Transcript An Introduction to the Coastal Prairie Management Exercise

An Introduction to the Coastal Prairie Management
Exercise
I. COASTAL PRAIRIE THREATS
Habitat Conversion and Fragmentation
Invasive Species
Reduced Disturbance
Altered watershed hydrology
Limited knowledge and under-appreciation
Air pollution
Climate Change
GRASSLAND DISTURBANCE:
Grazing , Fire, Digging
GRAZING
By the late Pleistocene (10,000 BP to 1.6 MYBP), California grasslands
supported one of the greatest wildlife assemblages on the Earth. The diversity
and abundance of pre-historic grazers, browsers, predators and scavengers
may be one of the greatest in the world exceeding that of East Africa
(Edwards 2007).
Zebras:
Horses :
Sloths:
Bison:
Deer:
Pronghorns:
Mammoths:
Oxen:
Llamas:
Camels:
Tapirs:
Pigs:
(Dolichohippus sp.) , (Pliohippus sp.)
Giant horse, Western horse, Three-toed horse
Harlan’s ground sloth, Shasta ground sloth, Jefferson’s ground
sloth
Ancient or Ice Age bison, Long-horned or giant bison
Brachyodont deer, Mule deer, Elk
Pacific pronghorn, antelope or four-horned pronghorn,
Pronghorn
Columbian mammoth, American mastodon
Shrub ox, Woodland musk ox
Large-headed llama
Large or western camel
Tapir
Flat-headed peccary
Which species you graze and when you graze
Bartolome, J. W., J. S. Fehmi, R. D. Jackson, and B. Allen-Diaz. 2004
Grazing Literature Summary (from Grey Hayes)
• Removal of grazing changes system
 Change in perennial grass abundance
 Increase in shrub and tree cover
 Loss of annual wildflowers
• Season of grazing may matter
• Type of grazer may matter
 Elk similar to cow
 Horse dissimilar to cattle
• Type of species matters
• Large site variability
Bartolome, J.
FIRE
Fire
prevents
invasion by
trees and
shrubs
Grey Hayes citing: Hatch, D. A., J. W. Bartolome, J. S. Fehmi, and D. S. Hillyard. 1999
Fire affects grass
species differently
Grey Hayes citing: Hatch, D. A., J. W.
Bartolome, J. S. Fehmi, and D. S. Hillyard. 1999
Fire Summary
• Removal of fire changes system
 Change in perennial grass abundance
 Increase in shrub and tree cover
• Season of fire matters
• Type of fire matters
• Type of species matters
Bartolome, J.
SOIL DISTURBANCE
Examples: Gophers, Bears, Pigs,
Ground Squirrels, Insects
Caveat: These species are also
grazers!!!
At a density of 23 per acre,
Botta’s pocket gophers
decreased the forage yield by
25% in annual-dominated
rangelands in the California
foothills.
(Case 2008)
GOPHERS
• 4 to 18 inches below the surface,
deeper branches 5 - 6 ft
• up to 200 yards of tunnels
• up to 300 soil mounds per
animal per year
• up to 2 1/4 tons of earth moved
per gopher each year
• up to 46 3/4 tons per acre per
year for a population of 50
pocket gophers
(Case 2008)
GRAZING, FIRE & SOIL DISTURBANCE
• Shrub clearance
• Tolerant grassland species
DISTURBANCE THEN AND NOW
Significant environmental
changes:
Invasive species
Nitrogen
Habitat patchiness
Climate
Disturbance processes will have different effects
because the environment has changed
II. MANAGEMENT PLANNING
What’s a Manager to Do?
“It is important that students bring a certain
ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their
studies; they are not here to worship what is
known, but to question it. ”
― Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
ONE APPROACH TO GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
Myth:
If we restore historic disturbance
regimes, we will restore coastal prairie.
M
yth: Fire is fire and grazing is grazing. “Burning” or “grazing” are practically misnomer
Myths:
Grazing is good
Fire is good
Grazing is bad
Fire is bad
Myths:
What works on my neighbor’s land will work
on my land.
What works this year, will work next year.
Myth:
Researchers have figured all this stuff out.
ONE APPROACH TO GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species:
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
State Your Goal
Be clear about what you would like to accomplish in your
grasslands. Landowners and managers may have a variety of
goals they would like to achieve. This can lead to some
confusion unless you are clear on what you want.
• Create high-value forage for domestic livestock
• Create habitat for wildlife
• Create open space
• Maintain firebreak around your home
• Create a visually appealing prairie with high diversity of
grasses and forbs
ONE APPROACH TO GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species:
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
Know Your Target Species
How many kinds are
there?
Who do you want to
keep and who do want to
get rid of?
Which species are doing
the most damage to
others?
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
Where are the growing
parts and propagules?
5 Key Characteristics to Know
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longevity (annual or perennial)
when they set seed
how long seeds last in the soil
types of vegetative growth
root characteristics
Differential Longevity:
Annual, Short-lived Perennial, Long-lived Perennial
Purple Needle Grass (Stipa pulchra)
Some plants may be 100-200 years old (Hamilton, et al.
2002).
Red fescue (Festuca rubra) –
Reproducing through tillers (and possibly short rhizomes) ,
forms large, long-lived individuals. The largest recorded
red fescue clone was 220 meters in diameter, estimated to
be over 1,000 years old (Cook 1983; Harberd 1961; Walsh
1995b).
Differential flowering and seed set
FLOWERING
SEEDING
Response to Grazing
Remove Seeds in the Soil
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Wait for them to die
Flush them out
Till them under
Cover them over
Adding Seeds
• Seeding into gopher mounds – Brock Dolman
“huck and chuck”
• Seeding into a medium grade wood chip mulch –
Kathleen Kraft Dan Davis solution
Vegetative Growth – rhizomatous vs non-rhizomatous?
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Tackling Rhizomes
herbicides,
tilling,
hand pulling,
mulching and tarping
Roots
Dealing with Pesky Perennial Roots
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Herbicides
Tilling
Pulling – but not all spp
Intensive grazing and trampling ?
Tarping or Mulching?
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species.
1. Dispel common myths
2. Set a clear goal
3. Identify and target the “worst” and “best” species
5. Know your target species
6. Know your tools
7. Prescribe treatments that reduce the worst species and
increase the best species:
OUR NEXT ACTIVITY
Devise a strategy that will hinder reproduction and
survival of the invaders relative to the desirable
natives.
Grassland management is a bit like chemotherapy:
you’re looking for something that may hurt all the
plants, but will hurt the invaders more than it hurts
the natives.
Claudia Luke
1. Receive two species: an invader and a native
2. Identify key characteristics of both species
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longevity (annual or perennial)
flowering and seed set
how long seeds last in the soil
types of vegetative growth
root characteristics
3. Prescribe treatments that will reduce the invader and
increase the native using the following format:
Starting Condition
Anticipated Response
Month of Snap Shot
Month of Snap Shot
Date of Treatment
Treatment Goal
Draw all parts and
propagules here
Describe drawing
Draw all parts and
propagules here
Describe Treatment
Describe response