More info for the terms:
climax,
cover,
litter,
seedFed fescue may colonize disturbed areas naturally. It was found on
abandoned coal mine sites in foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Alberta.
The mine spoil heaps had a variety of soils, ranging from silts and
clays to gravelly sands mixed with coal. Red fescue was rare to
abundant [
68]. Red fescue established naturally on an abandoned road at
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The road was fertilized with phosphorus 2 years
after abandonment. Fifteen years after abandonment, red fescue cover
was 0.6 percent on unfertilized areas and 1.7 percent on fertilized
areas [
57].
In areas with temperate climate, red fescue is used to prevent erosion
on irrigation ditches [
5], in channel banks on waterways [
29], and along
highway and railway rights-of-way [
71]. It is useful for holding
hillsides and highway slopes [
74]. It is also planted for soil
conservation in the western states [
20].
Rhizomatous red fescue is recommended for seeding quaking aspen (Populus
tremuloides) openings and subalpine mountain areas in the Intermountain
region. Red fescue makes a heavy litter and is a good soil builder
[
61].
Red fescue was planted with a mixture of other grass and legume species
that were not native to the site in a disturbed mixed-grass prairie in
southwestern Manitoba. The seeded plots did not produce higher standing
crop or below-ground biomass than did unseeded plots. Prairie
recovering without seeding produced higher cover and greater abundance
of native species than did seeded prairie [
89].
Red fescue has been seeded on disturbed subalpine sites in Colorado and
Montana. In Climax, Colorado, red fescue was seeded on sites from
10,350 to 13,500 feet (3,155-4,115 m) elevation that had been disturbed
by mining, logging, sheep grazing, and railroad construction. Twenty
grass species were originally seeded; red fescue is one of seven that
were successful [
10]. Red fescue was used to seed subalpine areas
disturbed by ski run construction in Montana. Several years after
seeding it was present in four of six areas and was dominant in one; it
had persisted for at least 10 years in some areas [
6].
Red fescue has been used to revegetate disturbed sites in northern
Canada [
55,
90]. In Alaska it has been used in Denali National Park and
Preserve [
16], the Alaska Range [
19], the central Brooks Range [
15], and
other areas [
49,
57]. Seeded red fescue may decline within one to two
decades of establishment [
15,
19,
81]. Populations and cultivars best
adapted for revegetation in specific regions have been identified
[
49,
55,
81]. Seeded red fescue may suppress or delay recovery of other
native plants [
15].
Red fescue is sensitive to sulfur dioxide air pollution. At Smoking
Hills on the east coast of Cape Bathurst in the Northwest Territories,
red fescue occurred at sites which were not fumigated by sulfur dioxide,
sulfuric acid mists, or aerosols. It occurred in trace amounts in areas
of moderate pollution, and was absent from severely polluted sites [
24].