USDA Forest Service Celebrating Wildflowers

 

Using Native Plant Material

forest roadside revegetated with native plant species.
A highly successful roadside restoration project in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration. Establishing native species along roadsides is aesthetically pleasing and can reduce maintenance requirements. Road right-of-ways also provide connectivity across fragmented landscapes, serving as important dispersal corridors for propagules of desirable native plant species.

man sowing seed.
A student volunteer hand-seeding native grasses in a restoration project in the Snake River Canyon, Oregon.

Native plant materials are needed for a wide variety of restoration and rehabilitation efforts on National Forests and Grasslands around the country. Native plant materials are used for erosion control, weed prevention, forage, cover, and aesthetics. The types of projects include:

  • Post-fire rehabilitation
  • Post-harvest seeding or planting
  • Decommissioned road beds, cut-and-fill slopes
  • Non-native invasive species infestations
  • Recreational developments, including trails and campgrounds
  • Riparian areas
  • Range improvement areas
  • Wildlife and fisheries habitat restoration
  • Mining reclamation
  • Special use sites and corridors

Although the Forest Service has a long history of using native tree species in reforestation, efforts to revegetate with other native plants (hardwood trees and shrubs, grasses, and forb species) is relatively new. As a consequence, supporting research, infrastructure and plant material programs are all in the early stages of development.

Roadside Revegetation

Roadside Revegetation: An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants - This manual was a collaborative effort between Region 6 Forest Service personnel (Scott Riley, David Steinfeld, Lee Riley, Tom Landis (retired)), Kim Wilkinson, and the Federal Highway Administration (Western Federal Lands Highway Division). As described in the Executive Summary (PDF 0.2 MB), the manual guides readers through four stages of revegetation, including initiation, planning, implementation, and monitoring. Although the manual focuses on roadside revegetation, it has great relevance to other types of disturbances and activities where revegetation with native plant materials is desired.

A Manager’s Guide to Roadside Revegetation Using Native Plants (PDF, 3.3 MB) - This guide is intended to support managers in facilitating successful protection and/or establishment of native vegetation as an integral part of road design and construction. This report summarizes the concepts and approaches developed in Roadside Revegetation: An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants, from a manager's perspective. While the full report is designed for field-level practitioners, it is this reference document that engineers and managers should use as a guide in project planning, design, and construction. This guide summarizes an integrated approach to effectively revegetating roadsides and other disturbance areas associated with road construction, modification, or obliteration. Management issues including scope, schedules, budgets, communication, and quality assurance are outlined as they relate to integrating revegetation practices.

Fiscal Year 2007 Reports

The following reports provide the most recent information from around the country about local efforts to identify and characterize target species, collect and propagate seed and planting stock, develop seed zones and plant movement guidelines, provide training, and utilize native plants in restoration. The projects were funded by a special Congressional appropriation for the development and use of native plant materials on National Forest System lands.

Alaska Region

Eastern Region

Intermountain Region

Northern Region

Pacific Northwest Region

Pacific Southwest Region

Rocky Mountain Region

Southern Region

Southwestern Region

Research and Development

Previous Fiscal Year Reports »

Three pictures: left is woman kneeling among rows of plants in a field, center is five men and two women kneeling and standing along a row of plants in field, and right is two standing women collecting seed.
Scenes depicting wildland collection and field production of native grass and forb seed. Wildland-collected seed can be used directly in restoration projects, or established in production fields to generate larger quantities of seed.

U.S. Forest Service
Rangeland Management
Botany Program
1400 Independence Ave., SW, Mailstop Code: 1103
Washington DC 20250-1103

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Location: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/nativeplantmaterials/using.shtml
Last modified: Tuesday, 24-Jun-2008 21:54:58 EDT