Does post-fire seeding in a Mojave Desert shrubland rehabilitate habitat for the desert tortoise?
Wildfires in the Mojave Desert alter habitat for the threatened desert tortoise by removing shrub structure and enhancing invasive annual grasses. In June 2005, lightning-ignited wildfires burned almost a half million acres of desert tortoise habitat in southern Nevada. In December 2005, burned habitat was seeded with native species representative of intact tortoise habitat to accelerate the establishment of shrubs and herbaceous forbs. USGS researcher Lesley DeFalco and her colleagues evaluated the success of seeding and determined whether tortoises used seeded burned areas. In the first year after seeding, plant establishment was low, and seedling densities were not significantly different between seeded and unseeded treatments. However, this result reflects rainfall that was over 40 percent below average during the 6 months following seeding, and the potential suppression by invasive grasses. Tortoise activity – as determined by the presence of live tortoises, burrows and fresh scat
