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Greenacres: Resources for Re-Seeding
Great information about experts from government and non-profit
organizations, plants native to your state and other pertinent
publications. Remember; think globally but plant locally. But
first.....
DISCLAIMER: (Hey, we're the Federal government. We have to.)
The views and policies in the publications mentioned in this Web site
are not necessarily the views or policies of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency.
about PDF files
Argonne National Laboratory
Center for Environmental Restoration Systems
Attention: Ray Hinchman, Ph.D.
ES - Building 62
9700 Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439
Under the sponsorship of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USAEC),
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) developed Reveg/XD, a
computer program that assists users in analyzing problems and making
decisions about appropriate plant species for revegetation projects.
ANL has used Reveg/XD to assist with the development of seed
mixture and revegetation-species requirements for several
rehabilitation projects at Army installations, as well as for
routine use as a single source of extensive, species-specific
information on plants.
For a discussion of Reveg/XD, refer to:
Hinchman, R.R. and W.A. Mego. Reveg/XD: A computer program
for revegetational restoration. In Proceedings of the Special
Session on the Rehabilitation of U.S. Army Training Lands, Second
Annual Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration, held in
Chicago, Illinois, April 29-May 3, 1990. (pp. 71-92).
U.S Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service
The U.S Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation
Service has developed the National Plant Information Database
(PLANTS).
PLANTS provides a single source of standardized information
about plants. It provides standardized plant names, symbols, and
other plant attribute information. This standardized information
permits scientists and other persons interested in plants across
disciplines to freely exchange accurate plant-related information
because the are all using the same plant names and symbols. PLANTS
also provides a link that allows downloading PLANTS data from the
state selected via FTP. The data found in PLANTS for the plants
known to occur within North America were provided under a
cooperative agreement by John Kartesz Biota of North America
Program (BONAP) developed at the University of North Carolina -
Chapel Hill.
U.S Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation
Service Plant Material Centers: The NRCS maintains 26 plant
materials center throughout the United States. Each center is
located to take advantage of common characteristics of climate,
topography, and soils in a given geographical area.
The NRCS program screens a large number of species used in
revegetation work. Selected ecotypes are increased as technology
develops, and seeds/plants are made available for field testing.
High standards of seed quality and genetic integrity are
guaranteed by isolating fields for each species. Computers are
used to maintain accurate record on plant collections, varieties,
and species viability tests. Each center is equipped with
seed-cleaning facilities to handle a wide variety of native plants
and to produce high-quality, weed-free seeds and transplants.
Some Plant Materials Centers work with native threatened or
endangered species programs. Eventually the centers will be able
to supply plants that exist in historical settings but that are
currently limited to a specific historic site. The centers service
specific states. See specific state resources for more detailed
information.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (CERL)
P.O. Box 9005
Champaign, IL 61826-9005 Contact: Steven D. Warren, Ph.D.
Tel: (217) 398-5455
Fax: (217) 398-5470
E-mail: s-warren@cecer.army.mil
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), National Resources
Conservation Service, and National Biological Service are
cooperatively developing a decision support system, VegSpec, to
select plant species for land reclamation projects. Land reclamation
practices for which VegSpec was developed include cover crops,
critical area plantings, windbreaks, filter strips, pasture
planting, range planting, and tree planting. VegSpec user is
required to identify the desired practice, soil series, nearest
climate station, and minimal site information to arrive at a list of
plant species adapted to the site. List can be restricted by
identifying specific purposes for which practice is intended, e.g.,
native plant community restoration. User may further limit list of
acceptable plants by identifying objectives and/or constraints
associated with the selected purposes, such as fire tolerance,
season of growth, etc. VegSpec uses expert rules to compare combined
user input and system-generated derivatives with a plants database
containing approximately 1,500 species. Plants that meet all
criteria are listed for user review.
After users selects from list of suitable species, VegSpec helps
calculate seeding rate and evaluates mixture for potential
compatibility problems. Program then helps user design planting
operation. According to USACE, one version of VegSpec is complete
and undergoing testing. The majority of the functionality has been
migrated to the graphical user interface version, which should be
available during 1996. Complete geographical information system
capability should be available in 1997.
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590.
The Federal Highway Administration publishes Greener Roadsides.
This quarterly newsletter is for roadside decision makers. Articles
may
include articles on projects in which native plants are used, lists
of publications and upcoming conferences, and other relevant
information.
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