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Sustainability
ACIDIC/HEAVY METAL-TOLERANT PLANT CULTIVARS DEMONSTRATION, ANACONDA SMELTER SUPERFUND SITE
Primary Issue Addressed: Sustainability
Secondary Issues Addressed: Source Control, Characterization
Project Site: Research has been performed (over the past 10 years) at various locations within and adjacent to the Anaconda Smelter Superfund site. The present focus is the Moto-X site located in the Lost Creek drainage, north of Anaconda, Montana.
Collaborating Entities: MSE, Deer Lodge Valley Conservation District (DLVCD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service Bridger Plant Materials Center (BPMC)
Cost Share: In-kind services (facilities and labor) provided
by the collaborating entities; partial funding under the Montana Department
of Justice’s Clark Fork Restoration Fund Grant Program (2000-2008).
Project Description
Presently, grass, forb, and shrub species commercially available for reclaiming acidic/heavy metals-contaminated (A/M) soils often come from outside the Northern Rocky Mountain region. These cultivated varieties may not tolerate the climatic-edaphic stresses (in addition to A/M pollution stresses) as well as would the A/M-tolerant ecotypes indigenous to the region. Over the past decade, plant populations exhibiting A/M tolerance potential have been collected from the Anaconda Smelter Superfund Site and evaluated in laboratory, greenhouse, and preliminary field trial studies. The results to date indicate that self-sustaining plant communities comprised of native A/M tolerant ecotypes are possible. Thus, the long-term goal of this project is to formally compare the performance of local seed mixtures against comparable mixes now commercially available. If the local ecotypes (of the particular grass/forb species) are indeed best performing, they would be made available for numerous full-scale reclamation of hard-rock mine/mill/smelter sites in the region.
Status
The following activities occurred in FY04: collection and laboratory analysis of plant and soil samples from the Anaconda area; field evaluations of plant performance; and production of seeds (at the Bridger Plant Materials Center) from the most promising grass/forb accessions. Grass seedling emergence observed in many of the plots of local accessions (e.g., 9081628 Indian rice grass, 9081624 Washoe Germplasm wild rye) in June was significantly greater than that noted in May 2003. In such instances, the local source plants exhibited superior performance relative to the respective cultivated varieties.
The forb/sub shrub trial had poor emergence and, consequently, poor seedling densities with the exception of Open Range Germplasm winterfat. The low densities were most likely the result of the late spring (2003) planting that resulted in an insufficient period of cold-moist stratification. An additional problem may have been sowing small-sized seed too deeply.
In the Seed Mixture Trials, the experimental mixes that contained native local source materials were far superior to the developed mixes that consisted of native non local source (upland mix) and introduced cultivars (waste management areas). However, it was estimated that the majority of plants in the experimental mixtures, both upland and waste management areas, were 9081620 slender wheat grass, which was the best overall performer on this particular site.
The tissue analyses show that the heavy metal concentrations in and on the plant tissue sampled from the Stucky Ridge plots were generally within the tolerable limits for consumption by domestic livestock and wildlife.
Figure 4a. The USDA's Bridger
Plant Materials Center released Foundation class Washoe germplasm basin
wild rye. (Leymus cinereus is shown in photo.)
Figure 4b. The Bridger Plant Materials Center maintains the GI
seed stock (slender wheat grass shown here) for those A/M accessions
exhibiting commercial potential.
The overall performance on the Stucky Ridge plots was quite variable, with strips running north and south that had poorer plant vigor and biomass production. The Pryor slender wheat grass strips between replications (running east and west) exhibited waves of good and poor establishment and performance. Soil samples (0–6 in.) were taken under four plant stands of slender wheat grass ranging from excellent to very poor in hopes of explaining this variability. It was thought that the incorporation of the amendments may have created strips with varying pH. Soil analysis for pH indicated no difference in pH (all 6.8 to 7.3) under the varying stand of slender wheat grass Therefore, this variability is still unexplained.
A/M-tolerant Washoe Germplasm basin wild rye (Figure 4a), Prospector’s Germplasm common snowberry, and Source-Identified Old Works Germplasm fuzzytongue penstemon have been released by the BPMC. Seed from the wild rye has been distributed to two commercial growers in Montana, while penstemon seed has been distributed to one grower each in Washington and Idaho. No growers have yet shown interest in production of the snowberry.
The Moto-X plots will be evaluated again in late summer 2005, and a final project report released (under the Mine Waste Technology Program) in early winter 2006. Approximately $245K was awarded by the State of Montana to the DLVCD/BPMC in December 2004 to continue development of A/M-tolerant releases through 2008. Some of the potential future releases include local accessions of slender wheat grass (Figure 4b), blue bunch wheat grass, silver leaf phacelia, Woods rose, and horizontal juniper.
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