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Rangeland improvement > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Why are range improvements needed?

A
  • to improve range forage resources and facilitate use by grazing animals
  • improve watershed conditions
  • reclaim or restore damaged land
  • enhance wildlife habitat
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2
Q

Give two examples of structural and nonstructural vegetation improvements

A
  • Non-structural: seedings or prescribed burns

* Structural: fences or facilities such as wells or water pipelines

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3
Q
  1. How are range improvements typically funded on federal land?
A
  • half of the grazing fees paid by operators or $10 million each year, whichever is greater, will be provided to BLM to fund range improvements
  • Federal grazing fee for 2021 is $1.35 per AUM
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4
Q

What is CRIA and what does it do?

A
  • Cooperative Range Improvement Agreement
  • Outlines the provisions for constructing, using, and maintaining a permanent structural improvement on public land
  • RIP (range improvement permit): same but for removable range improvement
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5
Q
  1. What is EQIP and what does it do?
A
  • Environmental Quality Incentives Program
  • Working lands program that allows private land to remain in production
  • supports natural resources to improve and maintain wildlife habitat
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6
Q
  1. What is CRP and what does it do?
A
  • Conservation Reserve Program
  • Puts private land in retirement. Basically, the Federal government is renting the land from the private landowner for 10-15 yrs
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7
Q
  1. List pros and cons to farmers and ranchers through the CRP program.
A
  • Pros: rests and restores land, the landowners get paid to not farm
  • Cons: drives up the cost of farmland for upcoming farmers, shrinks rural farm communities by taking away jobs
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8
Q

What is CSP and what does it do?

A

Conservation Stewardship Program

Rewards ranchers with good sustainability techniques / management

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9
Q

Name five professional areas that use range improvement principles

A

BLM, NRCS, DNR, Environmental consultant, Seed producer

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10
Q
  1. What is ecological succession and how can understanding succession help us manage and or improve rangelands?
A
  • Succession is the directional change in a plant community that occurs over time relative to disturbance. It can help us to understand what the plant community should be, and recognize indicators that the successional change may be moving in the wrong direction
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11
Q
  1. How does the amounts and ratio of bacteria to fungi change with succession?
A
  • Older successional stages will be more fungi dominated, early successional stages will be bacteria dominated.
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12
Q

Define restoration vs rehabilitation vs reclamation

A

Restoration - action of recovering an ecosystem with a goal of returning to what was originally there (natives)
Rehabilitation - recover ecosystem with a focus on halting further degradation (introduced species)
Reclamation - returning function and cover to drastically disturbed lands (mines)

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13
Q
  1. Define active and passive restoration and give an example for each.
A

active - direct modifications of plant communities

passive - change in management, which in turn changes plant communities

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14
Q

Define resilience vs resistance

A

resilience - the capacity of an ecosystem to bounce back. Function of precip. and temp
resistance - ability of community to resist change

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15
Q

define mesic, frigid, cryic

A

mesic - warm
frigid - cool
cryic - cold

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16
Q

define aridic, xeric, ustic, udic

A

aridic - <12 in. precip (dry)
xeric - wet winters
ustic - wet summers
udic - always moist (high elevation)

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17
Q
  1. Under what soil temperature and moisture regimes does cheatgrass do best?
A

mesic, xeric (warm, wet winters)

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18
Q

provide two reasons why cheatgrass is limited at higher elevations

A

It’s too cold, and there’s too much competition

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19
Q

Describe four ways ecological site descriptions can help guide you in managing, improving or restoring rangelands?

A
  1. Help understand the ecological processes in need of repair (hydrology, nutrient cycling, and energy capture
  2. Consistent standards for inventory, assessment and monitoring
  3. Help prioritize areas where restoration is most likely to succeed
  4. Potential return on investment (i.e. forage production);
  5. Tools to facilitate ideas for species to plant
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20
Q
  1. What are the minimum bunchgrass densities you should have at xeric and aridic sites?
A

a. two plants /10ft^2 for aridic

b. three plants / 10ft^2 for xeric

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21
Q
  1. Name six ways to identify if a juniper tree was established post-settlement or pre-settlement. In other words, how can you tell if the tree is old growth or not?
A

