08-30-13 Field Note

08-30-13 Field Note

August 30, 2013

Jeff Clarke's Field Note details stategies to limit ungulate browse, a dead procupine, and the removal of a new invader.

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08-30-13 Field Note by Jeff Clarke

Buck and rail fences keep most ungulates out. Hungry, pesky beavers can slip under the fence and wreak havoc! To keep these aspens alive, we will also add a beaver fence to the buck and rail’s base.

Elk consumed the wedge of crested wheatgrass adjacent to the alfalfa field. I’m not sure why elk would eat dry brown grass when lush green alfalfa grows a few feet away.

More elk arrive on the ranch every day. They have already figured out that we recontoured the steep slope in Tongue Creek.

The re-contoured slope that we seeded with a wildflower mix and covered with jute bloomed! In a quick survey, I counted at least 15 different flower species.

Here is a small representation of flowers that grow on the slope.

We erect more buck and rail fences to protect native trees. This fence wraps around the outside of an aspen grove in the Clubhouse Floodplain. Protected trees should expand outward from the forest’s edge.

edge. This unprotected chokecherry was a nice spot to for a buck to shed some velvet.

This spring we built two large metal exclosures on the North Floodplain to see what would grow without ungulate pressure. Several wild rose and cottonwoods have popped up. Ponderosa pine seedlings are nowhere to be found. I hypothesize that their seeds need a deeper duff layer to germinate. We will continue to monitor what saplings emerge.

Aspen and cottonwood saplings grow all over the north and south ends of Northern Floodplain. There are so many that the ungulates can’t browse them all. As a result, we have dense forests of 3-4 foot tall, browsed, trees. With a few years of protection, groves of 10 foot tall trees (background) could result.

I’m sad to say that a small porcupine perished inside one of the exclosures we built. I wonder if it was sleeping in a cottonwood hollow while we worked?

The botany crew discovered a yellow flag iris in the Clubhouse Floodplain. This flower is rhizomatous and extremely invasive. PW The field crew removed it right away!

Longnosed suckers help keep the Bitterroot River clean.

Recent Tasks Completed • Collect and release the rest of 5,000 weevils • Weed wh_a_ck koshia and other weeds • Assist MPGN for a week • Collect and clean seed • Remove invasive iris • Build buck and rail fences • Fix exclosures • Paint Orchard House • Cap re-barb • Mat experimental garden

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