44 GRASSLAND RESTORATION

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1 Table of Contents 6 TABLES 6 FIGURES 8 LIMITATIONS 9 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 9 Background 10 Management Contexts 11 Rangeland Seeding Objectives 11 Potential Natural Community and. Plant Succession 12 The Three R s: Rehabilitation,. Reclamation, and Restoration 13 The Seeding Decision 14 How to use the manual 14 Chapter 1 Notes 15 CHAPTER 2. SITUATION ANALYSIS 16 Land Status 16 Legislation 20 Ecological 20 Social 20 Economic 22 Chapter 2 Notes 23 CHAPTER 3. MANAGEMENT CONTEXTS 24 FOREST LAND GRAZING AND. SILVOPASTURE 24 Active Forestry Areas 25 Seeding for Forestry Objectives 26 Seeding and Rodents 26 Seeding Legumes for Soil. Improvement 26 Livestock Grazing and Tree. Interactions 28 Seeding for Forage Objectives 28 Silvicultural Site Preparation 30 Increasing Forage Production Quantity. and Quality 30 Temporary Landings, Skid Trails, and. Burn piles 32 Silvopasture 34 PASTURE 35 Pasture Establishment 36 Pasture Rejuvenation 38 Intensively Managed Grazing 38 Fertilization 39 Over-seeding and Direct Seeding 40 Herbicide Control 41 Fire 41 Mechanical Disturbance 42 Winter Pasture Feeding 44 GRASSLAND RESTORATION 44 Historic Grassland Rehabilitation 45 Why Grassland Restoration? 46 Seeding and Restoration 47 Disturbances and Restoration 48 Past Rehabilitation Efforts: The Time. Horizon 49 Invasive Plants 49 Native Seed Sources 50 Restoration Gene Pool Concept 52 ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION 53 Forest Encroachment into Grasslands 53 Ecosystem Restoration Objectives 54 Ecosystem Restoration and Seeding 55 Disturbance Associated with. Restoration Treatments 58 POST - WILDFIRE REHABILITATION 58 Large Fires and Fire Statistics. Summary Wildfire Rehabilitation Objectives. and Seeding 59 Surface Erosion Control 60 Invasive Plant Suppression 62 Forage Enhancement 63 Forage Quantity and Quality 63 Animal Distribution 64 Fire Rehabilitation in Protected Areas. and Special Management Zones 66 SITE REHABILITATION 66 Site Rehabilitation Seeding. Objectives 66 The Importance of Site Rehabilitation. 67 Role of Seeding in Site Rehabilitation 68 Soil and Site Preparation 68 Temporary Sites and Access Structures 70 Pipeline, Transmission Line 70 Topsoil is the key 70 Permanent Sites and Access Structures 72 Resource Roads 74 Chapter 3 Notes British Columbia Rangeland Seeding Manual 3

