Nebraskaland

38 Nebraskaland • October 2021 blowing sand either uprooted or buried them. The partners have learned that in extremely active blowouts, the better approach to establishing the blowout penstemon is to scatter abundant seed and let nature decide when and where seedlings sprout and take hold. Although fewer penstemon plants than expected have established in the Hunt Pasture, Greg Wright, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service with extensive experience restoring the penstemon, remains optimistic. "I think we are seeing the beginning of an exponential growth curve for the penstemon population in the Hunt Pasture," he said. Wright believes that there is a "sweet spot" for blowing sand — enough to scarify and then bury penstemon seeds to allow them to germinate, but not so much to cover or uproot seedlings. Heavy grazing in the Hunt Pasture will continue for another year or two, until more blowouts are created, and this may prevent seedlings from fl ourishing. In the meantime, more penstemon seed will be sown, and once more blowouts are established, grazing will be reduced, slowing the movement of sand, and the penstemon will hopefully thrive. In the future, when prairie plants begin to move back into Blowout Penstemon on McKelvie and Bessey For more than two decades, the U.S. Forest Service has been reintroducing blowout penstemon on the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest and the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest, both located in the Sandhills. Twenty-eight acres of active blowouts within the forests' expansive dune grasslands now support roughly 30,000 penstemon plants. "Our livestock permit holders help us create small blowouts for the penstemon by manipulating their cattle to congregate near or trail to certain water tanks where the plant is growing," said Greg Wright, a Forest Service biologist. "Private ranchers could use this method to restore the penstemon on their lands with no measurable loss of grass or grazing production." Before 2016, the McKelvie and Halsey penstemon populations were established using only greenhouse-grown seedlings. In that year, Wright, out of curiosity, scattered seed leftover from starting greenhouse plants, into a blowout on McKelvie. To his surprise, when he returned to the site the following summer, he found seedlings. Wright then harvested more seed and sowed it into other blowouts. Through this effort, he discovered that successful germination and seedling establishment depended on placing the seed in parts of the blowouts with extensive blowing sand. The sand's abrasive action wore away the seeds' hard coat, speeding germination. Wright then evaluated the effectiveness of using seed versus greenhouse plants. He found scattering seeds was more cost effective in large blowouts and less reliant on a person's knowledge of where exactly to place greenhouse seedlings to ensure their survival. He stressed that using seed works only in blowouts with active blowing sand and will not work in small, inactive blowouts, such as those found on many ranches. Wright's discoveries have made large- scale blowout penstemon restorations, such as those occurring on the Spikebox Ranch, far more economically and ecologically practical. "This is a plant we really need to conserve," said Wright. "If extreme drought ever sets the dunes to blowing, seeding blowout penstemon might slow the dunes' progress. It's one of the very few plants adapted to growing on blowing sand."

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