Day 6

 July 13

Locations: Glaze Meadow, Metolius Basin, Wizard Falls Hatchery

 

We met up with Alex at the Sisters Ranger Station in the Deschutes National Forest. He has been working in the Deschutes for 12 years, his background is in fire management which he did for 20 years and he has worked for the federal government around 24 years. Currently his work is in Managing Partnership Programs, working with the local tribes who are willing to get involved with the work they are doing, non-profit organizations and volunteer groups. Lauren, the Environmental Coordinator, works with the NEPA process, interdisciplinary teams, and public engagement. She explained that most of the work she does with NEPA is in the lower two categories. John was our Wildlife Biologist tour guide through Glaze Meadow. Ian is the District Manager for the Sisters Ranger Station, and Andrew, the Fire Management Officer, joined us at the Metolius Basin. Finally, we met Rain who works at the Fishery.

Glaze Meadow is a very sensitive area where they are doing lots of work now. They are building a fence to discourage people from going down and disturbing the land. The area previously used to be a swamp and was managed previously as a grazing meadow, drains were added to remove water, only in the last 20 years they have been trying to restore the area. Unfortunately, they have been unable to make a lot of progress in reversing the damages done to the area and have it become a wetland once again. The surrounding forest is an active burning site and it has been approximately 10 years since they last thinned the forests. We travelled to one of the sites where they had set up Beaver Analogs throughout Black Butte Swamp and the restoration has flourished since they set it up last year. Many species that were once in the area, but left long ago, have started to return. We have yet to see beavers return to the area though, the last one having been spotted back in 2009, but with the restoration work that has been done already and their future restoration plans they are hoping they will return to the area. Peck’s Penstamom, which is endemic to the Sisters Region, is a plant that they are observing in order to preserve the habitat it requires for it to grow in. Black Butte Swamp is a Fen ecosystem, which is rare. According to the Deschutes Land Trust, it is a type of alkaline wetland that is fed from groundwater. “Fens are biological hot spots and are home to a high percentage of rare or uncommon plant species. They also are wet year-round and can remain in the same location for thousands of years.” I was able to find on KTVS NEWS an article of the Beaver Analog restoration the crew did. “The goal is to raise the ground water table in the wetland while retaining access for fish passage.”

Photographed: Glaze Meadow

Photographed: Beaver Analog site we looked at

Ian and Andrew were our fire specialist. They both have been doing this work for a long time now. Ian’s background is in Pre-Med while Andrew started restoration work 10 years ago and before that did wilderness trail construction and some work in Bob Marshall. The Ponderosa Pine that grows in the area requires full sunlight and fire in order to grow. For 70-80 years fire was completely excluded from the area and has caused a disturbance in the natural environment. Fire in these areas is necessary in order to allow the environment to flourish, while it has its downsides it is a lot safer for everything that lives in the forest and for the people in the surrounding communities to do prescribed burns. Historically, the fire returns to the area in intervals of 7-15 years. Their aiming at 15-20 years with the work they are doing. They would like to be able to burn around 50,000 acres a year and currently are burning approximately 3-5,000 acres. An article from KTVS NEWS about the area states, “Understory burns reintroduce fire into a fire-adapted ecosystem and serve as the final phase in restoration efforts that have included thinning and pile burning. This restoration effort improves forest health while reducing the risk of high-intensity wildfire adjacent to communities.”

At the Hatchery with Rain, we took a tour of the entire facility. I was not very interested in this portion but I did learn that they will use a Soy-based diet in order to maintain the size of the fish. They can stunt or promote their growth for the fish to all be the same size. To finish the day, we took water samples from the Upper Deschutes Bridge and did bacterial staining from the water sources we collected previously.

 

Photographed: Small blue flowering plant near the bank of the artificial lake the facility created

Photographed: 2 small orange butterflies resting on white flowers

Photographed: Artificial pond at Hatchery location

Upper Deschutes Bridge Water Analysis:

Canopy Cover Data:

PAR AVG	310
Gap Fraction LAI	0.7
Leaf Angle	89.8
Sun flecks	4%
PAR LEI	1.3
Canopy Density	45.4%

 

Hydro Lab Data:

Temp	50.4
DO	1.24 mg/L
SPC	0.043 ms/cm
pH	9.45

 

Secchi Disk Data:

Visible at 120cm