06-06-14 Field Note

06-06-14 Field Note

June 6, 2014

Jeff Clarke's Field Note shows the Bitterroot River at flood stage, blooming bitterbrush, and thatching ants.

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Flood waters rise, weed control, and thatching ants May 29th, 2014 By Jeff Clarke

The Bitterroot River continues to rise. Last week it breached its banks along the North Floodplain. Deep channels meander through forests and fields.

High waters breach the bank and change the landscape.

The buck and rail fence we installed last spring protects riverside aspens. The stem density increased with release from browsing. As a result, more tree and shrub roots should help stabilize the riverbank.

Ten foot tall trees pack three year old exclosures up Tongue Creek.

This map shows many of the areas sprayed by the field crew over the last two weeks; Yellow areas indicate spurge, blue indicates henbane and purple indicates madwart. Next we will focus on spurge in the lower draws.

We spray spurge at the full flower stage.

This is what it looks like one week later.

The field crew removed all hounds tongue and mullein plants from the disturbed roadsides. We bag and burn last year’s hounds tongue.

In early April, the crew dug up 40 aspen suckers in the North Floodplain. We coated their severed roots in growth hormone and transplanted them in a large cluster near the Orchard House. Two months later, 95% of the transplants look healthy. If the trees continue to live through the warm summer months, we will transplant several hundred more next spring!

The field crew replaced the Orchard House’s rotten, 30-year-old, flower bed in March. The new bed contains rocks, woodchips and basin wild rye harvested from the ranch.

A mob of thatching ants battled a caterpillar for several minutes. Though they continued to bite, the ant’s mandibles couldn’t seem to penetrate the larvae’s thick skin.

Bitterbrush flowers bloom!

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