History of RTEC

The Range Seeding Equipment Committee

During World War II, the need for increased wool and meat production led to calls for increased grazing on US Forest Service lands. These lands, however, were degraded from years of excessive use and required improvement. Research studies and trial seedings funded by the US Forest Service to improve forage during WWII highlighted the lack of equipment sturdy enough to operate on rugged terrain, thus limiting efforts to implement large-scale projects.

In 1945, a group of western Forest Service regional personnel and researchers met in Utah to discuss the problem. In response to their recommendations, an interregional committee, The Range Seeding Equipment Committee, chaired by Joe Pechanec at the Pacific Northwest Station, began working with Ted Flynn and Tom Colwell at the Forest Service Equipment Development Center in Portland, Oregon. They focused on evaluating and modifying available agricultural equipment or constructing new implements durable enough for rangeland applications including brush control, site preparation, and seeding.

In 1946 the Committee met in Portland, Oregon, and wrote a charter that called for prioritizing equipment needs submitted by the Forest Service regions, designing an annual program of work, and develop specifications for range seeding equipment.

Following the 1948 founding of the American Society of Range Management (now SRM) with Joe Pechanec as the first president, the Range Seeding Equipment Committee began meeting in conjunction with their annual conferences. The committee was soon expanded to include representatives of other state and federal agencies, universities, landowners, private industry, and international visitors. Work groups including exploratory, information, seeding and planting, plant materials, seed harvesting steep slope stabilization, and weed control established priorities and developed and monitored projects. Equipment development was conducted by the Forest Service Equipment Development Centers, universities, and private companies with agency personnel often assisting with field evaluations.

In 1949 the objective of acting as an information exchange clearinghouse and acting as an advisory group in range seeding and weed control policies was added. The Bureau of Land Management and the Soil Conservation Service joined the group, and the Bureau of Land Management began providing funds in 1951. The Bureau of Indian Affairs began attending in 1952. Both the Soil Conservation Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs began to provide funding in 1955.

Early committee successes included the rangeland drill, first constructed in 1951 and commercially available by 1955, which is still widely used today. The drill was modified from a commercial grain drill. The prototype was developed on the Fremont National Forest in Oregon, then further developed by the Equipment Development Centers to provide a drill capable of operating on rocky and brushy sites. It continues to be manufactured commercial and widely used. Modifications have been added over the years. The project terminated in 1974 when the service and parts manual was published by the Sand Dimas Equipment Development Center and the BLM published the operations manual.

The Australian stump jump plow was modified to become the brushland plow, and several pieces of equipment were designed for contour trenching and seeding.  The seed dribbler, interseeder, browse seeder, and several broadcast seeders were designed for specific seeding applications.

The Vegetative Rehabilitation and Equipment Workshop

In 1974 the committee was renamed the Vegetative Rehabilitation and Equipment Workshop to include equipment for reclaiming surface-mined lands. Its mission was stated as: “VREW is a forum to provide an exchange of ideas to enhance the development and dissemination of technology used in improving rangelands and surface-mined spoils.” The informal group was primarily concerned with developing and testing revegetation equipment and providing information to land managers. Members represented federal and state agencies, universities, industry, professional organizations, and private citizens.

Projects involved evaluating available equipment for wildland use, modifying available equipment, or designing new equipment to solve specific restoration problems. Project development was accomplished through a series of steps:

1. Proposals were received as spinoffs from recent work, researcher/rancher suggestions, or requests based on surveys of practitioners.
2. Proposals routed to the VREW Exploratory Committee
3. Promising proposals then submitted to the FS Equipment Development Centers for cost estimates.
4. The proposals and estimates are sent to the VREW steering committee for approval and funding.
5. Projects are assigned to appropriate VREW workgroups for supervision and monitoring of progress. Workgroup members may provide materials and equipment for the project.
6. The workgroups review the work, plan for future projects and exchange information. Work is summarized for the annual meeting and added to the VREW report, which was published annually by the FS Equipment Development Centers

Member groups provided equipment and materials and participated in testing new equipment and equipment modifications. Work groups continued to support priority topics and funding provided by the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Indian Affairs supported the work. VREW Annual reports published by the Forest Service Equipment Development Centers included summaries of work group progress.

The group continued to meet in conjunction with the Society for Range Management’s annual meetings to provide updates on work group accomplishments, discuss priorities for future work, and decide on new projects.

A new work group on Disturbed Land Reclamation was organized. Equipment developed included a gouger, a modified Vermeer Tree Spade and transporter, basin blade and a plug planter, a larger sod mover, a modified commercial manure spreader to dispense hay, and evaluation of the Howard Rotovator.

Some equipment developed by VREW and its predecessor has been made available commercially. In addition, VREW produced Equip Tips, project reports operations handbooks, service and parts manuals, and equipment handbooks through the Equipment Development Centers to provide information and techniques about equipment items and their use.

The original Revegetation Equipment Catalog authored by John Larson was published as a follow-up to the Range Seeding Equipment Handbook in 1980 and is available online. It described equipment items by category (e.g. tractors, site preparation, seeding, etc.) and listed vendors for each. Handbooks on fences; facilities for handling, sheltering, and trailing livestock; and Water: pumping and piping systems; and Water – damming and storing followed in 1987 and 1988.

The Revegetation Technology and Equipment Council

In 1990 VREW was reorganized as the Revegetation Technology & Equipment Council (RTEC) to emphasize innovative technology and strategies to improve revegetation success.  Steve Monsen, Harold Wiedemann, Mike Pellant, and Jim Truax provided leadership for the group.

In 2023, Kevin Gunnell became Chair of RTEC and  initiated quarterly meetings of a core group.