BULLETIN OF THE CALIFORNIA LICHEN SOCIETY 20(2), 2013 Carlberg - Trinity Alps Inventory Initial Lichen Inventory of the Trinity Alps Wilderness Tom Carlberg USDA Forest Service, Six Rivers National Forest [email protected] Lichen inventories on Forest Service lands are lichens on National Forests in northwest few. The Trinity Alps Wilderness is a unique and California. Large portions of National Forest complex area ofmultiple vegetations, geologies, lands have been fragmented by logging and and moisture regimes, providing numerous related road construction. Wilderness areas, habitats for lichen diversity. Six different while not exempt from the disturbance of wild- locations were inventoried in 2013, resulting in fire, are relatively undisturbed by land manage- 89 species recorded. An additional 13 species ment activities and also capture relatively wide were added from incidental records. Collection elevational gradients and thus diverse vegetative locations and significant species are discussed. communities, providing an advantageous setting Additional areas are identified for future for lichen inventory. inventories. GEOGRAPHIC SETTING The Trinity Alps is a 525,627-acre Wilder- INTRODUCTION Lichen inventory data for federally- ness located primarily in northern Trinity administered lands is scant to nonexistent. County in northern California, and except for While there is a policy document (NPS 2001) approximately 4623 acres under the jurisdiction and a monitoring program (NPS 2014) in place of the Bureau of Land Management, is admin- for the national parks in the United States, it is istered by the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Six currently estimated to be only 46% complete. In Rivers National Forests. The Wilderness also California there are only three published crosses the boundaries of Trinity, Siskiyou and inventories for national parks (Knudsen & Humboldt Counties; the county boundaries Kokourkova 2012; Hutten et al. 2013; Knudsen coincide with the National Forest boundaries. et al. 2013). Additional inventories are recom- The wilderness is located in the Salmon and mended (McCune et al. 2007). For the much Scott Mountains, subranges of the Klamath larger land area managed by the US Forest Mountains. Elevations range from 2400 feet in Service, no formal lichen inventories have been the Stuart Fork Canyon to just over 9000 feet at made, aside from species-specific surveys Thomson Peak (Ferlatte 1974). Rainfall varies conducted within the range of the northern between 29 and 107 inches of precipitation spotted owl, as part of the Survey and Manage annually (Gibson et al. 2002); higher elevations component of the Northwest Forest Plan. typically receive greater precipitation than low. Informal inventory data exist in the form of The following information on the geology spatial queries of online lichen herbaria of the Trinity Alps Wilderness is excerpted from (CNALH, UC Riverside, NY Botanic Garden), Davis et. al, 1965: but data for these are incidental rather than "The oldest rocks are Pre-Upper Jurassic focused. metamorphics. Igneous rocks are younger, The objective of this work was to initiate a mostly Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous in focused inventory and collection of macro- age. Plutons at Caribou Mountain and in 71 BULLETIN OF THE CALIFORNIA LICHEN SOCIETY 20(2), 2013 Carlberg - Trinity Alps Inventory Canyon Creek are quartz diorite; there are due to the Corral and Baker fires of 2013. This also large ultramafic outcrops, most of which was unfortunate because the west side (approx- have altered to serpentine. The youngest imately west of the New River) receives more rocks are Quaternary glacial deposits, alluvium and talus". moisture than the rest of the Wilderness, both in precipitation and also in relative humidity Portions of the vascular flora are (PRISM 2010). The resulting loss of inventory predominantly Sierran, a unique occurrence for diversity was significant. mountains that lie only sixty miles from the Locations 7, 8 and 9 were not a formal part Pacific Ocean. The following ecological zones of this Inventory. They represent earlier occur (Ferlatte 1974): mixed conifer forest, red collections from my personal herbarium, and fir forest, subalpine forest, alpine fell-field, and were made during casual recreational trips into montane chaparral. the Alps and surrounding areas, or were col- lected during field work for Six Rivers National COLLECTION LOCATIONS Forest. All collections (Table 1) have been Inventory locations were chosen to capture accessioned into the herbarium at the California as much of the habitat diversity of the Wilder- Academy of Sciences (CAS). ness as was practical (Figure 1), given the time 1. East Fork New River Trail. 