Range resto exam 1

Why are range improvements needed

Needed to enhance or improve livestock grazing management, improve watershed conditions, enhance wildlife habitat

Give two examples each of structural and nonstructural vegetation improvements.

Structural: Fences, facilities, wells, water pipeline

Non-structural: seeding, prescribed burns, mechanical control treatments, herbicides, grazing treatments

How are range improvements funded on federal land?

Law says that either half of the grazing fees paid by operators or $10 million will be provided to the BLM to fund range improvements

CRIA

Cooperative Range Improvement Agreement

Agreement made between operated & US that outlines provisions for building, using and maintaining permanent structural improvements on public land

ex: fencing, guzzlers, wells, pipelines

RIP

Range Improvement Permit

authorizes construction of removeable range improvement. Operator funds 100% of the cost

Ex: cattle chute

EQIP

Environmental quality incentives program

Government pays farmers for conservation upgrades for water, irrigation, soil health, air quality, wildlife habitat

EX: government pays part of cost for guzzler to draw cattle away from riparian areas

CRP

Conservation Reserve Program

Program retires farmland so it can recover. Implements restoration efforts for wildlife (pollinators, deer, quail, pheasants)

Cons for CRP

• Takes away acerage in rural communities which decreases jobs & incomes.

• There is land being farmed that shouldn't be or farmable land that isn't being farmed and should be. The program doesn't do a good job specifying which is which.

• Rental rates for CRP are higher than local land cache values so it negatively impacts next generation of farmers

CSP

Conservation Stewardship Program

incentives for continuing good conservation practices

5 principles in regenerative agriculture

1. Minimize mechanical or chemical disturbance. Don't till the soil any more than you have to.

2. Amor the soil. Use cover crops, don't leave soil bare where it's prone to erosion and temperature changes.

3. Promote diversity.

4. Leave living roots in the soil.

5. Use animals as nature intended. The landscape evolved with animals on it and still needs them there to manage it. Graze grasslands that will proliferate its growth.

Professional areas using rangeland vegetation improvement principles

• Nature Conservancy

• Utah DWR

• Seed producer

• Mine reclamation - Kennecott mine

• Utah Department of agriculture and food

• Environmental consultant

• Roadside revegetation

What is ecological succession & how can understanding it help us manage/improve rangeland?

• Ecological succession: directional change of plant community over time

• Understanding succession will help us know what plant communities might move into an area after disturbance. Work with natural processes of succession instead of against them

Climax community

stable group of plants and animals that is the end of the succession process

How do the amounts and ratios of bacteria:fungi change with succession?

At the beginning of succession, bare soil is 100% bacteria. Fungus ratio slowly increases.

Grasses prefer more bacteria, woody plants prefer more fungus. As bacteria:fungus ratio changes so will the plants

Restoration

Intentional activity that initiates or accelerates recover of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity & sustainability

Rehabilitation

Doesn’t intend to re-establish the entire plant community but rather stop further degradation

EX: post fire we need to stabilize soil and prevent weeds so goal is just to get something on the ground

Reclamation

returning function and cover to drastically-disturbed lands

EX: Rebuilding soil in disturbed mine land site

Active restoration

revegetation and severe modifications of plant communities to remove/restrict some species or favor others. May be necessary if desired species were taken out or timeline for recovery thru passive restoration is long and won't meet objectives.

EX: Herbicides, lop & scatter, chaining, mastication, prescribed fire

Passive restoration

change management which allows natural processes to move plant community to desire outcome

EX: Altering number of livestock, closing a road. Changing human input and letting plants do their thing

Resilience

capacity of ecosystem to respond to disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly

Resistance

the ability to withstand change when subject to disturbance

3 soil temperature regimes

1. Mesic (warm)

2. Frigid (cool)

3. Cryic (cold)

5 moisture regimes

1. Aridic (dry)

2. Xeric (winter moist)

3. Ustic (summer moist)

4. Udic (moist, high elevation)

5. Aquic (saturated by water)

under what soil temperature & moisture regimes does cheatgrass do well?

Soil temperature: mesic (warm)

soil moisture: xeric, some aridic

Why is cheatgrass lmited at higher elevations

High elevations are usually colder (frigid to cryic) and relatively moist (zeric to ustic)

Cheatgrass limited by cold temperature (frigid to cryic), dry moisture regimes (dryer aridic), & limited in systems with significant summer precip (ustic)

Minimum bunchgrass densities at xeric and aridic sites

xeric: 3 plants per 10 ft²

Aridic: 2 plants per 10 ft²

Post settlement juniper (new growth)

• Conical with pointed tip

• few to no dead trees/ branches

• absence of understory, lichens

• branches are thinner

• bark is thinner

• lots of leader growth

Pre settlement juniper (old growth):

