Reclamation Of Disturbed Arid Lands Maximizing Effectiveness To Ensure Mission Sustainability

Much of US Department of Defense training and testing areas is on arid and semiarid land. Testing and training activities are often more devastating to arid lands than more mesic areas, and consequently, can threaten the continuation of military testing and training operations in these areas. Under current technology, it is estimated that up to 35% of revegetation projects in arid areas will fail. Current gaps exist in distinguishing among various degrees of sustainable and nonsustainable impacts from earth-disturbing activities in desert ecosystems. Research is also needed to determine how to optimize reclamation efforts to ensure sustainability on training lands. This project included the establishment of reclamation study plots representing three levels of disturbance ranging from moderate to very heavily disturbed sites. Several new and cost-effective techniques for revegetation of disturbed training lands are being examined at Fort Irwin--the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert of California. Major treatments include novel irrigation designs, amendments to enhance soil microbes and nutrient cycling, soil stabilization, decompaction of soils, and use of adapted species. These treatments at Fort Irwin are being examined at 13 locations that have different soil conditions. Results of the first year of these trails will be presented.