12-06-16 Field Note

12-06-16 Field Note

December 6, 2016

Jeff Clarke details field crew projects from the 2016 season.

2016 Field Crew Field Work Summary

The crew lost James Sapp and Joe Locatelli after the 2015 season and gained Jim Ruward and Ben Reis in mid-March of this season. Jim and Ben teamed up with our veterans Tanner Banks and Everette Isreal to create, what I feel, was our strongest crew to date. The crew worked hard together while they enjoyed one another’s company. Lots of laughs were shared and even more work was accomplished.

Several weeks before budburst, the crew visited sandbar willow forests and cut 2,500 three- foot-segments from their stems. We soaked the segments in water for a month, dipped them in root growth hormone and buried 75% of each segment into a matted reed canary grass patch. Within a month, leaves sprouted and new stems shot up from the cuttings. The new willow cutting forest flourished all year. We also planted aspen suckers into this same location. Unfortunately, the site was too wet for aspens and most drowned.

We erected several thousand feet of buck and rail fences this year. Most of the new fences were built around planted trees from the entrance and turn around. The larger wooden exclosures will give the planted trees room to grow and provide growth leader protection; the native non-targeted plants should also benefit. One of the largest B&R fences was constructed around the entire spring and aspen forest in Partridge Alley. Not only will that fence protect the native and planted trees, it will also prevent erosion and aquatic disturbance. *This year we added an extra rail (5 total) to each fence to further deter ungulates.

The purpose of a diversity island is to break up the landscape with clusters of pollinator friendly forbs and add yet another component to our restoration prairies. In previous years, we planted islands throughout the old crested wheat grass fields. Most of those islands were lost amongst the weeds, mowing and herbicide applications. This year we took a more labor intensive approach. We constructed ten diversity islands with 15’ x 15’ circles of black mat and exclosure protection. Then we planted a mix of 150 native forb plugs into each mat and had the irrigation crew water them once a week; we also hand weeded around the individual plants. The added labor and care resulted in diversity islands that boasted a wide array of native plants. Next year we will add more diversity islands and explore mat removal options.

The irrigation crew organized a complex system of driplines to keep the planted trees hydrated. This system took many weeks to construct and needed regular maintenance. There were times when dripline installation and maintenance became more time sensitive so the field crew lent a hand. We also helped hand water trees that were too far from any driplines.

The plastic exclosures needed constant attention due to ungulate and equestrian traffic. Every few weeks we made a loop around the ranch and fixed or replaced exclosures that were ruined. We also repaired the large plastic and metal exclosures that were mangled; buck and rail fences also needed maintenance. Several trees that were planted in 2009 and 2010 filled their 4 1⁄2 foot plastic exclosures.

The weed management team took over control of the experimental plot maintenance and has done an amazing job! This has freed up the field crew a lot. One item that the crew still participates in is a fungicide application (twice/ year). Ben Reis took charge of this project.

We installed two floating islands in the Clubhouse Pond this year. We planted a variety of forbs, rushes and grasses into the islands and most species reached maturity and flowered. We protected each island with a muskrat exclosure and added soil and seed to their surface. Next year we will add additional soil and seed to the islands to fill them with vegetative cover.

The term “grounds maintenance” encompassed a wide array of projects that helped keep the ranch looking good and helped prepare visitors for the ultimate experience. Some of these projects included: riverside cleanup, large rock placement along roadsides, JUMP preparations and clean up, building maintenance, lawn and orchard care, garbage removal, interpretive garden maintenance, road repair, roadside weed eradication, landscaping, garbage removal, and many other general clean up tasks.

The battle against weeds raged on this year. Large herbicide applications were conducted throughout the low-land restoration areas to combat most invasive species. The field crew helped with the cleanup of some persistent spurge patches and spot sprayed spurge around sensitive native areas throughout the “spurge-free” zones. We also cleaned up the german mad wart in Lower Woodchuck.

We’ve found that laying black weed fabric is the only sure way to keep weeds out of an area for an extended period of time. This year we continued to focus our efforts on the removal of reed canary grass (R.C.G.). We weed whacked and matted four large isolated areas where R.C.G persisted. Next year we will fill the black mats with willows, red osier dogwood and sedges. After a few years, we will experiment with removal of the mat. We also matted an area near the Corral and in upper Partridge Alley so lichen studies could be conducted. Parts of the experimental garden mat needed to be replaced as well.

