Twenty-Third Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, April 3-5, 1998
Abstracts

Need for widespread road revegetation on disturbed desert habitat is pushing restorationists to improve effective lower-cost techniques. Over the last two years Round River has been further exploring the effectiveness of vertical mulching, pitting, and imprinting. In spring 1997, on the Copper Mountain Mesa Project we relied mostly on the local plants for seed recruitment. Vertical mulching and imprinting were utilized to create microsites that catch and hold blowing seed, therefore encouraging germination and plant establishment. Early results on this project suggest that vertical mulch, imprints, and pits serve to discourage vehicle use, trap seed, increase water infiltration and retention, and improve conditions for native revegetation. During the Shadow Mountains Project in winter 1996, roads on the Fremont-Kramer Critical Habitat Unit were ripped with a bulldozer. Road ends were pitted, camouflaged, and blocked by vertical mulching using Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), cholla cactus (Opuntia spp.), white bursage (Ambrosia dumosa), creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), big galleta grass (Hilaria rigida), and other native species. Early monitoring in Fall 1997 showed areas vertical mulched and pitted to be discouraging vehicles and encouraging revegetation. Native perennial species such as Larrea, Ambrosia, and indigo bush (Psorothamnus fremontii) are slowly establishing. Non-native and wide-spread filaree (Erodium cicutarium) and fiddleneck (Amsinckia intermedia) also are coming in, but do not seem to be significantly impeding native growth. Vertical mulching, pitting, and imprinting continue to show promise as effective, lower-cost habitat rehabilitation alternatives to costly live-planting and often ineffective direct seeding.