National Park Service

Description

Tuolumne Meadows located in Yosemite National park is a degraded sub-alpine meadow and riparian system that is further threatened by a warming climate. While the causes of degradation remain unclear, ample evidence suggests that willow recruitment along riverbanks is low leading to declining willow cover and excessive bank erosion and channel widening. In addition, extremely heavy livestock grazing in the late 19th century degraded plant communities so severely that many communities lack perennial plants such as sedges and rushes that produce and maintain organic rich soils and large areas of bare soil occur. Moreover, conifer encroachment in drier areas, along headcuts, and areas of bare soil threatens to change the open meadow system into a forested landscape. In this degraded state, the meadows may be substantially more vulnerable to the effects of climate warming. This project will explore restoration different scenarios at Tuolumne Meadows that will apply to meadow systems throughout the Sierra Nevada. Research that has been underway in Tuolumne Meadows in recent years has demonstrated that soil thickness, soil moisture retention characteristics, and soil forming processes play a critical role in determining meadow vegetation’s vulnerability to hydrologic change and it’s amenability to restoration. However, before a restoration strategy can be implemented, a process based understanding of the interactions between vegetation condition and soil maintenance and formation must be developed and better characterized in the system so processes that inhibit and encourage meadow recovery can be identified.

Who can apply

• Others

Contact

Tonya Bradley <br/>Contract Specialist <br/>Phone 402-661-1656
tonya_bradley@nps.gov