PROGRESS REPORT: IMPLEMENTATION OF PILOT NATIVE VEGETATION RESTORATION EFFORTS IN THE GARDINER BASIN, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, 2008-2014

Renkin, Roy; Klaptosky, John; Winslow, Susan; Jacobs, Jim; Scianna, Joe; Hamilton, E

This report details a pilot effort from 2008 to 2014 to implement native vegetation restoration on 4 non-native weed-dominated sites totaling 50 acres in the Gardiner Basin of Yellowstone National Park (Figure A). Remediation was based on specific, prescriptive recommendations following an invited workshop (19-21 April 2005) of agency and academic restoration specialists (Interagency Workshop Steering Committee 2005a). The sites represent areas that were initially settled in the 1870s (including the townsite of Cinnabar, MT), converted from native vegetation for agricultural purposes, acquired by the park in the 1930s, abandoned from agricultural use and planted to non-native crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) by the 1950s, and further degrading to varying degrees to support a plant community dominated by non-native Eurasian annual weeds (mostly desert alyssum [Alyssum desertorum] and annual wheatgrass [Eremopyrum triticeum]). The prescription for native vegetation restoration is a dryland approach that emphasizes: 1) maximizing weed control using chemical, mechanical, and cultural techniques; 2) site preparation using a barley/winter wheat cover crop to hold and decompact soil, provide competition with weeds, stimulate soil biota, and increase soil organic material; 3) fencing to exclude ungulate use during site preparation through native seed planting/germination/establishment; and 4) drill seeding native seed at a rate of 16-22 lbs per acre. The stated objective for this pilot project was to “restore a mosaic of native plant communities that provides wildlife habitat and forage”. A secondary restoration objective identified for the sites was to: restore functioning water, soil, and energy cycles; soil properties; and a sustainable native shrub-grassland plant association similar to the site potential (Interagency Workshop Steering Committee 2005b). Prior to implementing project work, the preparation of funding proposals, descriptive soils analyses, NEPA and NHPA Section 110 and Section 106 compliance were completed. In 2007 and 2008, the University of Montana, Department of Anthropology, completed cultural resource surveys at a cost of $42,000 independent from costs associated with project implementation (MacDonald 2007, 2008). Secured funding and a budget breakdown of costs associated with the project are summarized in Appendices D and E. Activities associated with project implementation in the field can be divided into the categories: native seed collection and propagation, exclosure construction, weed control, site preparation, monitoring, native seeding trials, and drill seeding of native seed at the recommended rate.