a. A pre-settlement juniper will have flattened, rounded or uneven tops. Post-settlement will be conical with a pointed tip
b. Pre-settlement will have few, gnarly, large branches. Post-settlement will have lots of small branches
c. Pre-settlement juniper will have dead wood, bark missing, black stain / black lichens
d. Pre-settlement bark will be thick and fibrous, with well-developed vertical furrows. Post-settlement will have thinner bark with few or shallow furrows
e. Pre-settlement trees will have leader growth of less than 1 inch. Post-settlement trees, > 2 in.
f. Pre-settlement often covered in bright green canopy lichens
g. Pre-settlement: large diameter logs and stumps scattered across the site and often charred

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22
Q
  1. Name four land uses or disturbances that impact restoration areas.
A

a. Wildfire
b. roads, trails, etc
c. Past cultivation
d. Livestock use

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23
Q
  1. With respect to phases of juniper or pinyon encroachment (phase I, II, III) what is the tree canopy percentage of maximum potential cover?
A

a. phase I - <1/3
b. phase II - 1/3 – 2/3
c. phase III - >2/3

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24
Q
  1. From your reading of Pyke et al. 2017 pg 45-47, list five steps for restoring damaged landscapes, and explain the importance for adaptive learning.
A

a. set objectives
b. monitor effectiveness
c. analyze monitoring
d. maintain or change management
e. implement one or more alternatives
Adaptive management allows one to change a course of action or treatment in light of an unexpected treatment response that will not lead to the desired outcome

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25
Q

What is a restoration goal?

A

a formal statement detailing a desired impact of a project

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26
Q

What is a restoration objective?

A

Measurable steps that help you to reach that goal

27
Q

What is included in a restoration goal/objective?

A 
species / group
location
attribute (cover, density, biomass, etc)
action (increase/decrease)
quantity or status (by how much?)
time frame
28
Q
  1. Name two benefits and two disadvantages each for the use of a rangeland drill and a no-till drill
A

a. Rangeland drill
i. benefits: gets a deeper furrow allowing you to reach moist microsites, lighter than the no-till drill so can pull multiple at once
ii. disadvantages: may bury seed to deeply for small-seeded species, greater disturbance may promote weed invasion
b. no-till drill
i. benefits: can plant different species at different depths, may prevent weed invasion through minimum disturbance
ii. disadvantages: you may have lower overall establishment bc you may not be able to reach the moist microsite, Truax is very heavy

29
Q
  1. What conditions would you choose to broadcast? In what conditions would you choose to use a seed drill?
A

a. when you have a lot of tree skeletons or have other terrain that are impossible to drive a tractor across, you should broadcast
b. when you have very large areas to seed, you should broadcast
c. you should drill in arid areas where you need greater seed-soil contact to get the seeds to grow

30
Q
  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Lawson Aerator for brush management? (Tilley et al. 2015)
A

a. Advantages
i. • Less ground disturbance or soil erosion than other methods
ii. • Aesthetically pleasing (does not look disturbed one year post-treatment)
iii. • Effective with trees and shrubs with stems <6 inches in diameter
iv. • Creates catchments for water infiltration
v. • Increases herbaceous cover and available forage
vi. • Creates good seeding conditions for perennial grasses (when competition is minimal)
vii. • Can stimulate new growth of certain shrub species
b. Disadvantages
i. • Less effective on rocky ground
ii. • Retreatment required periodically to maintain desired shrub densities
iii. • Not effective to introduce forbs via seeding

31
Q
  1. What results were seen at various sites overseen by the Utah DNR through usage of the Lawson Aerator? Would you say that that use of the Lawson Aerator was productive or counterproductive in this case? (Tilley et al. 2015, page 7)
A

a. Utah – decreased shrub cover, but increased perennial and annual grass cover. Productive.
b. Idaho – decreased shrub cover, increased perennial herbaceous cover. Seeded forbs did not take. Somewhat productive

