Soil Ecology Restoration Group

last update April 9, 1998

FORT IRWIN - RESEARCH OVERVIEW

The National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California is the U.S. Army's center for desert training operations. This training includes large scale maneuvers with both wheeled and tracked vehicles across many square miles of mainly creosote scrub habitat that forms the major community of the Mojave Desert. Years of training operations have impacted much of the desert habitat within the confines of the fort through vegetation removal, soil compaction/destruction and heavy construction activities. A secondary health hazard has resulted from this habitat destruction through an increase in airborne dust, especially PM 10 size particles. SERG is working with Fort Irwin to both restore impacted areas of the desert and reduce the amount of airborne dust and PM 10 particulate matter.

The initial project completed was the establishment of a mesquite moundcommunityon a highly disturbed section of land in the eastern training region ofthe TrainingCenter. The aim was to demonstrate effective restoration procedures for anarea thathad experienced heavy soil compaction and a loss of vegetation throughbothwheeled and tracked vehicle impacts and to establish a more realisticenvironmentfor training operations. In addition to this demonstration site, numerousotherrestoration projects are being accomplished by SERG personnel on abasewidescope.

Several windbreak projects, using native species grown from locally collected seed, have been conducted to provide a cost efficient and environmentally friendly method of reducing the amount of airborne dust and PM 10 particulate matter caused by track vehicle operations being conducted near the main cantonment. Several site preparation methods and irrigation procedures have been tested to provide information on the most efficient methods that can be used on a larger, basewide scale. A GIS based post-wide impact evaluation and assessment aimed at categorizing the various disturbed areas and types of impacts found throughout the Base has been accomplished. The data and information provided by this study is now being used as the basis for a long term restoration and maintenance program being implemented by the National Training Center's environmental division. Using this baseline data as a starting point, SERG is now conducted several large-scale restoration projects throughout the Base to test various site preparation methods, planting procedures and irrigation protocols to be used for damaged areas that are up to 40-50 acres in size. These projects include large scale ripping and/or pitting, broadcast seeding trials, various planting procedures (island plantings, mound plantings), numerous irrigation methods and large-scale natural erosion control methods. These projects are aimed at providing both immediate, on the ground restoration results and the data and information that can be used to develop the most cost efficient restoration methods for future projects, not only at the National Training Center, but for other impacted areas throughout the Mojave Desert ecosystem.