2 79 CHAPTER 4. SITE AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS 80 Note on Species Selection, Adaptation,. and Timelines 80 Region or BEC Zone in Region 81 Precipitation Zone 81 Precipitation and Climate Change 81 Site Analysis 82 BEC Information Online 83 Assessment of Vegetation and. Potential Natural Community 83 Sources of information to assist with. Vegetation Assessments 85 Invasive Plant Assessment 85 BC Invasive Plant Information online 86 Soil Assessment Keys and Information 86 Soil Test or Assessment 86 Terrain Assessment - Slope, Erosion Hazards, Microsite, Riparian Area. Identification 87 Seedbed or Disturbance Assessment 92 Scale Analysis 92 Treatment Areas 93 Treatment Area Shape 93 Objective Analysis 94 Forage Enhancement 94 Invasive Plant Suppression 96 Erosion Control 96 Soil Improvement 96 Extending the Grazing Season 96 Native Plant Community 97 Hard Fescue Persistence 98 Vegetation Control 98 Sociocultural and/or Aesthetic 99 Chapter 4 Notes 101 CHAPTER 5. REGIONAL SPECIES FILTERS 102 Bulkley Nechako 104 Cariboo Fraser-Fort George 106 Kootenay 108 Northeast Peace-Liard 110 Thompson Okanagan 117 CHAPTER 6. SEEDLING AND STAND. ESTABLISHMENT 119 Seed-to-Soil Contact 120 Seeding Methods 122 Broadcast Seeding Methods 123 Drilled or Direct Seeding Methods 124 Specialized Seeding Methods 124 Timing of Seeding 125 Seed Depth 127 Mixtures and Calculations 128 Inoculants for Legumes 129 Seeding Rates and Calibration 129 Pure Live Seed and Desired Plant Density 130 Seed Weights 131 Calibration 133 Pre-germination Issues 134 Seedling Establishment 134 Stand Establishment 134 Weed Control 135 Soil Fertility 136 Grazing 137 Mechanical Treatments 138 Chapter 6 Notes 140 CHAPTER 7. SOURCING SEED 140 Purchasing Seed 140 When sourcing and buying seed 141 Canadian Seed Grades, Standards,. and Seed Tags 141 Pedigreed Seed 142 Examples of Pedigreed Seed Classes 142 Common Seed 145 Important Information 145 Seed Analysis Certificate for. Mechanical Purity and Germination 147 Native species and the Canada Seeds. Act, Seeds Regulation 148 U.S. Standards 148 Native Seed and Native Seed Production 150 Cultivars, Ecovars, and Wild Collections 150 Seed Producing Areas and the U.S.. Pacific Northwest 152 Seed Producing Areas in Canada 153 Western Canada Forage Seed. Collaboration 153 Peace River Region of British. Columbia and Alberta 155 Saskatchewan 156 Manitoba 156 Willamette Valley, Oregon 156 Other Areas in the U.S. Pacific. Northwest 157 Seed Companies in Western Canada 158 Forage Seed Associations 159 Chapter 7 Notes 160 CHAPTER 8. SPECIES SUMMARIES 162 AGRONOMIC GRASSES 162 Canada Bluegrass 164 Kentucky Bluegrass 166 Hybrid Bromegrass 168 Meadow Bromegrass 170 Smooth Bromegrass 172 Chewings Red Fescue 174 Creeping Red Fescue 4 British Columbia Rangeland Seeding Manual

3 176 Hard Fescue/ Sheep Fescue 178 Tall Fescue 180 Orchardgrass 182 Italian Ryegrass 184 Perennial Ryegrass 186 Redtop 188 Timothy 190 Crested Wheatgrass 192 Intermediate/ Pubescent Wheatgrass 194 Tall Wheatgrass 196 Dahurian Wildrye 198 Russian Wildrye 200 AGRONOMIC LEGUMES 200 Alfalfa 202 Birdsfoot Trefoil 204 Alsike Clover 206 Red Clover 208 White Clover 210 Sainfoin 212 Cicer Milkvetch 214 Common Vetch 216 Hairy Vetch 218 NATIVE GRASSES 218 Fringed Brome 220 Big Bluegrass 222 Fowl Bluegrass 224 Reed Canarygrass 226 Bluejoint Reedgrass 228 Pinegrass 230 Junegrass 232 Rocky Mountain/ Alpine Fescue 234 Idaho Fescue 236 Rough Fescue 238 Tufted Hairgrass 240 Bluebunch Wheatgrass 244 Slender Wheatgrass 246 Western Wheatgrass 248 Blue Wildrye 250 Canada Wildrye 252 Fuzzy-spiked Wildrye (Hairy Wildrye) 254 NATIVE LEGUMES 254 Creamy Peavine 256 American Vetch 258 APPENDICES 258 A. Economic Analysis 266 B. Soil Erosion Assessment Key Climatic. Precipitation Factors 269 C. Seeding Rate Calculations 272 GLOSSARY 279 INDEX British Columbia Rangeland Seeding Manual 5