32
Q
  1. What should you do if you cannot purchase seed of a species that belongs to your area?
A
  • you can substitute for species that meet have the same function
33
Q
  1. Provided at least 4 general rules of thumb when developing a seed mixture.
A
  • look up the reference state for the site being seeded
  • whenever possible, sagebrush seed should originate from the same MLRA as the intended planting site
  • choose 6 to 10 species including grasses, forbs and shrubs
  • build resiliency into your seed mix by planting at least two species with the same functions
34
Q
  1. A pure stand seeding rate typically delivers how many seed per row foot (provide an answer for large and small seeded species)?
A
  • 24 (large seeded species)

- 48 (small seeded species)

35
Q
  1. List the pros and cons associated with using native vs introduced species for restoring rangelands in the Intermountain West?
A

a. Native species are well-adapted to the area, but may be difficult to establish and the seed may not be available in the needed quantity
b. introduced species tend to be easier to establish and be more grazing tolerant (in the West) and commercially available but may be harmful to the rest of the environment by altering habitat conditions

36
Q
  1. What is the difference between using locally sourced seed and using cultivars and what are some challenges to each approach?
A

a. Cultivars have been developed or bred to behave uniformly and predictably when grown in a given environment.
b. Using locally sourced seed is using seed that has been collected from naturally occurring plants near the seeding site

37
Q
  1. Why may it be important to plant locally sourced seed? (Use the terms genetic drift and natural selection in your discussion.)
A

a. because of natural selection by environmental conditions present, the locally sourced seed will be better suited to local conditions than other seed sources. Introducing seed from other sources may cause non-beneficial genetic drift by introducing deleterious genes into the gene pool

38
Q

How big are mega fires?

A

> 10,000 acres

39
Q
  1. How does smoke from a prescribed fire compare to a wildfire? How is each regulated by national air quality regulations?
A

There’s a lot more smoke from a wildfire.
prescribed burn - avoidable nuisance
wildfire - not regulated

40
Q
  1. Name three management practices Paul Hessburg suggests we should do to prevent mega fires in our forests.
A

a. prescribed fires
b. mechanical thinning treatments
c. Managing / herding natural wildfires

41
Q
  1. List the benefits that can be achieved through conducting prescribed fires.
A

a. more predictable, and at a smaller scale typically than wildfires
b. restore diversity to an area
c. can help an area reach its productivity potential (increase forage production)
d. improve wildlife habitat by promoting wildlife forage species
e. reduce fuel loads
f. improve livestock distribution
g. cost effective

42
Q

List disadvantages to conducting a prescribed fire

A

a. requires intensive planning
b. Liability concerns
c. requires qualified applicators
d. impaired air quality and reduced aesthetics over the short term
e. imprecise and variable treatment (may burn hotter or cooler than planned)
f. need for adequate fire weather conditions, narrow time period for application
g. can favor invasion of non-natives

43
Q

Draw the fire triangle and the environmental fire triangle

A

fire triangle - oxygen, heat, fuel

environmental - weather, topography, fuel

44
Q
  1. What weather parameters are most important in determining when to conduct prescribed burns? Why?
A

relative humidity - affects fuel moisture
air temperature - heats or cools objects to be burned
wind - determines amount of oxygen available to fire
frontal boundaries - they make unpredictable wind conditions

45
Q
  1. To decrease the occurrence of spot fires prescribed fires should be conducted at what temperatures, humidity levels, and wind speeds?
A

relative humidity > 40%
wind speed <20 mph
air temp <60F

46
Q
  1. For every 20 F (11.1 C) increase in temperature, relative humidity is reduced by ___
A

half

47
Q
  1. List at least eight factors that affects temperature when considering a prescribed fire?
A
  1. season of year
  2. cloud cover
  3. topography
  4. aspect
  5. elevation
  6. air mass
  7. shading
  8. vegetation
48
Q
  1. List at least six factors that affects wind speed when considering a prescribed fire
A
  1. topography and water
  2. diurnal variation
  3. vegetation
  4. eddies
  5. frontal boundary
  6. slope effect
49
Q
  1. List and describe six factors that affects fire behavior when considering fuels?
A
  1. loading - tons of fuel per hectare
  2. size and shape of fuel - light (grass) medium (shrub) or heavy (tree)
  3. continuity - how connected fuels are
  4. vertical arrangement - fuels complex
  5. Volatile substances - chemicals/minerals that affect combustion
  6. fuel moisture - percent moisture of fuel
50
Q
  1. What are 1-hr, 10-hr, 100-hr, and 1000-hr fuels?
A

a. 1-hr – ¼ in. in dia., e.g. pine needles
b. 10-hr – ¼-1 in. diameter e.g. small branches
c. 100-hr – 1-3 in. diameter (tree limbs)
d. 1000-hr – 3-8 in. diameter (logs)

