10-02-16 Field Note

10-02-16 Field Note

October 2, 2016

Jeff Clarke's field note details Dwarf Mistletoe eradication efforts, Rocky Mountain Ash recruitment, and a sly porcupine.

Boondocks Thinning, Black Mat, Islands, Dwarf Mistletoe, Rocky Mountain Ash

Last week we cut two acres of conifers in the boondocks. We left a few ponderosa pines and all the deciduous trees and shrubs. The downed trees will protect the smaller shrubs from browse for a few years and encourage new deciduous recruitment.

We gathered mountain ash berries. We will seed them into the thinned areas next spring.

This parasite is dwarf mistletoe. It causes the large brooms in conifers that many people refer to as mistletoe.

We laid a black mat on a large patch of reed canarygrass near the north end of the Clubhouse Pond. Next year we will plant willows, dogwoods and sedges into the mat.

To prepare the mat site, we removed several large logs. This log had a colony of bumble bees living within. No one was stung and the bee’s home stayed intact.

Every fall the field crew removes old vegetation from the educational garden. In past years, we threw it in a compost pile. This year, we placed the seed-filled biomass on steep slopes in Tongue Creek. The added seeds and plant material should encourage native plant recruitment and help with erosion control.

Another JUMP crew built yet another buck and rail fence in the Clubhouse Floodplain to protect an aspen grove. Thank you to the JUMPers for all your help!

Several of the planted island species reached maturity. Next week we will plant additional forbs into bare spots.

We spread turf grass seed on top of the pond’s algae to see what would happen. It grew pretty well! Next year we will experiment with sedge, rush and native grass seed.

The crew removed trash along the ranch’s riverbank.

The crew removed several hundred bags of houndstongue this year! Though there seem to be fewer of them now, we are still a long way from a clearing the property.

Earlier this year, an osprey baby went missing from the NCP nest. We came across it several months later near the pump slough. It appears that it just fell from the nest.