Arid Land Restoration

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Arid Land Restoration at Lake Mead NRA Alice
C. Newton Vegetation Management Specialist
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• You have to get over the color green you have to
  quit associating beauty with gardens and lawns
  you have to get used to an inhuman scale you
  have to understand geological time.
• Thoughts in a Dry Land, Wallace Stegner

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• Weve mined it, dammed it, irrigated it,
  developed it, and subjected it to nuclear
  assault, yet the desert, somehow both fragile and
  tough, manages to endure, a rugged old touchstone
  for us to measure ourselves against.
• Malcolm Jones Jr. 1996

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• The finest quality of this stone, these plants
  and animals, this desert landscape is the
  indifference manifest to our presence, our
  absence, our coming, our staying or our going.
  Whether we live or die is a matter of absolutely
  no concern whatsoever to the desert.
• Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

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• In the desert, you see, there is everything and
  nothing. It is God without mankind.
• A Passion in the Desert, Honore de Balzac

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What Good Is A Desert?
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What Good Is A Desert?

• Aesthetics
• Solitude
• Survival challenge

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Why Restore The Desert?

• NPS Policies because its our job!
• Other applicable laws
• Economics
• Environmental factors

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NPS Policies

• The National Park Service shall promote and
  regulate the use of the Federal areas known as
  national parks, monuments and reservations which
  purpose is to conserve the scenery and the
  natural and historic objects and the wild life
  therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the
  same in such manner and by such means as will
  leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of
  future generations.
• NPS Organic Act of
  1916

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NPS Policies

• 2006 Management Policies
• Preserving park resources and values unimpaired
  is the core or primary responsibility of NPS
  managers
• The Service will reestablish natural functions
  and processes disturbed by human impacts in
  parks unless otherwise directed by Congress
• Natural disturbances landslides, fire, etc.
  will be allowed to recover without human
  intervention whenever possible

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Other Applicable Laws

• Wilderness Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water
  Act)
• Clean Air Act

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Economic

• Recreation
• Tourism
• Flood control
• Mitigation for other disturbance or takings

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Environmental

• Rare plant and animal habitat
• Common plant and animal habitat
• Ecosystem services
• Air Quality (PM10 reduction)
• Watershed function
• Carbon sequestration
• Nutrient cycling

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Challenges

• Soils based, not vascular plant based
• Key soil stabilizers are cryptobiotic crusts and
  cyanobacteria, rock armor, physical crusts
• Key nitrogen fixers are cryptobiotic crusts and
  cyanobacteria
• Unique hydrology resulting from chemical pan
  development localized underground sheet flow

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Challenges

• Extremely long-lived seed banks
• Recovery trajectories can be extremely long
  sometimes decades
• Recovery trajectories are not linear
• Transition thresholds are not well known
• Historic community composition and range of
  variability is not well known

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Challenges

• Climate Change
• Temperature not the only concern
• Change in precipitation regime duration,
  intensity, and seasonality
• Need summer monsoons to establish creosote
• Need gentle winter rains to germinate annuals
• If we dont have the same starting conditions,
  can we re-create the end product?

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Guiding Philosophy

• Work on the cause as well as the effect
• Methods are simple to implement and understand
• Time is on our side Jump Start
• Form Follows Function
• Soil building and hydrologic processes are key
• Minimize input as much as possible

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Types of Disturbance

• Chronic and Dispersed
• Grazing
• Fire
• Dust and Nitrogen Deposition
• Acute and Discrete
• Off-Road Vehicles
• Mining
• Construction
• Pipelines

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Restoration Methods

• Choosing Appropriate Methods
• Type of soil, crust
• Degree and type of damage
• Natural recovery potential
• Potential for redisturbance
• Time available for recovery
• Resources available
• Size of disturbance
• Political or regulatory considerations
• Sometimes best to leave it alone!

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Soils and Water Management

• Topsoil salvage and replacement
• Recontouring
• Decompaction
• Raking
• Erosion control
• Soil amendments and horizontal mulch
• Vertical mulch

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Soils and Water Management

• Rock mulch
• Artificial desert varnish
• Tackifiers
• Biotic crust inoculation
• Fertilizer and anti-fertilizer
• Water retention and infiltration

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Plant Establishment

• Topsoil salvage
• Transplants from site to site (plant salvage)
• Transplants from nursery stock
• Seeding
• Natural dispersal (linear features only)
• Transplants require at least two summer seasons
  of supplemental watering

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Topsoil Salvage

• Less expensive per plant in the long run
• Obtain full range of species annual and
  perennial plants, soil microbiota, and sometimes
  arthropods as well
• Must be handled gently with minimal storage time
• Germination and establishment generally follows
  successional path

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Plant Salvage

• Establish structure
• Create immediate camouflage
• Brings community biota along (for good and bad)
• Destroys donor site
• Labor intensive
• Limited species
• Can have high mortality (but then becomes
  vertical mulch!)

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Nursery Transplants

• Much lead time required for seed collection and
  propagation
• Can be very expensive
• Limited/biased genetics
• Limited species
• High nitrogen content means extensive herbivory
  problems

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Seeding

• Extremely limited supply and low viability
• Limited species and genetics
• Much lead time required
• Extremely high loss to UV, desiccation, and
  granivory
• Potential for weed introduction
• Can be very slow to establish leaving unoccupied
  areas for weeds

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Natural Dispersal

• Recommended for small or linear features only
• Full range of species available
• Full genetic range available
• No outside genetics introduced
• Low cost but weeds must be managed
• Niches must be open
• Very slow to establish

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Site Protection and Maintenance

• Wire cages
• Tree Shelters
• Rocks and mulch
• Vertical mulch
• Barriers
• Weed management
• Supplemental watering

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Monitoring

• Determine success may have nothing to do with
  vascular plant cover
• Nutrient cycling, hydrologic function, erosion
  events, arthropod colonization
• Have realistic expectations
• Be prepared for long recovery trajectories
• Publicize your success and failure!

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Where Do We Go From Here?

• Seed pelleting project
• Soil development experiments
• Gypsum habitat restoration experiments
• Cryptobiotic crust inoculatons
• Other ideas?

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Contact Info

• Alice C. Newton
• Vegetation Management Specialist
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area
• 601 Nevada Way
• Boulder City NV 89005
• Alice_corrine_newton_at_nps.gov
• Any
  questions?