Evaluating postfire seeding treatments designed to suppress cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in a ponderosa pine forest on the Colorado Plateau
Brooks M, Klinger R, Chase J, Deuser C. Evaluating postfire seeding treatments designed to suppress cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in a ponderosa pine forest on the Colorado Plateau. U.S. Geological Survey. El Portal, California
Seeding with or without raking had no detectable effects on any of the species or groups of species in this study as measured by: 1) the density, cover, and species diversity of standing vegetation during the first 5 post-treatment years; or 2) the density and species diversity of the soil seedbank during the first 3 post-treatment years. Blue grama had an overall low standing density and cover, and seedbank density, at the study site, whereas bottlebrush squirreltail had relatively high standing density and cover, and seedbank density, at lease during some of the sampling years. Cheatgrass did not differ among treatments, including raked and unraked plots, and only increased from 1.1. seeds per 18 cubic cm of soil immediately following the fire in fall 2003 to 1.5 seeds by the fall of the third postfire year.