School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
Abstract
This report presents the results of a survey of soil s and
vegetation along the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)
right-o f-way (ROW) from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska.
This survey, conducted in the summer of 1999, was designed
to secure an overall perspective of the soil fertility
and general vegetation conditions in the ROW and in the
undisturbed habitat immediately adjacent to the ROW. Researchers
examined 52 sites along the 800-mile ROW,
which crosses three vegetation zones: tundra, alpine, and
boreal (includes coastal forest). Soil samples were collected
for laboratory analysis of plant nutrients, vascular plant
species were inventoried, and photographs were taken at
each site. This information can be used to assess the impacts
of TAPS on vegetation and the success or failure of
revegetation efforts performed during pipeline construction
in the 1970s and to make recommendations for revegetation
of future disturbed areas in regions similar to the TAPS
ROW.
The Federal Agreement and Grant of Right-of-Way for
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System requires that seeding and
planting of disturbed areas be conducted as soon as practicable
and, if necessary, repeated until vegetation was successful. As a res ult , a reasdisturbed during pipe line
construction were revegetated by seeding grasses and fertilizing soil s and by planting willow cuttings and transplants
from natural sources and greenhouse production.
Seeding and fertilizing were the most extensively used applications
along the route. Transpl anted trees and shrubs
were used where the pipeline crossed public roads, in order
to shield the view of the open ROW from the highway.
Native and non-native grasses were seeded. As a res ult,
some weeds were introduced and grasses were established,
some of which have persisted