51
Q
  1. Define fuel continuity and give an example of how horizontal and vertical continuity influence fire behavior?
A

a. Fuels with high horizontal continuity will have a high rate of spread
b. Fuels with high vertical continuity will have the ability to ladder from one fuel to another, resulting in crown fires

52
Q

What is a fuels complex and describe how it is typically divided?

A

Fuels complex – the amount and arrangement of all the fuel in an area or ecosystem

a. Ground fuels – all combustible materials underneath the surface litter layer such as duff, roots and rotten logs
b. surface fuels – includes the litter, downed logs, shrubs, grasses, and forbs
c. canopy fuels – includes overstory trees and large shrubs

53
Q

know percent moisture content for fresh, maturing, mature, entering dormancy and completely cured/dead foliage

A 
300
200
100
50
<30
54
Q

What is a plant functional group? Name four types of functional groups in the sagebrush steppe

A

grasses, annual forbs, perennial forbs, shrubs.

Groups of species of plants that have similar morphological traits and ecological function

55
Q

After a disturbance, how does nutrient availability and plant composition change overtime?

A

nutrients (nitrates) become more available. Annuals come up first, then the perennials.
Plant diversity is initally low, then high, then gets lower as time goes on

56
Q

In the absence of fire, why might sagebrush persist longer on a site in comparison to perennial grasses?

A

because it have a very deep taproot which enables it to withstand drought conditions

57
Q

describe how disturbance such as overgrazing or fire allows for the invasion of cheatgrass and other invasive weeds?

A

It opens up space and nutrient resources, which invasives take advantage of before natives can

58
Q

when controlling invasive weedy species, why is it often not effective to just control the weed?

A

Because often you need to address the source of the problem through changes in management

59
Q

How has cheatgrass changed sagebrush succession with respect to fire regimes?

A

Cheatgrass causes more frequent, larger fires, disturbing sagebrush more often

60
Q
  1. What is a firebreak and give eight different examples.
A

a. firebreaks contain the fire within the boundary of the burn unit. Should be at least 2x the flame length
i. mowed line
ii. hiking/cattle trails
iii. hand line
iv. natural line (rock or water)
v. disked line
vi. road line
vii. dozed line
viii. black lines

61
Q
  1. Name five ignition sources used for conducting prescribed fire and describe (or illustrate) how they are applied.
A

a. road flare / fusee
b. matches
c. propane torch
d. drip torch – filled with 50% gas, 50% diesel. Pours out over lit gas/diesel soaked filter
e. gel fired system – High intensity. Can spray fire across the landscape
f. heli-torch – used with gel-fired system
g. exploding flares – bomb
h. DAID (delayed aerial ignition device) – ping pong ball

62
Q
  1. What is a “test fire” and how is it useful?
A

a. a small fire that you light before doing a large burn, to make sure it behaves as expected

63
Q
  1. Map out and describe how to implement nine different ignition methods. In your answer, include for each method a description of why this technique would be used.
A

a. backing fire – moves against the prevailing winds. Slow burning, often used for black lines, or for consuming heavy fuels
b. head fire – moves with prevailing winds. Most intense, most difficult to control. Used when long flame lengths are desired to remove trees
c. strip-head fire – Moves with prevailing winds, but burns in small chunks. Most often used technique
d. spot fire – a series of small ignitions that burn together. Used like a strip-head fire, but slower moving than strip-head fire
e. flank fire – moves perpendicular to wind direction. Used primarily for securing flanks of back or head fires. Used to speed up backing fire
f. ring fire – fire the entire edge of a ring. Quick and easy, often used for agriculture, may trap wildlife
g. center firing technique – a ring fire with a fire in the center. Convection moves smoke up into the air. Used to clear logging debris
h. Chevron – V-shaped burn pattern used to burn to of ridgeline, maintain good control

Rangeland improvement (3 decks)

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