Invasive weeds, droughts, fires, energy development and other disturbances are all impacting the quality of one our most important natural resources in the Northern Great Plains.... our grasslands. ARS scientists are looking at ways to address those impacts, including a recent project enabling scientists to study methods for restoring our grasslands over a large scale in order to determine which techniques are the most effective.
The latter is the subject of the second presentation in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) 2016 winter BrownBagger Series to be held on Friday, Jan. 29th at the Sidney research lab.
The presentation by ARS Rangeland Management Specialist Matt Rinella runs from noon to 1:00 p.m at the lab located at 1500 N. Central Avenue in Sidney, MT.
Rinella, who works at the Ft. Keogh ARS facility in Miles City, will be discussing a recent study he led looking at hundreds of restoration reports filed for 169 former coal mining fields subject to restoration efforts from 1992 to 2009. “There is a growing need to restore degraded Great Plains grasslands, but there is a lack of information on effective restoration strategies,” Rinella said of the study. “We used data from hundreds of coal mine seeding efforts to identify the most effective currently used strategies as well as identify new strategies that may prove more effective.”
The researchers looked not only at restoration techniques for grasses, but also shrubs. The latter are important species for wildlife, but also serve as valuable livestock forage in some ecosystems, according to Rinella.
Learn what he and his team found out! Bring your lunch and join us Friday, Jan. 29, for this very informative presentation. We’ll provide the dessert!
And consider joining us for these upcoming February BrownBaggers as well featuring:
A talk and demonstration of 3-D printing by Brian McGinnis with Exdivio Solutions, Inc. in Sidney (Feb. 12)
A discussion on sugarbeet and weeds by NDSU Asst. Professor and Extension Agronomist Tom Peters of Fargo. (Feb. 26)
For questions or more information on NPARL’s 2016 Brownbagger Series, contact Beth Redlin at 406-433-9427 or [email protected].
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