Benefits to Planting Native Grasses in Tahoe Donner

By JILL COLEMAN

Native grasses are an integral part of the California ecosystem. Jill Coleman, a senior at the Tahoe Expedition Academy, is helping to educate the community on the benefits of native grasses. Tahoe Donner homeowners are invited to learn more about the positive aspects of planting native grasses around their homes.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Native grasses can be used to combat both climate change and freshwater scarcity, two of the world’s most pressing problems. Unfortunately, native perennial – long-living – grasses used to cover 20 percent of California and now cover less than 0.1 percent. This places California native grasses among the most endangered ecosystems in the United States.

Through photosynthesis, native perennial grasses suck atoms of carbon dioxide from the air into their plant tissue and then sink it into the soil faster than carbon cycles back out. This is called carbon sequestration, a process in which native grasses are extremely efficient. In fact, grasslands sequester 440 to 2,100 pounds of carbon per acre per year. Furthermore, one acre of grassland can sequester the emissions of 399 to 1,911 miles driven in the average car.

Native grasses have a deep root system that accounts for two-thirds of the plant’s mass and can extend up to six feet below the surface compared to the shallower root system of non-native annual grasses, which often only reach a few inches. The deep root system of native grasses is one of the main reasons the grasses are successful at sequestering carbon, for the amount of carbon a grass pulls out of the atmosphere and sinks into the soil is directly correlated with root depth.

In addition, native grasses are a reliable carbon sink for the future. Trees hold the carbon they sequester in their trunk, releasing all of it when they die, burn or are cut down. However, native grasses store the carbon they have sequestered in the soil. Consequently, the carbon is not released when the grasses die or burn. The importance of minimal reemition with a plant’s death is becoming increasingly important, as climate change is causing more wildfires and droughts, which kill the plants. Furthermore, meadows have the ability to sequester carbon at a rate 10 times higher than the surrounding forest. All in all, native grasses are extremely effective at taking in carbon from the atmosphere and sinking it into the soil.

Also, native grasses are ideal low-water and drought-tolerant plants. Because California native grasses are domestic to California, they have adapted to the climate and drought-prone environment; therefore, they are much less reliant on additional watering and are more resilient to drought than annual and invasive species. Native grasses’ deep root systems also minimize their need for watering, for the deeper roots can reach natural underground water. Because native grasses require substantially less watering, landscape irrigation could dramatically reduce if native grasses were planted in gardens.

HABITAT ADVANTAGES
In addition to properties such as carbon sequestration, drought tolerance, low care and a beautiful appearance, native grasses have many advantageous qualities. First, they feed and provide habitat to native animal species, consequently bringing native wildlife such as birds, butterflies and soil-helping insects to your yard. Next, native grasses increase nearby soil health, for with every one part carbon sequestered, the soil can hold nine parts water. Third, the deep root system of native grasses holds the soil in place, preventing erosion and stabilizing the area. Finally, native grasses filter polluted runoff when planted in urban wetlands. For these reasons, native grass is a beneficial addition to gardens, yards or any open land.

While maintained lawns do sequester carbon, they should not be considered carbon negative due to three main carbon inputs required for their maintenance: mowing, lawn chemicals and irrigation. All in all, maintained lawns emit around 1,048 pounds of carbon per year resulting in about three times the amount of carbon dioxide that the turf can sequester. Because native grasses do not need to be watered often, mowed or fertilized, they have very little carbon attributing to their growth, resulting in a larger net amount of carbon dioxide pulled out of the atmosphere as compared to normal lawns.

GRASSES TO CONSIDER
While there are many grasses native to the Truckee area, Mel Preston, Point Blue Conservation Ecological Monitor, points out that choosing a hearty, drought-tolerant grass with deep roots that is well suited for the planting environment is important to both sequestering carbon and reducing the plant’s water intake. Below are popular Truckee-Tahoe native grasses commonly used for restoration projects and are recommended to sequester carbon by Catherine Schnurrenberger, a local botanist as well as ecological surveyor and assessor:

FULL SUN

• Elymus elymoides – Bottlebrush Squirreltail

FULL SUN OR PARTIAL SHADE

• Poa secunda – Sandberg Bluegrass
• Stipa occidentalis – Western Needlegrass
• Melica imperfecta – Small Flowered Melica

FULL SHADE

• Poa wheeleri – Wheeler’s Bluegrass
• Bromus carinatus – California Brome Grass
• Festuca subulata – Bearded Fescue

If a full-sun grass, which grows best in clay-like soil, is planted in a shady spot with sandy soil, it will not grow and will not sequester carbon, so it is important to choose the correct grass for the environment you will plant it in.

While replanting an entire lawn with native grasses would be a successful way to sequester carbon, dispersing native grasses around a dirt area or open space in your yard still has positive impacts that will last for generations to come.

Happy planting!