by Marcy Brown, Utah Forests Ecology Intern
I dig my trowel into the soil, feeling the flower’s root system give way as I slowly lift the tool up, forcing the entire plant to the surface with an earthy tearing sound. I pick it up by the stem, shake the dark soil off the roots, and carry it to the plant press while the other interns call out plant names in the 50-meter transect.
We’re deep within the Ponderosa pine forests of White Mesa Cultural and Conservation Area in southeastern Utah, identifying grasses, flowers and shrubs in the only ungrazed area left within the 1.4 million acre Manti-La Sal National Forest. This 28,000 acre expanse of aspen forests, alpine ridges, and verdant meadows serves as our research grounds for the impacts of elk and deer separate from cattle, and the potential of the area for recovery in the absence of the cattle grazing. But to understand both, we need to map which plant species are growing where.
Our group, which consists of five Grand Canyon Trust interns and two Trust volunteers skilled in plant identification, lays out transects using meter tapes. Each of us falls into our individual roles, and together, we move efficiently through several plots.
“PIPO canopy, ACNE9, Pseudostellaria jamesiana, litter into litter,” says Sue Smith, a long-time Trust volunteer who is now, after a career in computers, doing this research for a master’s in natural resource management.
A foreign language to most, the botany vocabulary is what we all speak and understand.
At every meter mark, similar declarations are made, with the readers plunging their pointers into the surface, looking up at the sky in search of canopy, then back down to the earth to identify the plants touching the pointer. While the singsong of plant names drifts towards the treetops, the others keep their eyes on the ground, searching for new plants and good specimens that can serve as examples in our plant collection.
Our final task at each plot is to check for the presence of exotic species along the transects.
The data we collect from our transects will establish a baseline for the White Mesa Cultural and Conservation Area, which is a unique collaboration between the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Manti-La Sal National Forest, and the Grand Canyon Trust. Creating a baseline assessment is important for future comparisons of species, especially as exotic grasses could quickly replace native ones.
Bromis inermis and Poa pratensis, Smooth Brome and Kentucky Bluegrass respectively, are especially prevalent in the White Mesa Cultural and Conservation Area as aggressive, exotic grasses that can quickly colonize an area, push out natives, and create monocultures where biodiversity once flourished. Diverse flower and native grass communities promote healthy habitat for native birds and insects, allowing the entire ecosystem to thrive.
In several areas, the exotics have already beat out the natives, creating understory fields of swaying seedheads, heavy with future generations ready to spread their exotic monoculture. Orchard Grass, Timothy Hay, and Bulbous Bluegrass, eager invasives poised to move in on recovering lands, line the roadsides as well.
However, we find hope in the sites where native grass populations equal those of exotics, and we find joy in the plots where the natives are thriving. Perhaps the natives can win.
Before this trip, grasses were just green blades, golf courses, and soccer fields to me. But as we hike out of our last plot, I brush my hands against every native needlegrass and bunchgrass, silently wishing them well in their fight for survival.
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