Freihoelser Forst Local Training Area rehabilitation project. Final report

Intensive and continued use of the Freihoelser Forst Local Training Area (LTA) for military training activities had resulted in serious environmental problems, exemplified by a lack of vegetative cover and severe erosion by water and wind. The project`s goal was to develop and demonstrate rapid, cost-effective methods to stabilize the LTA`s barren, eroding maneuver areas and make training conditions more realistic. The major factors limiting rehabilitation efforts were the sandy, infertile, and acidic soils. The project was conducted in two phases. Phase I demonstrated and evaluated three separate rehabilitation treatments ranging in cost from moderate to expensive. Each treatment used a different type of soil amendment (fertilizer and straw, compost, or chicken manure), but all used identical seedbed preparation methods and seed mixtures. Phase I was conducted on relatively small replicated plots and was monitored three times during each growing season. All three treatments satisfactorily reestablished vegetation and controlled erosion. Because of their small size, the Phase I demonstration plots had only a minor stabilizing effect on the erosion problems of the LTA as a whole. The Phase II treatment was based on lessons teamed from Phase I and from other revegetation projects in Germany. Phase II revegetated a largemore » area of the LTA, which included nearly all of the most severely disturbed land. Phase II, which was monitored in the same way as Phase I but for a shorter period of time, was highly successful in stabilizing most areas treated. The revegetation plant community was dominated by native grasses and legumes that stabilized the loose, sandy soils and improved the training realism of a major portion of the LTA.« less