Experimental field trips enrich students and the land

Native plants and seeds that would have been destroyed for the sake of new development are instead rescued, now sprouting in an area that once was a landfill. The desert near Goodsprings, Nevada, scorched by a lightning-caused fire in 2005, is showing signs of revegetation as native grasses and shrubs grow with the much-needed assistance of a slow-release irrigation system. These are examples of experimental field trips where students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert are reaping the rewards of restoration.

UNLV’s Public Lands Institute (PLI) works in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) to preserve and conserve various plant species of interests within federal lands in Southern Nevada. Research Assistant Professor Scott Abella oversees the Vegetation Monitoring and Data Management program and conducts a number of vegetation research projects at Lake Mead National Recreational Area and adjacent lands. He also teaches with the UNLV School of Life Sciences. This spring Abella saw an opportunity to integrate PLI activities with a Restoration Ecology course to present a unique experience for UNLV students.

“We conducted several extra credit field trips to do restoration work at Lake Mead and on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in conjunction with the Restoration Ecology course I taught this semester,” said Abella. “Although this is the first time any class like this has been offered at UNLV and it is an experimental course, the enrollment was high with 24 undergraduate and 12 graduate students.”

According to Abella, finding native plant materials, whether seed or seedlings, often is a limiting factor for restoration, particularly for deserts. Abella worked with the private developer of a grassy site in the southwestern Las Vegas Valley to salvage native plants before the site was developed. Students rescued more than 100 plants for restoration and seed production, transported the plants to the Lake Mead nursery facility, and processed them for future projects.

The first stop for the salvaged plants was an old landfill near Lake Mead, where students were involved in a research-oriented experiment to revegetate the site. They planted 216 native plants, including snakeweed and deer grass, to see if the plants can resist invasion of non-native plants, such as red brome and Sahara mustard. “The basic idea is to establish five different native community types, then introduce the exotics that are already present at the site and see which native communities best fend off invasion of the exotics,” explained Abella.

The next assignment took students to Goodsprings, an area severely damaged by fire in 2005, just south of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The focus of this experiment was to learn techniques for establishing native plants on arid lands by assessing the effectiveness of DriWater (slow-release irrigation) and shelters for seven native species on a burn area. Students planted 280 native species plants including wildflowers, deer grass, and California buckwheat. They also installed DriWater and shelters around randomly selected plants.

“The experimental field trips exceeded my expectations because they created a win-win-win situation for UNLV, federal agencies, and the private developer,” said Abella. “UNLV students had a unique opportunity for hands-on learning in the field which assisted PLI in facilitating its research and restoration projects. The federal agencies benefited with the restoration of public lands. And the private developer made a major contribution by allowing us to salvage native plants needed before even starting the projects on public land.”

Abella sees the experimental field trips as providing real solutions to real problems. “Ecological restoration is an increasingly emerging approach to reverse habitat loss and ecosystem decline, while enhancing the services that native ecosystems provide to society.”

Lake Mead Vegetation Manager Alice Newton demonstrates how to wrap plant roots with
moistened paper towels to prepare for transport and replanting.

This old landfill site will be restored with more than 200 different native shrubs, wildflowers, and grass.

Students plant native species and install DriWater and shelters to protect the plants.

This planting is part of the effort to assess the effectiveness of DriWater, a slow-release irrigation system.