasses. Some broadleaf materials are used in grass mixes. 

## Slide 25

**Notes:**
As I mentioned earlier,  Nature Abhors a Vacuum.  If you don’t put a plant out, ma nature will put one there for you.

This is yellow starthistle and the road side is full of it too.  

Just imagine how many seeds are apt to move down this road compliments of our vehicles.

## What to Plant???

**QUALITY SEED  - ****Check That Tag!**
**Seed Test Date**
**Certified Seed**
**Weed Content**
**Inert Content**
**Stored Properly**

**Notes:**
First and foremost-  plant good seed.  

Check the tag.  If the seed test date is over 1 year old, retest it.
The tag is a legal document.  Check it for weed seed, etc. 

Expect 10-20% inert material.  If it is higher than that, red flags.
Sore in cool and dry.  Not cool or dry.  Must have both. 

## NATIVE  VS  INTRODUCED

**Notes:**
This is a hot topic.  Some people strongly, vehemently advocate natives.  I respect that.

Fill in your own comments.

## NATIVE

**Ecologically Friendly**
**Long Term Persistence**
**Maximum Resource Utilization**
**Noninvasive**
***Utilize in areas where they have high potential of success***

**Notes:**
Ecologically friendly- less chance of interfering with other natural processes such as plant succession
Long term persistence- native communities are diverse so they fill in voids left by death of other community members
Maximum resource util- all resources are being used; deep roots-shallow roots, early plants late plants
Noninvasive- native communities flex and rebound. One species won’t displace an entire community

## Native Plants to Consider

**‘****Bromar’ Mountain Brome**
**‘****Garnet’ Mountain Brome**
**‘****Sodar’ Streambank Wheatgrass**
**Idaho Fescue**
**Rough or Spike Bentgrass**
**Lupines**
**Yarrow**
**Lewis Flax**

**Notes:**
Go through one at a time (20 seconds each).  

## Slide 30

**Notes:**
Yarrow is grows everywhere.  Has rhizomes.  Easy to establish.   Some yarrow seed on the market is from other continents.  We have not determined if they are weedy or not. 

## Lewis Flax

**Notes:**
Here is a photo of Perennial Flax which is almost identical to Lewis flax.  

## Seedling Emergence

**Notes:**
It is important to use seed that has performance testing.  Local endemic populations may sound cool but sometimes they are poorly adapted to harsh roadside seedings.

These are 4 seed collections of basin wildrye in a greenhouse emergence study.  Pop A emerged in 5 days.  Pop D emerged in 12 days.  Which pop has the best chance of establishing in a weedy, dry environment? 

## INTRODUCED

**Fast establishing**
**Adapted to harsh environments**
**Inexpensive**
**History of performance**
**“****Introduced” is **_**not**_** synonymous with “invasive”**
***Use sparingly ***
***Use in areas where weed encroachment is almost inevitable***

**Notes:**
Go through attributes.

## Introduced Plants You Should Remove from your List

**Smooth brome**
**Tall fescue**
**Kentucky bluegrass**
**Creeping Foxtail**
**Intermediate wheatgrass**
**Yellow Sweetclover**

**Notes:**
Smooth brome-  invasive in riparian zones
Tall fescue is overly competitive with trees and fire hazard
Kentucky bluegrass is invasive, too slow to germinate well 
Creeping foxtail invades wetlands
Intermediate wheatgrass is a fire hazard
Yellow sweetclover gets too tall and smothers everything. Also is a rodent issue.

## Typical Mix

**Canada Bluegrass****	****	****25%**
**Hard Fescue****	****	****	****20%**
**Sheep Fescue****	****	****	****15%**
**Creeping Red Fescue****	****	****10%**
**Chewings Fescue****	****	****10%**
**White Dutch Clover****	****	****10%**
**Small Burnett****	****	****	****10%**

**Notes:**
Typical road mix.  Nothing wrong with it if your objectives are weed suppression, low fire hazard, good soil protection, and cheap.

Some are good in droughty soils, others are good in wetter soils.  Good mix.

## Annuals for Quick Cover

**Spring Wheat seeded in the fall  .....  ****	****yes**
**Spring Barley seeded in the fall  .....  ****	****yes**
**Regreen or Triticale  ..................  ****	****maybe**
**Cereal Rye  .................................****	****NO**
**Annual Fescue  .........................  ****	****NO**
**Mustards  ................................  ****	****NO**
**Medics  ..................................   ****	****NO**

**Notes:**
Spring grains in the fall emerge well and die. (except for ‘Steptoe’ barley!)  give good soil stability without competing with perennials.

Cereal rye, annual fescue reseed and are weedy.
Mustards have tap roots so don’t provide much soil protection.  Mustards are not very competitive with weeds either.
Medics draw big game to roadsides.  Crash.

## Native Revegetation Plants

**Redosier Dogwood**
**Willows**
**Mock Orange**
**Blue Elderberry**

**Notes:**
Track hoe is a buddy here.  Flag your shrubs, pickup with bucket and move to site where you need them.  great for quick big cover life water bars and culvert ends.

## No Project is Done Until You have Monitored It for Success or Failure

**Notes:**
It is imperative to monitor plantings.  If not, you don’t get better at seeding.

## Questions??

**Dan Ogle**
**NRCS Plant Materials **
**Specialist**
**Boise ID**
- _[Dan.Ogle@id.usda.gov](mailto:Dan.Ogle@id.usda.gov)_
**(208) 865-6987**

**Frank Gariglio**
**NRCS State Forester**
**Lewiston  ID**
- _[Frank.Gariglio@id.usda.gov](mailto:Frank.Gariglio@id.usda.gov)_
**(208) 746-9886**

**Mark Stannard**
**NRCS Plant Materials Center**
**Pullman  WA**
- _[Stannard@wsu.edu](mailto:Stannard@wsu.edu)_
**(509) 335-6892**

**Notes:**
Frank is the contact guy.  Leave it up while taking questions.  They need time to copy information.