• flat, uneven tops

• dead trees, branches

• lichens in bark/canopy

• bigger branches

• thicker bark

  • less leader growth

4 land uses/disturbances impacting restoration areas

1. wildfire frequency: time since fire, severity & intensity

2. roads, trails, campsites, pipellines, well pads, power lines, wind towers

3. past cultivation

4. livestock use of area

Juniper/ pinyon encroachment phases canopy percentage

• Phase I: less than 1/3

• Phase II: 1/3 to 2/3 of maximum

• Phase III: greater than 2/3 of maximum

what does a restoration goal include

Species, group, location, attribute, action, quantity or status, time frame

2 pros & 2 cons for use of a rangeland drill and a no-till drill

Rangeland drill

• Pro: very durable, creates microsite for seed

• Con: causes high disturbance to soil due to making individual furrows. It’s more susceptible to wind & water erosion and weed encroachment

No-till drill

• Pro: low soil disturbance so soil structure is preserved, seed placed at optimal depth

• Con: Drill costs more, has more parts that can break

When would you choose to broadcast or when would you use a seed drill?

Broadcast: steep, rocky areas where drill can’t plant

Seed drill: on flatter land, need exact depth control

What should you do if you can’t buy seed of a species for your area?

Choose a related or similarly functioning species

Name 4 general rules when developing a seed mix

1. Choose 6-10 species of grasses, forbs and shrubs

2. build resiliency by planting at least 2 species within the same functional group

3. be mindful of compatibility issues between species, especially when combining native and introduced species

4. Be aware of recommended seeding depths for each species

**A pure stand seeding rate typically delivers how many seed per row foot? (Large & small seeds)

• large: < 500,000 seeds/lb. Pland 24 seed/ft

• Small: >500,000 seeds/lb. Plant 48 seeds/ft

List pros and cons associated with using native vs introduced species for restoration

Native

• Pro: well adapted to site, function well as part of the community

• Con: may not compete as well with introduced weeds, difficult or slow to establish, expensive, seed is difficult to get

Introduced

• Pro: well adapted to environmental extremes similar to site, compete well with introduced weeds, easy/quick to establish

• Con: may form monocultures with limited diversity, concerns about spreading into non-target areas

Cultivar

A distinct plant type that has been bred or selected for specific traits. Restoration cultivars are usually bred to be well adapted to an environment

**Locally sourced seed vs cultivars and challenges to each approach

Local seed

• Pro: already adapted to the area

• Con: difficult or expensive to collect

Cultivar

• Pro:

• Con: may not necessarily be suitable or optimal for all situations

**Why may it be important to plant locally sourced seed (use terms genetic drift and natural selection in answer)

Definition of genecology and how does Genecology help managers find the right seed for restoration?

• Study of genetic variation within species and relationship to the environment from which they came

• Genecology helps us correlate plant traits and the habitats where they evolved. A consistent correlation indicates adaptation as determined by natural selection. It helps managers match a seed to a habitat that needs to be restored

Empirical seed zones

Specific geographic area suitable for a species seed based off of genetic, molecular and field research

Provisional seed zones

Generalized, climate-based zones within which seeds can be transferred with little risk of maladaptation

These are basic guidelines for seed movement when we don’t have species-specific data.

How big are mega fires

100,000 acres

How does smoke from a prescribed fire compare to a wildfire? How is each regulated by national air quality regulations

RX smoke is much less than wildfire smoke but it’s regulated by the government as “an avoidable nuisance.”

Name 3 management practices we should do to prevent mega fires

1. prescribed fires

2. mechanical thinning

3. manage fire instead of suppress fire

What benefits can be achieved through conducting prescribed fires

Less smoke, thin out fuels, increases patchiness and natural fire breaks

What are the disadvantages to prescribed fire

• Publicly not supported

• intensive planning requirements

• liability concerns

• requires qualified applicators

• impaired air quality and reduced aesthetics over the short term

• Imprecise and variable treatment (doesn’t burn like you think it will, get rained on or it burns hotter/faster than predicted)

• Need for adequate fire weather conditions, narrow time period for application

• can favor invasion of non-native plants

Draw the fire triangle and environmental fire triangle

• Fire triangle: Oxygen, heat, fuel

• Fire environment triangle: weather, topography, fuel

What weather parameters are most important in determining when to conduct RX? Why?

RH, air temperature, wind speed

They affect the fire behavior, how hot it burns, and the rate of spread

Prescribed fires should be conducted at what temperature, RH and wind speed?

Temperature <60 F

Wind speed <20 mph

RH > 40

For every 20 F (11.1 C) increase in temperature, relative humidity is reduced by

half

EX: at 8am, the temperature is 60 degrees and RH is 80%. What is the expected RH when temperature goes to 80 degrees?

RH will be 40 %

8 factors that affect temperature

1. season

2. cloud cover

3. topography

4. aspect

5. shading

6. vegetation

7. wind

8. elevation

9. RH

6 factors affecting wind speed

1. Topography

2. diurnal variation: As temps rise in the day, wind goes up (heat goes up). As they cool down, the wind goes down (cool air goes down)

3. vegetation

4. eddies

5. frontal boundary: Two types of airmasses: low pressure and high pressure. Boundary between the two is called a front and is where most weather occurs.

