Figure 1. Adapted area for SERDP-select germplasms

SR02-2
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While our current emphasis is on improving the resilience of native species

present on training lands, the research program began by looking primarily at

introduced or naturalized species. Our first three releases are naturalized species;

in-progress program reviewers were concerned about the effects of introducing

these cultivars in native ecosystems. To address this concern, we invited a panel

of independent reviewers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The

Nature Conservancy, USDA-NRCS, and another USDA-ARS office to review

the materials we were developing at Yakima Training Center (Palazzo et al.

1999). This group met in May 1999 and evaluated a research site of mature

plants, examined several previously sown sites of naturalized grasses, and

reviewed our data. The naturalized species we are working with are limited

to bunch-type or moderately rhizomatous species that are already present on

military training lands, and the review panel found that the plants were not

encroaching into other plant communities and were not establishing mono-

cultures.

An interim product of our research is the recommended seed mixtures that

have been used at Fort Carson, Yakima Training Center, and Fort Drum, New

York. At Fort Drum we have planted mixed seedings of weeping lovegrass and

fescues with the desired native switchgrass. The weeping lovegrass establishes