The field crew visited MPG North for three weeks this year and Tanner made several day trips to assist with a fisheries habitat and species assessment project in Cooney Creek. While the field crew was on site, we weed whacked thistle before it flowered, built several buck and rail fences around native and planted trees, “day-lighted” desired native tree species, maintained and replaced exclosures, applied herbicide and took care of general maintenance projects. This was the first year that MPGN didn’t have a site specific field crew.

We participated in several planting projects this spring, many of which were focused around the entrance area. We planted several hundred hops vines along the entrance buck and rails and we planted arrow leafed balsam root and basin wild rye along the road from the entrance to the turn around. Later in the summer, we took advantage of a few expired experiments in the experimental garden and transplanted them into the feed lot, an area that struggled to harbor seeded plants. We also sowed several mature, potted, forbs and grasses into the restored hillsides around the Top House. Watershed Consulting provided us with at least 50 aquatic plants that we arranged around the pond near the Duck-mahal and we added several hundred transplants of our own.

The crew completed their third year of pollinator surveys for Marirose’s pollinator study. Each person visited specific sites bi-weekly and collected bees and wasps in neon painted collection containers. They also netted pollinators on flowering plants and recorded their observations.

MPG added another 5,800 acres to the eastern portion of the ranch in September. The field crew travelled the entire perimeter of the acquisition and posted signs that identify the property boundary. We posted a sign every 200ft which equated to more than 600 signs! We also posted the access roads with detailed maps and a set of rules for the land.

The field crew hand pulled weeds ranch wide! We continued to attack the hounds tongue and mullein across the lower elevations of the ranch, in many draws, and along the road system in the boondocks. We pulled kochia and cheat grass from the feed lot in an effort to let the natives establish without competition. And, we hand pulled weeds from several studies and aesthetic plantings.

We broadcast seeded all of the barren areas, roadsides and newly disturbed soils in the lower restoration areas with a native grass and forb mix. We also experimented with clustered seed plantings to mimic rodent caches. Everywhere we spread seed, we spread wheat straw. The hope was that the straw would retain moisture on the soil surface and add an organic component. We also collected and spread wild rice grass seed around the Clubhouse Pond and up Tongue Creek.

We started a boondocks conifer thinning project this year. The goal of the project was to create a mosaic across the landscape that encouraged thick stands of food-producing deciduous shrubs and trees. To start, we located areas that had aspen and cottonwood recruitment, and removed their coniferous competitors. The downed timber was left in place to create a natural browse deterrent and add habitat for the ground dwellers. We will expand our efforts eastward in the coming years.

More bulrushes were transplanted from the old northern pond to the new southern end of the pond late this summer. We decided to transplant less plants this year so we didn’t decimate the existing population. Next year we will give the bulrushes a rest and focus our efforts on other aquatic rushes and reeds. We will also add lilies.

Last year’s spring basin wild rye (BWR) transplants flourished in the rich soils at the corral. This spring we added another large cluster in an adjacent site and the results were similar! We also planted BWR along the roadside from the entrance to the turn-around and around the parking area at the Top House.

This marked the fifth year that the field crew helped out with the ungulate biomass collection study. This spring and fall we gathered biomass, vegetation height and pellet cluster numbers at more than 100 sites. Tegan will use the data we collected to determine where the elk, deer and horses congregate and what species they prefer to graze.

We made a conscious effort to weed whack less this year and focus our resources elsewhere. We did spend a week weed whacking the knapweed on top of Baldy, the third year of a seven-year study. We also whacked the vegetation along the roadsides so vehicles could identify the large rocks. Orchard and lawn care and black mat preparations were the only other major areas where we weed whacked.

We surveyed knapweed root weevil populations ranch wide and found that they have colonized everywhere! As a result, we spent far less time collecting and relocating weevils this year compared to past years. This year we collected and released 10,000 bugs at three locations. We will continue to survey weevil populations though we may not relocate them anymore.

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