4 Tables 25 Table 3.1. Area seeded to forage species in B.C.. forests, Table 4.1. Predominant within British Columbia s interior range area and their geo-climatic ranges 84 Table 4.2 Pasture assessment tool 89 Table 4.3 Erosion hazard assessment tool 91 Table 4.4 Burn severity assessment tool 111 Table 5.1. Species summary ratings (species filters) 121 Table 6.1 Description of common seeding methods by appropriate project. scale, resources required, advantages,. limitations and concerns, and typical. management context 121 Table 6.2 Inoculants for some common. agronomic legumes 131 Table 6.3 Difference in seed mix compositions. when expressed as % by weight. versus % by seed count 143 Table 7.1 Canada Seeds Regulations, Grade Table (VIII) applicable to alfalfa, red clover, sweet clover, and cicer. milkvetch 152 Table 7.2 Canadian acres in grass and legume. seed crops 152 Table 7.3 Canadian export values for grass. and legume seed crops 261 Table A.1 Summary of pasture seeding options for cost benefit analysis example 262 Table A.2 Costs and benefits associated with. pasture seeding options s 262 Table A.3 Summary of present value costs, annual net revenues, present value. of benefits over 15 years, and NPV for pasture development options 266 Table B.1 Cariboo forest region: 266 Table B.2 Kamloops forest region:. 267 Table B.3 Nelson forest region: 267 Table B.4 Prince George forest region:. 270 Table C.1 Suggested seedling density for. forage seeding (plants/m 2 ) 270 Table C.2 Typical estimates of seedling. establishment (% seedlings per pure. live seed after one season) 6 British Columbia Rangeland Seeding Manual

5 Figures 10 Figure 1.1 Active Crown range tenures and. interior regions of British Columbia 12 Figure 1.2 Rehabilitation, reclamation, and restoration goals in relation to. ecosystem structure and function 13 Figure 1.3 Four level rangeland seeding. flow chart 15 Figure 2.1 Situation analysis flow chart 23 Figure 3.1 Management contest descriptions. and index 28 Figure 3.2 Management continuum in forest land grazing and silvopasture systems and potential opportunity for seeing applications 33 Figure 3.3 Forest land grazing and silvopasture. 43 Figure 3.4 Pasture seeding 51 Figure 3.5 Grassland restoration seeding. 57 Figure 3.6 Ecosystem restoration seeding. 65 Figure 3.7 Post-wildfire rehabilitation seeding. 73 Figure 3.8 Site rehabilitation seeding 79 Figure 4.1 Site and objective analysis process. flow chart 95 Figure 4.2 Invasive plant risk evaluation tool 101 Figure 5.1 Interior regions of British Columbia 102 Figure 5.2(a) Bulkley - Nechako Biogeoclimatic. Zones 103 Figure 5.2(b) Bulkley - Nechako total annual. 104 Figure 5.3(a) Cariboo - Fraser-Fort George. 105 Figure 5.3(b) Cariboo - Fraser-Fort George total annual precipitation ( average) 106 Figure 5.4(a) Kootenay 107 Figure 5.4(b) Kootenay total annual precipitation. ( average) 108 Figure 5.5(a) Northeast - Peace-Liard. 109 Figure 5.5(b) Northeast- Peace-Liard total annual. 110 Figure 5.6(a) Thompson - Okanagan. 111 Figure 5.6(b) Thompson - Okanagan total annual. 118 Figure 6.1 Factors affecting seedling and stand. establishment 144 Figure 7.1(a) Example of a pedigreed seed tag 144 Figure 7.1(b) Example of a ground cover mixture tag 147 Figure 7.2 Example of a seed analysis certificate 151 Figure 7.3 Ecoregions and major forage seed. producing areas in Western Canada. and the U.S. Pacific Northwest British Columbia Rangeland Seeding Manual 7