BLM Utah Arid Land/Rehabilitation of Soils Study

The objectives of this project include the following: 1) Minimize weed establishment, mostly cheat grass and halogeton, by appropriate cover crop selection and timing of planting. Species will be selected that can tolerate the arid and saline environment and seeded to directly compete with invasive weed establishment. Sustainable dryland farming techniques should be used to optimize cover crop production, while also optimizing native plant succession and establishment. This should include testing weed suppressive bacteria (WSB) naturally selected to inhibit the growth of cheatgrass, 2) Restore lands impacted by soil salinity. Develop an organic matter rich topsoil, free of weeds, where salinity, sodicity, and trace element contaminant levels have been mitigated, 3) Select the appropriate revegetation species and determine the best planting methods to ensure the establishment of desirable species will inhibit the spread of invasive weeds. Public Benefit: By providing BLM land managers a detailed reclamation guideline or recipe that will provide the most successful and sustainable strategy to reclaim disturbed lands in arid environments, BLM will be able to achieve both short, and long-term goals of its⿿ reclamation guidelines. The short-term goal includes the ability to,⿿immediately stabilize disturbed areas and to provide the necessary conditions to achieve the long-term goal⿝. While the long-term goal includes, ⿿facilitate eventual ecosystem reconstruc...
Source: Grants.gov - Category: Research Tags: Natural Resources Source Type: funding