Choosing Native Species for Restoring Crested Wheatgrass Fields on the Great Plains of Northeast Montana

Abstract

Large areas of the Northern Great Plains of North America were intentionally planted with the non-native crested wheatgrass 80–90 y ago. Land managers hope to restore these near-monoculture fields to more diverse native grassland. Our goal was to help guide selection of native species for restoration. We sampled vegetation at each of 24 fields planted with crested wheatgrass in the 1930's in northeast Montana across a range of soil textures. We documented composition at the edge of each crested field and in adjacent native vegetation, allowing us to rank native species as to their ability to persist with crested wheatgrass and determine how soil texture influences their ability to coexist with crested wheatgrass. We identified 29 native species that commonly re-established in crested wheatgrass fields. Sagebrush and several grasses occurred with similar abundance across all soils. Six forb species occurred preferentially on either heavy or light soils. Our results can be used to design seed mixes that will provide native species capable of coexisting with crested wheatgrass in eastern Montana. Application of our methods may be useful in other areas of the Great Plains.