33 species. and funding available. Visits to west side Portions of this trail had burned during the locations around Limestone Ridge, Tish Tang 1999 Megram Fire, but as was typical of the Creek and Mill Creek Lakes had to be cancelled patchy nature of Megram, certain areas remain- ed unburned, despite their proximity to areas of high- intensity burn. East Fork New River Trail follows the north bank of the East Fork, beginning at about 2000’ elevation. Except for the river benches the habitat is a relatively uni- form moist vegetation type, and consists primarily of early- to late-mature Pseudotsuga menziesii/No- tholithocarpus densiflora forest mixed with Caloc- edrus decurrens and Pinus ponderosa in slightly drier areas, and Acer macro- phyllum where more mois- ture is available. Small Quercus garryana wood- lands less than 10 acres in size are scant along the portions of the trail sur- veyed. On old river benches the vegetation Figure 1 . Trinity Alps Wilderness, showing collection locations (white dots). changes to an Alnus 72 BULLETIN OF THE CALIFORNIA LICHEN SOCIETY 20(2), 2013 Carlberg - Trinity Alps Inventory rhombifolia/Acer macrophyllum forest with an While the pattern of burning is a beautiful understory of Cornus canadensis and Taxus example of an old-growth forest’s tendency brevifolia. Light levels can be very low and towards ground-hugging fire (it may in fact have moisture is available year-round. been a controlled back-burn), it also demon- Due to the valley bottom slope position strates that ground-based fire is catastrophic to (McCune et al.2002) and hardwood species, any plant community less than eight feet tall. cyanolichens are well-represented on trees and There was no vascular plant understory and sometimes on the ground along many parts of virtually no graminoid presence in any surveyed the trail. Collema nigrescens, Nephroma helvet- part of this trail. Lichens that are typically found icum, N. resupinatum and Pseudocyphellaria on soil, soil on rocks, directly on small and large anthraspis are common on maple and yew rocks, or on tree bases or the cut banks of trails branches and trunks. The lowest portions of were completely absent from all parts of the mossy clustered dogwood trunks host smaller Green Mountain Trail. No specimens were cyanolichens: Leptogium palmatum, L. polycar- found of the common terrestrial/saxicolous pum, and Fuscopannaria pacifica. Some of the genera Peltigera, Leptogium, Cladonia, Lepto- larger cyanolichens are also present in the drier chidium, Polychidium, Fuscopannaria, and Garry oak stands, including Lobaria hallii. Massalongia. Terrestrial lichens are present in unburned 3. Canyon Creek Trail. 58 species. portions of the trail, but species diversity is low. This popular backpacking trail had the least 2. Green Mountain Trail. 17 species. elevational gradient and the greatest substrate Green Mountain Trail begins at 5,050’ in a diversity of any inventoried location. Lower small Quercus garryana grassland, and climbs portions of the trail are Pseudotsuga men- steeply up the southeast ridge of Brushy ziesii/Abies concolor/Notholithocarpus densi- Mountain, ascending through a mixed early- flora forest with regular Quercus kelloggii and mature/old-growth forest of Pseudotsuga men- frequent Quercus chrysolepus, Calocedrus ziesii/Abies grandis/Abies magnifica, until ap- decurrens and Abies magnifica, as well as Acer proximately 5,800’, where Douglas-fir drops macrophyllum where more moisture is available. out, and the forest is composed entirely of fir Small granite boulders are common along the trees. Lichen species conformed to that of a lower trail, increasing in size and frequency typical mid-elevation mid- to upper-slope fir approaching the subalpine parts of the trail. forest, with Alectoria sarmentosa, Platismatia Portions of the first 1.5 miles of the trail show glauca, P. stenophylla, Letharia columbiana, L. evidence of a controlled underburn. Above vulpina, Esslingeriana idahoensis, Bryoria Canyon Creek Falls, tree size and diversity in- pseudofuscescens, and Hypogymnia imshaugii creased – Picea breweriana, Tsuga mertensiana, dominating the boles and/or litterfall. some large (>40”dbh) Pinus lambertiana and P. Parmeliopsis ambigua grew abundantly on tree ponderosa, Pinus monticola, and Populus butts, and P. hyperopta was notably absent. trichocarpa are present in various locations in Species diversity is low, and in keeping with its the meadows paralleling the creek. slope position (Berryman & McCune 2006), Canyon Creek Trail resembles East Fork cyanolichens were expectedly absent from this New River Trail in that both have a vegetation relatively high-elevation ridgetop trail. type indicative of a mesic habitat, which in Greater species diversity would have been combination with the absence of widespread