Shrub Steppe Restoration
The vast Sagebrush Sea is one of the largest ecosystems in North America, once stretching over 500,000 square miles from the Wasatch Mountains in Utah to the Cascade Range in Oregon. It supports over 350 at-risk species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
Nearly 50% of our shrub steppe habitats have already been lost to land use changes, overgrazing, and the spread of invasive species. Some of these non-native plants, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Russian thistle (Salsola tragus), can drastically alter the natural fire regimes and make wildfires hotter and more frequent. At Ecostudies we are working to restore this vast and important ecosystem by:
- Removing invasive species that alter natural ecosystem functions
- Planting sagebrush plugs to restore a shrub layer
- Reintroducing native flowering plants
Restoring for Wildlife
Western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) need large, open areas for foraging and bare ground for nesting. We are working to remove invasive species that fill in bare ground and obstruct their line of sight, using mowing and herbicide applications to create desirable bare ground.
Washington ground squirrels (Urocitellus washingtoni) are endangered in Oregon. They live in burrows on the shrub steppe, using sagebrush for cover and eating grasses, forbs and seeds. We are planting Great Basin big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and seeding native forbs to improve habitat quality for the species.
Project Spotlight
NWSTF Boardman
Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility (NWSTF) Boardman extends 47,400 acres across a mosaic of grassland and shub-steppe landscapes. Together with the adjacent Boardman Conservation Area, it represents one of the few remaining parcels of native grassland and shrub steppe habitats remaining in the Columbia Plateau ecoregion of north central Oregon.
We focus our invasive control efforts on cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and a variety of nonnative invasive broadleaf weeds including Russian thistle (Salsola kali), diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa), rush skeletonweed (Chondrilla juncea), and yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis).
We control these aggressive invaders with tools including large-scale mowing and herbicide application, which prepare sites for seeding and planting native species such as Great Basin Big Sage (Artemisia tridentata) and hardy native forbs including yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and flax (Linum lewisii). These actions work to establish and supplement native plant communities that have declined due to disturbances such as wildfire and the proliferation of invasive annual grasses.
