Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation Project 2014 Annual Report
Beck J, Thomas EK, Williams KM, Frederic MC. 2015. Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation Project 2014 Annual Report
Crater Lake National Park’s Rim Drive Rehabilitation Revegetation project is intended 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 2014 field season, the project area was surveyed for invasive plant species and over 18,000 invasive plants were removed including two new-to-the Park weedy species. Almost 600 rare and sensitive plants including the Crater Lake rockcress, pumice grapefern, Mt. Shasta arnica, and whitebark pine were salvaged from areas that will be disturbed by construction activities. Salvaged plants from three sites were cared for at a holdover facility and monitored for health and survival. Rare plant survival rates ranged from 89.2 – 90.5%, but this estimate includes plants that were struggling at the time of last assessment. Rare plants from one of the plant salvage locations were transplanted back into their habitat in October 2014; these plants will continue to be monitored to assess the efficacy of reestablishing these rare species. Revegetation prescriptions were refined during the 2014 season and seeds were collected from five distinct seed zones representing the floral diversity of the project area. Forty-five seed accessions were delivered to the Corvallis Plant Materials Center for propagation of plants for revegetation and creation of customized seed mixes for each restoration site. Seed collection protocols were developed for each species targeted for use in revegetation to inform future restoration efforts.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Beck, Jen; Thomas, Elena; Williams, Kathryn; Frederic, Melody
- Date of Issue
- 2015-04
- Units
- CRLA
- Keywords
- disturbance, native plant communities, outplanting, restoration, revegetation, road construction, seed collection, site preparation, Vegetation
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Vegetation Complex , Ecological Framework: Human Use | Point-Source Human Effects | Point-Source Human Effects