Restoration of Lands on the Gardiner Basin Winter Range

In collaboration with the Gallatin National Forest and Montana State University’s Center for Invasive Plant Management, in April 2005 we convened a group of 30 agency staff and invited restoration experts to develop restoration recommendations for select sites in the Gardiner basin winter range for pronghorn that were once tilled for agriculture and now support invasive alien species. The experts visited these sites and then developed recommended restoration prescriptions for each site. Based on these recommendations, staff from the Vegetation Section of the Yellowstone Center for Resources developed a pilot project to restore 46 acres in the Gardiner basin winter range for pronghorn to native vegetation dominated by big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass and bluebunch wheatgrass/Sanberg’s bluegrass types. These vegetation objectives were based on plant species present in a two-acre, remnant, fine-grained soils area in the Gardiner basin that was discovered and inventoried in June 2006. Restoration work began in fiscal year (FY) 2008, following compliance in FY 2007.  

Updated 7/16/10