January – March 2008 

The USDA NRCS Plant Materials Program newsletter for the conservation community. 

Americorps Volunteers visit Kahoolawe 

HOOLEHUA PLANT MATERIALS CENTER

PMC News - Vol. 2, Issue 4, Fall 2007

On July 16-19, 2007, our Americorps volunteers were fortunate 

enough to visit the island of Kahoolawe to see conservation work 

being implemented using plant materials that they helped produce 

here at the Hoolehua Plant Materials Center (PMC). Christy Molena 

and Misty Nakayama are both Molokai girls that are volunteering for 

the summer. Kristen Coelho is also a Molokai girl, but she has 

volunteered to work for an entire year. Her term will end in 

November. 

There are many different practices being implemented to control 

erosion on the island. We were able to see the piligrass bales at work 

and kawelu aalii, and aweoweo seedlings growing where soil had 

accumulated. 

While on island, we 

helped to install a new 

idea. Paul Higashino 

calls them “pu’e”. A 

pile of kiawe mulch 

about 1⁄2 a 5-gallon 

bucket is laid on the 

bare, hard ground. A 

small indention, about 

the size of a fist, is made 

in the center of the pile. Aalii seed is then planted in the indention. 

Many of the pu’e, that had been previously planted, were already 

showing signs of life. Aalii seedling have germinated and are 

beginning to take hold. Can this be the answer? We hope to go back, 

in the future, to see life where there was none before. 

Switchgrass Used for Construction 

of “Arbor” Shelter 

MANHATTAN PLANT MATERIALS CENTER

Plants for the Heartland - Vol. 14, Issue 1, Winter 2007

American Indians Studies programs examined the cultural and 

scientific aspects of switchgrass. As part of Haskell’s Native Grass 

Project, faculty and students spent time analyzing switchgrass use 

across the U.S. and found the Caddo people typically used it for 

building homes and shelters. Williams indicated that students 

working on the Shelters constructed of willow poles and native 

grasses were a way for the Caddo Indians of Louisiana’s Red River 

Valley to escape the relentless heat of the summer sun. A replica of 

one of these traditional structures stands at Haskell Indian Nations 

University in Lawrence, Kansas. 

Students, faculty, and friends of the university completed the arbor in 

early November, as an environmental project funded by the U.S. 

Army. The Army is interested in using switchgrass for its ability to 

heal damaged terrain and help limit soil erosion. “In the Army, we 

are really interested in using switchgrass for erosion control in 

training areas, and if you mix it with other grass species, you get a 

really good, solid erosion control system,” said Bill Severinghaus, 

Technical Director of the U.S. Army Construction Engineering 

Research Laboratory (USACERL) of Champaign, Illinois. “It was 

hoped that if Army installations would restore their lands using 

switchgrass, then tribes could come to the forts and harvest the 

switchgrass for cultural uses,” said Lorene Williams, Haskell English 

Professor and Principal Investigator on this project. 

The student interns of the Native Grass Research Project at Haskell’s 

Environmental Science and project had gained a new appreciation of 

their heritage. Phil Cross, a member of the Caddo tribe, was the 

engineer and construction boss for the project. Cross indicated that 

his tribal ancestors would work very quickly to build an arbor shelter 

and put one up in a few 

hours. However, it took the 

inexperienced group working 

part time about a week to 

finish the project. 

The grass bundles for the 

arbor came mainly from the 

nearby Baker-Haskell 

Wetlands and were selected, 

cut, bundled and bound by 

Haskell students. Manhattan Plant Materials Center staff members 

Alan Shadow, Soil Conservationist, and Rich Wynia, PMC Manager, 

harvested some bundles of switchgrass from the PMC and 

participated in the initial ring of grass being attached to the 

framework of the shelter. 

Elementary Education major Tiffany Wisdom was among the many 

students from the American Indian Studies Program who helped cut 

and bundle the grass, watching and learning the construction process 

from the beginning. Wisdom watched as Charles Allen, a Louisiana 

botanist and author, and others pieced together the willow pole 

framework that would eventually support the grass walls of the arbor 

shelter. 

Allen indicated that switchgrass was valued by the Caddo Nation and 

other tribes because of its resiliency in all seasons and weather 

conditions. Williams stated, “Switchgrass is a very durable grass. 

It’s very strong and once the grass is harvested and placed in 

overlapping rows on the structure it is water proof.” Allen stated that 

switchgrass is a hardy species of grass that is common throughout the 

Great Plains. It is one of the four grass species that define the 

tallgrass prairie. The other species are big bluestem, little bluestem, 

and Indian grass. 

