05-13-16 Field Work Field Note

Jeff Clarke shares observations and an account of the field crew's week of work at MPG North.

Spring cleanup, lodge pole thinning, exclosure maintenance May 6th,

The ranch field crew visited MPG North this week to help out with spring cleaning. We canvassed the entire property and fixed every compromised plastic exclosure.

We found many tattered exclosures with healthy trees within. This hawthorn, planted in 2009, had been browsed several times.

These hawthorns were also planted in 2009 but remained protected from hungry ungulate mouths. We will remove these exclosures later this year and protect them with a buck and rail fence.

The Entrance Meadow exclosure continued to pump high voltages (trust me, I checked) to protect the plants within. We removed all the metal and most plastic exclosures inside as they weren’t needed anymore.

We repurposed the metal exclosure material to protect the massive planted trees along Entrance Marsh.

We also used metal exclosures to protect areas with copious cottonwood and aspen suckers. These exclosures should be filled with knee high suckers by the year’s end!

We released several large aspen and cottonwood trees from their outgrown plastic exclosures.

We removed all the exclosures around planted rocky mountain juniper. We found that deer rarely browse them, but they do rub them with their antlers. We left the wood stakes to protect the juniper from aggressive young bucks.

We used to protect trees with these small yellow tubes, but plants quickly outgrow them. Our tree protection methods continue to evolve.

Used plastic exclosures were taken to the ranch and we burned the wood stakes.

Lodgepole grows fast and often outcompetes more desirable trees like larch, ponderosa, aspens, and cottonwoods for sunlight. To provide the desired trees with additional sunlight and nutrients, we sawed down adjacent lodgepole pine trees.

We attempted to fall the trees into piles and “hinge” them. The hinged piles should should protect new recruitment from browse and provide additional wildlife habitat.

We hinged this tree a few years ago. Part of the heartwood and cambium stayed connected over the years and continues to pump nutrients and water to its extremities.

The entire tree stayed green and has begun to send several growth leaders skyward.

More than a decade ago, Mark Vander Meer’s crew planted hundreds of two-year-old ponderosa pine and western white pine across the property. They didn’t exclose any of them. It’s not hard to find these trees that are more than eight feet tall now!

Mark Kulman delivered more than a mile of rails. We will use these materials to build buck and rail fences around planted trees.

A mature cottonwood fell on a metal exclosure which opened it to the hungry deer. As we mended the fence, we noticed ungulate sign inside the exclosure.

A mature cottonwood fell on a metal exclosure which opened it to the hungry deer. As we mended the fence, we noticed ungulate sign inside the exclosure.

Another deer skull looked like it had been crushed by some carnivore. We found wolf scat nearby.

At first glance, this looked like a delicious edible morel!

Upon further inspection, I found that it was a common false morel. The separation between cap and stem and white cotton-like fibers within the stem distinguished it from a true morel.

Oregon grape flowers also showed off their beauty.

Posted on 5/13/2016 by Anonymous

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About MPG North

Established in 2005, the property boundary at MPG North encloses 200 undeveloped acres in Western Montana’s Swan Valley. Researchers and field staff manage the property to improve habitat quality for wildlife, discover new ways to restore damaged landscapes and study forest ecology. We also create opportunities to share what we've learned with local conservation organizations, students of all ages, management agencies and volunteers. Through these education and outreach efforts, we seek to inspire others to work together and protect undeveloped landscapes.