6. slope effect

Why is it dangerous to burn within 12 hours of a predicted frontal movement?

A front is the boundary between a low pressure and high pressure air mass. There’s a lot of wind and sudden changes in wind direction. This will cause your fire to spread erratically and you do not want to be there.

5 factors affecting fire behavior considering fuels

1. Fuel loading

2. Fuel size

3. continuity & arrangement

4. chemical properties

5. fuel moisture

1. Fuel loading

The amount of fuel in an area

• Total fuel: entire biomass (everything)

• Potential fuel: part of total fuel that could burn (what will probably burn)

• Available fuel: what would burn in a given situation (not likely to burn)

2. Fuel size - light, medium, heavy

Fuel with high SA:V ratio require less heating for ignition (more area to dry out interior)

Light: moisture content changes rapidly due to weather and topo. take on and give up moisture quickly. (grasses)

Medium: mod to high intensity burning but slower ROS (shrubs & grass under 6 ft)

Heavy: High-intensity burning, low to moderate ROS (heavy continuous shrubs or brush over 6 ft)

2. Fuel size - moisture content

1 hr: ¼ inch diameter. (pine needles)

10 hr: ¼ - 1 inch diameter. (small branches)

100 hr: 1-3 inch diameter. (tree limbs)

1000 hr: 3-8 inch diameter (logs)

This is the time for moisture content to equalize with surrounding air. 1 hr fuels respond to changes in RH faster than 100 hr fuels. (If it rains for an hour, a 1 hr fuel will be soaked. 100 hr fuels take a long time to soak up moisture but a long time to dry out.)

3. Fuel continuity

Continuity = the amount of coverage or distribution of fuels

Horizontal continuity: stuff on the ground. Is it patchy or uniform (sagebrush steppe vs cheatgrass)

Vertical continuity: fuels up and down (ladder fuels)

Fuels complex

Amount and arrangement of fuels in an area

Canopy, surface and ground fuels

4. chemical properties

Fuels can contain chemicals and minerals that can enhance or retard combustion.

Volatile substances: oils, resins, wax, pitch (juniper, sagebrush, pinyon, pine)

Minerals reduce fire spread and intensity (duff)

5. fuel moisture

The amount of water in fuels changes how fast it dries out and catches fire.

Fresh foliage: 300% moisture content

Maturing foliage: 200% moisture content

Mature foliage: 100% moisture content

Entering dormancy: 50% moisture content

Completely dead: <30% moisture content

Relative humidity

the ratio of the amount of water vapor currently in the air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor that the air can hold at that specific temperature and pressure, expressed as a percentage

What are fire breaks and 8 examples

Fire breaks are breaks in the fuel continuity that prevent fire from spreading

EX: mowed lines/wet line, cattle/hiking/horse trails, road line, Dozer/scraped lines, disked/tilled/plowed line, hand line, natural line, black lines

5 ignition sources and describe how they’re applied

1. Fusee

2. drip torch

3. exploding flares

4. Delayed aerial ignition device

5. terra torch, heli torch

what is a test fire

A test fire is a small fire done before firing. Check the fire and smoke behavior to make sure the fire is burning as expected. It helps determine if you should go forward with the prescribed fire

Describe eight different ignition methods

1. Head fire

2. Back fire

3. Flank fire

4. Strip head fire

5. Spot ignition fire

6. Center ignition fire

7. Ring fire

8. Chevron

Head fire

Moves with wind

Rapid ROS, long flame length, most intense, hottest temp, most difficult to control, damaging to shrubs & trees

Back fire

Moves against wind

Slowest ROS, shortest flame length,

Safest method. used to establish a baseline and good for heavy fuel loads

Can damage roots from prolonged heat

Flank fire

Moves parallel or at right angle to wind

moderate intensity

Used to secure flanks of back or head fires

strip head fire

Burn with the wind in small strips

 Can burn small strip from the green to a road/black to increase buffer area. Once you have a bigger black area you can increase strip width.

Most commonly used

Spot ignition

Uses series of small spot ignitions that burn together and minimizes possibility that a spot will gain momentum to start to run.

This is what you get with a DAID (delayed aerial ignition device)

center ignition

Conduct a backfire and start a fire in the center and then fire off around the entire perimeter

Convection with draw the fire toward the center, moving smoke high into the air

ring fire

Used for site-prep, minimizes spotting

traps wildlife, high intensity

Chevron

establishes a line of fire in v-shape to burn off ridge points or ends. burn progression must be downhill

***In Utah, when can you conduct a prescribed fire, and is it always within this period?

RX can't be done June 1 to October 31. The state forester can advance/extend the closed season.

***In Utah, name two things you should do with the County Fire Warden before conducting a prescribed fire.

Get a burn permit. Notify them when you'll be burning….

***Describe the recommendations for post-burn rest and deferment.

Resting an area after fire depends on vegetation composition, site conditions and burn objectives. It's suggested to not graze for 2 growing seasons. Depending on the site, you could rest only one year or may need to reseed.