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Buffelgrass, kleingross, "Catalina" lovegrass, "Cochise" lovegrass, bottlebrush, and sideoats grama grass were seeded on retired farmland in the Avra Valley west of Tucson in 1986 and again in 1987. Each grass species was seeded in plots that received no irrigation, or two establishment irrigations or four establishment irrigations. For both year's tests, buffelgrass had a significantly higher percent cover than the other grasses at three months after planting. In the evaluation of the 1986 test in October 1987, buffelgrass, kleingrass, Cochise lovegrass, and Catalina lovegrass had increased their presence in the irrigated plots from one year before and appeared promising for the revegetaion of retired farmland. Plots that did not receive establishment irrigations did not have significantly higher cover ratings than plots with no cover at all. The one exception to this was buffelgrass in the first evaluation of the 1986 test.

In July 1987, an experiment was initiated to evaluate the effects of water harvesting and establishment irrigations on the establishment and persistence of buffelgrass, kleingrass, and sideoats grama grass on retired farmland A density evaluation in November 1987 revealed a significant increase in percent cover of the grasses due to establishment irrigations. No significant differences were detected among water harvesting treatments or flat- disked controls. Evaluations will continue to measure any long-term effects from these treatments.

Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) was seeded in 80 -inch wide water harvesting microcatchments on retired farmland west of Tucson. Eight months after planting the plots that had received one establishment irrigation and weeding had significantly more cover than the unirrigated and unweeded treatments. The percent cover of the uninigated /weeded and irrigated /unweeded treatments was not significantly different. Uninigated and unweeded plots had virtually no cover of saltbush. It appears that establishing saltbush in microcatchments of this size is not feasible without either an establishment irrigation or weed control.

Large populations o+ black grass bugs, Labops hesperius Uhler, have been observed on extensive acreages o+ range lands. These bugs cause severe damage to the range grasses, lowering their palatability and productivity. This study was to determine whether morphological differences among breeding lines o+ grass species or interspecific hybrids could be correlated with the feeding behavior o+ black grass bugs. I+ so, plant breeders should be able to develop resistant cultivars. To explore this possibility, cultivars and synthetics o+ range grasses, representing the genera, Agropyron, Dactylis, Phalaris and Poa, were exposed to di++erent instar stages was examined under a scanning electron microscope. Leaf pubescence (trichomes) varied in density and size and appeared to be associated with resistance of plants in the genera, Agropyron, to the Labops nymphs (instar stages II and III> but had no relation with the feeding behavior of adult black grass bugs. Plant leaves of the general, Dactylis and Phalaris, were smooth (few and small if any trichomes> and were the least preferred of any of the grasses by all stages of the bugs. Trichomes on leaves of other genera were varied in density and size. Based on percent damage, preference by the nymphs was for the species with intermediate sized trichomes. The adult bugs showed no discrimination in their feeding behavior. Field grown plants developed more trichomes per unit leaf area and appeared to have thicker surface waxes than the same species grown in the greenhouse. For this reason, nymph feeding habits may be different in the field than in the greenhouse. Future studies should perhaps investigate (1) first stage nymph activity on field plants and (2) palatability and/or chemical differences of the grasses.

From the Proceedings of the 1974 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 19-20, 1974, Flagstaff, Arizona / Two native grass species, blue grama and sidecoats, were successfully seeded on a semiarid rangeland on the walnut gulch experimental watershed in southeastern Arizona. Optimum seeding dates selected were those within the time period most likely to receive precipitation, and grass stands were established in two successive years with average rainfall. Shrubs were killed by root-plowing at a depth of 14 inches, a procedure which was more than 95% successful in controlling sprouting shrubs. Forage production measurements taken on nm-28 sideoats and Vaughn sideoats showed a yield of 1,950 and 2,643 pounds of forage per acre, respectively, for the 2 years following the seeding, whereas untreated sites produced 23 and 25 pounds per acre of forage. Results indicate that success in establishing a stand of native grass is increased through use of existing hydrologic data.

From the Proceedings of the 1973 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 4-5, 1973, Tucson, Arizona / Five livestock watering ponds on the walnut gulch experimental watershed were instrumented to evaluate the use of these ponds as a method for comparing rainfall amounts with runoff sediment volumes. Pond drainage area, vegetative cover, soil type, percent slope, and years of record were tested. Instrumentation consisted of water level recorders, and a topographic survey of each stock pond to ascertain its storage capacity. The results to date have been insufficient to reach definite conclusions due to instrumentation and surveying problems, and because of the natural variability of thunderstorm rainfall. Since most of these problems have now been corrected, future data should yield valuable hydrologic data for semiarid rangelands by means of these instrumented stock ponds.

From the Proceedings of the 1977 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 15-16, 1977, Las Vegas, Nevada / Increased nutritional and economic demands for agricultural products have dictated the need for greater and more efficient use of western grass forage. Vegetation manipulation is the quickest and most economical means of increasing forage. However , the hydrologic effects must be taken into consideration before embarking on a large scale vegetation manipulated program. This study discusses the hydrologic and erosion changes measured from a 110-acre semiarid watershed which was converted from brush to grass by root plowing and seeding. Significant changes were observed in rainfall-runoff relationships as average summer runoff was considerably in excess of predictions. Sediment yield also varied, and both of these results were tied to the change in vegetative cover and post conversion rainfall conditions.