An evaluation of early seral plant communities following tall fescue eradication and crop field abandonment

Declines in early successional plant and wildlife communities are widely documented throughout the eastern USA; hence, restoration efforts have increased in recent years. Conservation programs encourage establishment of these communities by providing financial and technical assistance to landowners. Planting native grasses and forbs is the common establishment approach, but improper planting and weed competition are common barriers to planting success. Using the seedbank to naturally revegetate a site could be a viable alternative to circumvent common problems associated with planting. We compared planting to seedbank response at 18 sites to evaluate early successional plant community establishment in fields previously dominated by tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus) and row-crop agriculture. We established planted (PL) treatment units following recommendations of Private Land Wildlife Biologists who worked with conservation programs administered by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Natural revegetation treatment units (NR) were established from the seedbank and included strategic herbicide applications to remove undesirable plant species. The NR and PL treatments produced plant communities that were similar in plant structure, plant species richness, diversity, and evenness, coverage of native and nonnative plants, coverage of northern bobwhite food plants, available selected white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; hereafter deer) forage (kg/ha), deer nutritional carrying capacity (NCC; deer days/ha), and coverage of native flowering forbs important to pollinators. There was less coverage of sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) in NR than in PL. Multivariate analyses of nest-site vegetation data for 6 bird species indicated all treatment units provided vegetative structure within the range of conditions found at nest sites of each species. Natural revegetation was 4.4 times less expensive than planting. Imazapic was the only herbicide that could be used in PL that would not harm planted species. Johnsongrass (Sorghum halapense) was the most problematic undesirable species imazapic would control. Considering costs, control options for undesirable species, impacts on habitat quality for various wildlife species, and species diversity, evenness, and richness, land managers should consider natural revegetation techniques as an effective alternative to planting NWSGs and forbs when establishing or restoring early successional plant communities.