Implementation and Commercialization of New Plant Germplasms for Use on Military Ranges
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) must constantly balance its military mission and its commitment to stewardship on millions of acres of ranges and training lands. The military mission requires that vegetation, primarily grasses, be as resilient to military training activities as possible to maintain realism and control soil erosion. The military faces increasingly difficult land management challenges as weapons technology improves and training and testing needs change. Complicating this challenge is the impact of continuing development, especially urbanization, outside the boundaries of military installations. The military is also faced with the need to promote indigenous species and control undesirable and invasive species of its lands. Before our efforts, there was little or no research on the genetics or wear-resiliency of low-maintenance rangeland plants. The prevalent method for controlling invasive plants on military lands was the use of herbicide applications, but these were reduced beginning in 2001. Research on pest or animal control of invasive plants is currently active in many public weed-control programs, but there is limited knowledge of the interrelationships of invasive and desirable plant species. To compete with the annual invasive or noxious weeds, sown species should germinate readily and have rapid growth rates soon after germination. Our goals were both to develop plants more resilient to military training activities and to get native plants to establish more rapidly to return the land more quickly to military use. Through our Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) Project Sustainable Infrastructure (SI)-1103, we bred native and introduced grass and forb germplasms with improved establishment and seedling vigor (Palazzo et al., 2003).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA607007
Entities
People
- Antonio J. Palazzo
Organizations
- Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory