A New Planting Palette for Sierra Meadows
March 30, 2020
Point Blue Conservation Science is excited to share a new climate-smart resource for Sierra meadow restoration: the Sierra Meadow Planting Palette Tool and Tool User Guide . The purpose of this tool is to help restoration practitioners plan for climate change by identifying plant species that have traits that will increase the likelihood that they will survive, recruit, and continue to provide additional co-benefits under projected future conditions.
Wet meadows are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate, including shifting hydrology, warming temperatures, and drier conditions. Climate change will further degrade meadows, requiring a climate-smart restoration approach to increase resilience of these sites while providing additional co-benefits.
The tool includes a list of 70 wet meadow plant species suitable for use in restoration projects in the North Fork Feather River watershed (though the majority are found throughout the Sierra). For each species, the tool summarizes traits that might confer resilience to the restoration site. These traits include:
- Species persistence
- Disturbance resilience
- Wildlife support
- Ecosystem processes
- Cultural ecosystem service
- Details on species distribution and habitat type(s)
The tool user guide details how you can use the tool to inform your planting design, and includes further details on the traits included and how species were selected.
Funding
We thank the Bella Vista Foundation for funding to support this product.
Contact
Ryan Burnett, rburnett@pointblue.org
Sierra Nevada Group Director
Point Blue Conservation Science