The arbor shelter, which is about eight feet tall, is outside the Eric 

Allen Greenhouse on the south side of the campus. A few dozen 

species of tall warm-season grasses are also growing in and around 

the greenhouse behind Tam-I-Nend Hall on the Haskell campus. The 

arbor will be used as a social gathering place and for classroom 

purposes. 
New Study Underway to Enhance Post-wildfire 

Restoration 

GREAT BASIN PLANT MATERIALS CENTER

Great Basin Plant Materials Center Newsletter – January 2008

Equipment and Strategies to Enhance Post-wildfire 

Establishment and Persistence of Great Basin Native 

Plants 

Many native plant

communities in the Great

Basin have been altered by 

the encroachment of annual 

weeds, particularly

cheatgrass, and an

accompanying increase in

fire frequency. The Great 

Basin PMC is part of a

collaborative project led by 

the US Forest Service’s

Rocky Mountain Research Station investigating revegetation

technology to restore native plant communities following fire. 

The stated objectives of the study include: 

1) Examine seeding techniques for Wyoming big sagebrush 

2) Test seeding technology for native species 

3) Compare modified rangeland drill and experimental no-till 

drill 

4) Examine use of US Geological Survey proposed 

emergency stabilization and rehabilitation monitoring 

protocols for gauging seeding success 

5) Examine livestock grazing effects on diversity in native 

plant seedings 

In the fall of 2007, study plots were established near Mountain 

Home, Idaho and Burns, Oregon. Other collaborators include the 

USDI Bureau of Land Management, USGS Biological Research 

Division, and NRCS Aberdeen Plant Materials Center.

New Buildings Planned for Construction in 2008 

Construction on a new shop, equipment cleaning pad, fueling station, 

chemical storage building, and equipment storage shed is set to begin 

in the spring of 2008. An historic barn (shown below) is currently 

being used to store equipment. In addition, a cultural resources 

inventory contract has been 

awarded to document

structures that will be

impacted by building

construction. A cultural

resources inventory is

scheduled for completion in 

early February, after which 

construction on the new

buildings will begin.

Native Seed Hay Bales for Restoration 

TUCSON PLANT MATERIALS CENTER

La Semilla Newsletter – Vol. 4, Issue 1 - January 2008 

Out of the initial results of the Boer lovegrass study (story on page 2 

of newsletter), a second attempt was made during the summer of

2007 to establish natives into a site exposed to exotic lovegrasses— 

this time without the disturbance of a seed drill. Native seed hay

bales were spread across the site instead of drilling seed. Hay bales 

provide a promising, new approach for restoration, having both seed 

and mulch. 

These hay bales 

were harvested 

from a mixed 

species field 

planted at the 

PMC from seed 

originating from 

the AppletonWhittle Research 

Ranch. As in the 

Boer lovegrass 

study, adaptation 

of the seed was 

not in question, because this planting took place on the Babocomari 

Ranch, a neighbor of the Appleton- Whittle. 

Switchgrass Genetics Compared 

BISMARCK PLANT MATERIALS CENTER

Plant Chat Newsletter – Vol. 7, Issue 4 – Fall 2007 

Plant geneticist Michael Casler sampled the DNA from more than 75 

naturally occurring switchgrass plants collected throughout the 

Midwest and compared them with samples from the cultivars 

Blackwell, Cave-in-Rock, Pathfinder, and Shawnee. Casler is with 

the USDA-ARS at Madison, Wisconsin. No one had ever before 

examined the genetic similarity between native switchgrass plants 

with the more commonly planted cultivars. He found that plants 

from each individual population were as variable as those from 

geographically distant populations, and the remnant populations were 

very similar to the cultivars. 

The good news is that so called “improved” switchgrass cultivars are, 

genetically speaking, very similar to populations of plants being used 

for native restoration. Casler stated, “Our findings show that 

switchgrass that’s grown for biofuel can also be grown for 

conservation and other uses without fear of possible genetic 

contamination. We need to pay attention to the origin of switchgrass 

seed populations, but we’ve learned that seeds can be transferred 

widely within the hardiness zone in which they originated.” 

Switchgrass is a popular conservation plant that has seen increased 

interest in recent years as a renewable biofuel resource. (This 

information was taken from an article written by Erin Peabody in the 

September 2007 issue of Agricultural Research.) 

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