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Plant Solutions - 2007 Plant Materials
Centers Highlights (PDF; 111 KB)
HOOLEHUA PLANT MATERIALS CENTER
PMC News - Vol. 2, Issue 4, Fall 2007
On July 16-19, 2007, our Americorps volunteers were fortunate enough to visit
the island of Kahoolawe to see conservation work being implemented using plant
materials that they helped produce here at the Hoolehua Plant Materials Center
(PMC). Christy Molena and Misty Nakayama are both Molokai girls that are
volunteering for the summer. Kristen Coelho is also a Molokai girl, but she has
volunteered to work for an entire year. Her term will end in November. There are
many different practices being implemented to control erosion on the island. We
were able to see the piligrass bales at work and kawelu aalii, and aweoweo
seedlings growing where soil had accumulated. While on island, we helped to
install a new idea. Paul Higashino calls them “pu’e”. A pile of kiawe mulch
about ½ a 5-gallon bucket is laid on the bare, hard ground. A small indention,
about the size of a fist, is made in the center of the pile. Aalii seed is then
planted in the indention. Many of the pu’e, that had been previously planted,
were already showing signs of life. Aalii seedling have germinated and are
beginning to take hold. Can this be the answer? We hope to go back, in the
future, to see life where there was none before.
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MANHATTAN PLANT MATERIALS CENTER
Plants for the Heartland - Vol. 14, Issue 1, Winter 2007
American Indians Studies programs examined the cultural and scientific
aspects of switchgrass. As part of Haskell’s Native Grass Project, faculty and
students spent time analyzing switchgrass use across the U.S. and found the
Caddo people typically used it for building homes and shelters. Williams
indicated that students working on the Shelters constructed of willow poles and
native grasses were a way for the Caddo Indians of Louisiana’s Red River Valley
to escape the relentless heat of the summer sun.
A replica of one of these traditional structures stands at Haskell Indian
Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Students, faculty, and friends of the
university completed the arbor in early November, as an environmental project
funded by the U.S. Army. The Army is interested in using switchgrass for its
ability to heal damaged terrain and help limit soil erosion. “In the Army, we
are really interested in using switchgrass for erosion control in training
areas, and if you mix it with other grass species, you get a really good, solid
erosion control system,” said Bill Severinghaus, Technical Director of the U.S.
Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (USACERL) of Champaign,
Illinois. “It was hoped that if Army installations would restore their lands
using switchgrass, then tribes could come to the forts and harvest the
switchgrass for cultural uses,” said Lorene Williams, Haskell English Professor
and Principal Investigator on this project.
The student interns of the Native Grass Research Project at Haskell’s
Environmental Science and project had gained a new appreciation of their
heritage. Phil Cross, a member of the Caddo tribe, was the engineer and
construction boss for the project. Cross indicated that his tribal ancestors
would work very quickly to build an arbor shelter and put one up in a few hours.
However, it took the inexperienced group working part time about a week to
finish the project.
The grass bundles for the arbor came mainly from the nearby Baker-Haskell
Wetlands and were selected, cut, bundled and bound by Haskell students.
Manhattan Plant Materials Center staff members Alan Shadow, Soil
Conservationist, and Rich Wynia, PMC Manager, harvested some bundles of
switchgrass from the PMC and participated in the initial ring of grass being
attached to the framework of the shelter. Elementary Education major Tiffany
Wisdom was among the many students from the American Indian Studies Program who
helped cut and bundle the grass, watching and learning the construction process
from the beginning. Wisdom watched as Charles Allen, a Louisiana botanist and
author, and others pieced together the willow pole framework that would
eventually support the grass walls of the arbor shelter.
Allen indicated that switchgrass was valued by the Caddo Nation and other
tribes because of its resiliency in all seasons and weather conditions. Williams
stated, “Switchgrass is a very durable grass. It’s very strong and once the
grass is harvested and placed in overlapping rows on the structure it is water
proof.” Allen stated that switchgrass is a hardy species of grass that is common
throughout the Great Plains. It is one of the four grass species that define the
tallgrass prairie. The other species are big bluestem, little bluestem, and
Indian grass. The arbor shelter, which is about eight feet tall, is outside the
Eric Allen Greenhouse on the south side of the campus. A few dozen species of
tall warm-season grasses are also growing in and around the greenhouse behind
Tam-I-Nend Hall on the Haskell campus. The arbor will be used as a social
gathering place and for classroom purposes.
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GREAT BASIN PLANT MATERIALS CENTER
Great Basin Plant Materials Center Newsletter – January 2008
Equipment and Strategies to Enhance Post-wildfire Establishment and
Persistence of Great Basin Native Plants
Many native plant communities in the Great Basin have been altered by the
encroachment of annual weeds, particularly cheatgrass, and an accompanying
increase in fire frequency. The Great Basin PMC is part of a collaborative
project led by the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station
investigating revegetation technology to restore native plant communities
following fire. The stated objectives of the study include: 1) Examine seeding
techniques for Wyoming big sagebrush 2) Test seeding technology for native
species 3) Compare modified rangeland drill and experimental no-till drill 4)
Examine use of US Geological Survey proposed emergency stabilization and
rehabilitation monitoring protocols for gauging seeding success 5) Examine
livestock grazing effects on diversity in native plant seedings In the fall of
2007, study plots were established near Mountain Home, Idaho and Burns, Oregon.
Other collaborators include the USDI Bureau of Land Management, USGS Biological
Research Division, and NRCS Aberdeen Plant Materials Center.
Construction on a new shop, equipment cleaning pad, fueling station, chemical
storage building, and equipment storage shed is set to begin in the spring of
2008. An historic barn (shown below) is currently being used to store equipment.
In addition, a cultural resources inventory contract has been awarded to
document structures that will be impacted by building construction. A cultural
resources inventory is scheduled for completion in early February, after which
construction on the new buildings will begin.
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TUCSON PLANT MATERIALS CENTER
La Semilla Newsletter – Vol. 4, Issue 1 - January 2008
Out of the initial results of the Boer lovegrass study (story on page 2 of
newsletter), a second attempt was made during the summer of2007 to establish
natives into a site exposed to exotic lovegrasses— this time without the
disturbance of eNews/08-Mar/PlantSolutions-Jan-Mar08.pdf
BISMARCK PLANT MATERIALS CENTER
Plant Chat Newsletter – Vol. 7, Issue 4 – Fall 2007
Plant geneticist Michael Casler sampled the DNA from more than 75 naturally
occurring switchgrass plants collected throughout the Midwest and compared them
with samples from the cultivars Blackwell, Cave-in-Rock, Pathfinder, and
Shawnee. Casler is with the USDA-ARS at Madison, Wisconsin. No one had ever
before examined the genetic similarity between native switchgrass plants with
the more commonly planted cultivars. He found that plants from each individual
population were as variable as those from geographically distant populations,
and the remnant populations were very similar to the cultivars. The good news is
that so called “improved” switchgrass cultivars are, genetically speaking, very
similar to populations of plants being used for native restoration. Casler
stated, “Our findings show that switchgrass that’s grown for biofuel can also be
grown for conservation and other uses without fear of possible genetic
contamination. We need to pay attention to the origin of switchgrass seed
populations, but we’ve learned that seeds can be transferred widely within the
hardiness zone in which they originated.” Switchgrass is a popular conservation
plant that has seen increased interest in recent years as a renewable biofuel
resource. (This information was taken from an article written by Erin Peabody in
the September 2007 issue of Agricultural Research.)
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