Laserfiche WebLink
• the presence of the fabric significantly increasing growth and survival. The increases <br />seemed to be related to increased soil moisture and resultant decreased leaf water <br />stress and increased photosynthesis. The increased soil moisture may have been related <br />to less water evaporation from the soil having a landscape fabric cover or from less <br />transpiration from the site because of less vegetative cover. <br />We have shown that control of competing vegetation was important in survival <br />and growth of aspen. The landscape fabric was particularly important in the sites with <br />the most competing vegetation. The first year results of this experiment confirm the <br />hypothesis that landscape fabric can increase growth and survival of aspen, particularly <br />where amounts of competing vegetation are high. However the treatments had no <br />significant effect on serviceberry, likely a result of the small initial size of the <br />serviceberry plants. <br />An observation of the plots in the fall of 2009 suggests that the serviceberry is <br />indeed responding to landscape fabric treatment in the second year. We expect a <br />• response of serviceberry will be more apparent in the third and fourth years after <br />initiation of treatment. The site visit in the fall of 2009 also suggested that aspen trees <br />growing with landscape fabric were senescing later than those plants growing without <br />landscape fabric. <br />Acknowledeements <br />The authors acknowledge the advice and assistance of Dan Mathews and Sandy <br />Brown of the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, Roy Karo and Vern <br />Pfannenstiel of Seneca Coal Company and Peabody Energy, and John Frank and John <br />Korfmacher of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, and the <br />assistance of numerous students from the Colorado State University Department of <br />Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship. The study was a cooperative effort <br />funded by the US DOI Office of Surface Mining National Technology Transfer Team, <br />Peabody Energy, US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, and Colorado <br />26 <br />