Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation Project 2016 Annual Report

Beck, Jen; Fraser, Andrew; Wyler, Carolyn; Frederic, Melody; Williams, Kathryn

Crater Lake National Park’s Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation (RDRR) project aims to mitigate impacts to the rim environment from the Federal Highway Administration-sponsored Rim Drive Rehabilitation project. This major construction project will correct many deficiencies present along the Park’s historic Rim Drive. Through surveying for and controlling invasive plant species, salvaging and reestablishing rare plant populations disturbed by the construction project, and restoring disturbed areas using site-specific native plants and seed it is hoped that long-term impacts from this construction project to the Park’s natural resources will be minimized. During the 2016 field season, over 29,590 invasive plants were removed from the project area including two new-to-the-Park non-native plant species. Additional rare plants were salvaged from areas prior to disturbance from construction activities and incorporated into a holdover facility where plants are monitored for health and survival. Overall salvaged rare plant survival rate was 67.9%, but this includes plants that were struggling at the time of last assessment and new recruits from seeds dropped in 2014, 2015, and 2016. For the fourth year in a row, plant materials were collected from five distinct seed zones representing the floral diversity of the project area. Fifty-one seed accessions were provided to the Corvallis Plant Materials Center by Park staff and contract crews for propagation of plants for revegetation and creation of customized seed mixes for each restoration site. Seed collection protocols were refined for each species targeted for use in revegetation to inform future restoration efforts. In 2016, CRLA staff planted 2,014 native plants and dispersed 2,499 grams of native seed throughout disturbed areas along East Rim Drive. On West Rim Drive, 854 native plants were outplanted in disturbed areas along with 273 salvaged rare plants; 500 grams of cleaned and 907 grams of uncleaned native seed were broadcast in disturbed areas along the road corridor.

Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation Project 2016 Annual Report

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