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Vegetation of the Pando Clone Aspen Forest

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Vegetation of the Pando Clone Aspen Forest Vegetation of the Pando Clone Aspen Forest Marc Coles-Ritchie Utah Native Plant Society November 7, 2019 What is Pando Clone? Aspen forest In Central Utah, by Fish Lake Forest Service land 106 acres Single organism with many stems (approx. 47,000) Pando = “I spread” in Latin Largest known organism in world Pando Clone (106 acres) Exclosure (15 acres) Deer & cattle eat young aspen Video No Trees Replace Old Trees Old aspen trees die Cattle & deer eat the young aspen sprouts Few if any young trees are able to grow tall Cattle and deer eat herbaceous vegetation Efforts to Protect and Restore Pando Aspen Forest Fences, to keep cattle and deer from eating all the aspen sprouts. 1980s: logging and clear-cuts, but no regrowth 1992: exclosure fence built around a clear-cut area; single age cohort (thicket) 2013: exclosure Exclosure Fence Grand Canyon Trust work in Pando Weed removal Repeat Photos Plant Survey Volunteers, with Grand Canyon Trust 2017 2018 2019 Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) Biennial plant Noxious weed (Utah Dept of Ag) Dispersed by animals (& people) Thrives in disturbed places By Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA - Cynoglossum officinale Uploaded by Tim1357, CC BY-SA 2.0, First year plant Second year plant; flowers Seeds (second year plant only) Houndstongue removal 1st year plants: dig up 2nd year plants: cut at base; bag flowers/seeds Removed 3,000 to 8,000 plants per year (3 years Over time: fewer plants with seedheads; most plants are small seedlings. First year plant Repeat Photo Points (30) in Pando Exclosure Repeat photos, show aspen recovery 2014 (year fence built) 2019 (5 years after fence built) Repeat photos, show aspen recovery 2015 (1 year after fence built) 2019 (5 years after fence built) Repeat photos, show aspen recovery 2015 (1 year after fence built) 2019 (5 years after fence built) Plant Survey for Pando Clone Exclosure by Grand Canyon Trust & Volunteers 110 species Native vs not 62 forbs 103 native 27 graminoids 7 introduced 16 shrubs Duration 5 trees 103 perennial 7 annual/biennial elkweed (Frasera speciosa) lobeleaf groundsel (Packera multilobata) Colorado blue columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) Fish Lake thistle (Cirsium clavatum) Martin's ceanothus (Ceanothus martinii) Utah bird's-foot trefoil (Lotus utahensis) redroot buckwheat (Eriogonum racemosum) hairy clematis (Clematis hirsutissima) manyflowered stoneseed (Lithospermum multiflorum) Parry's gentian (Gentiana parryi) pale agoseris (Agoseris glauca) purple milkvetch (Astragalus agrestis) Carruth's sagewort (Artemisia carruthii) Wyoming Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia) bristly cryptantha (Cryptantha setosissima) smooth penstemon (Penstemon subglaber) Conditions at Pando Aspen trees in Pando are not being replaced because cattle and deer are eating young stems. Pando’s aspen could be gone in the future Fenced Exclosures Prevent browsing of young aspen stems Allow aspen to grow to be trees Herbaceous vegetation is abundant and diverse Volunteers successfully reducing non-native vegetation (houndstongue) You can help protect Pando Come on a volunteer trip with Grand Canyon Trust www.grandcanyontrust.org/volunteer Tell the Fishlake National Forest to manage this land to allow aspen to recover Acknowledgements Photos: Reuben Jolley, Andrey Zharkikh, volunteers (numerous) Grand Canyon Trust Mary O’Brien Volunteer Program Fishlake National Forest Western Watersheds Project Paul Rogers, Western Aspen Alliance.
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