Integrating New Partners
The Range Revegetation Pilot Project on Fort Hood is expanding to include new College of Agriculture and Life Sciences departments and faculty in the development of strategies for composted dairy manure use in restoration of primary maneuver training lands on Fort Hood.
Dr. Fred Smeins, rangeland ecology and management professor, along with Dr. Tom Hallmark, soil and crop sciences professor, will implement research programs in collaboration with projects led by scientists from the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) and Blackland Research and Extension Center in Temple.
According to Dr. Bill Fox, senior research scientist with TWRI, the first phase of the range revegetation project focused on examining whether the manure compost would cause nutrient run-off problems in the streams and rivers around the base and whether the compost would improve the revegetation of grasses on the training area.
“We tested the water quality and we know with some assurance that nutrients (from the compost) are not entering the area’s streams,” Fox said. Initial studies also show that demonstration plots with the manure compost are getting better vegetation coverage than those without the compost.
The project’s next step is focusing on using the compost – how much and when to use it and with what combinations of other best management practices currently used on Fort Hood’s training areas, Fox said.
Smeins’ research will focus on developing revegetation strategies incorporating sequential approaches to reseeding and the use of compost in this process. The project will try a suite of plant materials to see which provide a rapid covering for the soil in the training areas. Hallmarks’ research will focus on soil compaction and understanding how different revegetation strategies impact compaction on training areas. His work will be used in calibrating models used to estimate erosion on training areas.
Fox said the project will “ultimately end up with a maintenance program that will allow Fort Hood to reduce erosion and maintain high quality training grounds.”
