Hands-On Seeps and Springs: North Rim Bison Impacts Survey July 13-18, 2020 with: Steve Monroe & Wendy Hodgson

CLASS DESCRIPTION/AIM Special Considerations This trip is purposefully timed to correspond with The North Rim is a sky island, separated from like the flowering period with the arrival of the habitats by vast expanses of desert in all directions. The summer monsoonal rains. Weather in early-July at North Rim flora has affinities with the flora of the Rocky 8500 ft is typically dry, hot and sunny, so bring Mountains, but harbors plant species not found elsewhere. light-weight, light-colored pants and long-sleeved Springs and ponds harbor plant species not found elsewhere, shirt and sunhat. You should, however, be much as hanging gardens do within the Canyon. Many of prepared for rain just in case. these springs are routinely used by a bison herd brought to House Rock Valley—adjacent to the Kaibab Plateau—in All equipment necessary for locating and the early 1900s. The herd expanded in size and now describing spring and ponds, and for making roams inside Grand Canyon’s North Rim boundaries and hydrologicHodgson measurements will be supplied. These the surrounding National Forest. During the next few July include2-5, GPS2019 units, compasses, water quality years the National Park Service plans to reduce the size of meters, and discharge measurement devices. All the herd. In 2010-11 and 2014, researchers surveyed the observations we make will follow established impacts of the bison on the North Rim’s springs and protocols and will be recorded on datasheets or in ponds. We will resurvey many of the same springs and personal notebooks. Items which would be useful ponds, providing park management staff information about for both collecting and studying the plants we find the status of these sites. include: a small hand weed-pulling tool (something you would use to pull dandelions from Steve Monroe and Wendy Hodgson will teach your lawn), sharp knife (for example an extendable regional ecology, hydrology, and local plant lore and disposable sheetrock knife, they are while day hiking to remote springs and ponds of lightweight and sharp). You may want to have a the North Rim. We will work “hands-on” notebook to make drawings or record your own documenting the condition of the springs and observations. If you don’t have these items, don’t ponds including any disturbances; we’ll evaluate feel that you have to make a huge effort to acquire threats; and will collect plant specimens. them. We can make do with what we have. A hand lens is the one item that each person would This car camping trip involves day hikes of up to most appreciate having. We will make notes on 6-10 miles each at elevations of up to 9000 feet collections on datasheets and in our personal field and may include a hike to a spring below the books. We will also provide plant presses and canyon rim. We’ll start with trips of shorter newsprint for preserving the specimens. If you duration and work up to longer trips by the end of have two-way radios, please bring them. They can the week. Our destinations for these often off- be handy. trail day hikes will be remote springs, sinks, and ponds on the North Rim, sometimes involving We will visit one to several spring(s) or pond(s) travel through brushy, spiny vegetation. each day, describing the site, making hydrologic measurements, and collecting vascular plants. We Participants should expect to help make expect to visit at least 10 spring and ponds during hydrological measurements, observe spring this trip, and the level of difficulty required to conditions and characteristics, learn some basic access these sites varies, so our itinerary is flexible, plant identification skills, press plant collections, depending on the abilities and the desires of the and collect a variety of data associated with each participants. Expect to be out hiking much of spring or pond. Along the way, we will discuss each day. unique aspects of the flora and geology of the region, and enjoy the excitement of exploring We will carpool using high clearance four-wheel little-visited areas of the Park. drive vehicles. Please let Steve know whether you have a suitable vehicle we can bring.

Each participant will be responsible for all of their July 16 Survey Kanabownits and Barrel Springs; own meals. Camp at Swamp Point July 17 Survey Muav Saddle Spring; Camp at Wendy and Steve will bring the six-volume set, Swamp Point Intermountain Flora, with its incredible line drawings. They will also have the Annotated DAY 5 Checklist of Vascular Plants of Grand Canyon National Park, Monograph 7. Participants may We’ll pack up camp and drive back to the North want to have their own copies of more popular Rim Campground. Along the way we’ll survey one plant treatments including: or two more springs. We’ll disband from there in mid-afternoon. Epple, Anne Orth and Lewis E. Epple. 1995. A field guide to the plants of Arizona. Falcon ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTORS Publishing, Helena, Montana. 1-800-582-2665.

Steve Monroe holds an M.S. in Forestry from Phillips, Arthur M. III and John Richardson. 1979. Northern Arizona University., Steve worked as an Grand Canyon Wildflowers. Grand Canyon ecohydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and Natural History Association, Flagstaff, Arizona. National Park Service for more than 25 years, and

is currently based in Durango, Colorado. Steve’s ITINERARY work has been focused on water issues in national

parks throughout the Southern Colorado Plateau DAY 1 and one particular interest of his has been the

hydrology and ecology of springs in the Grand We will meet at the Grand Canyon National Canyon. Steve is an avid explorer of the Four Park’s North Rim Campground Kiosk (Google Corners region, hiking and skiing in the areas Map) at 12:00 pm (AZ MST). spectacular mountains, and wandering endless

canyons by boat and on foot. We should be prepared for the day with lunch, water, and raingear packed. After a quick Wendy Hodgson is a certified desert rat, having introduction of the class’s objectives we’ll proceed lived in the Sonoran Desert for 49 years. She is a to nearby springs where we will learn field research botanist, herbarium curator and botanical methods and talk about geology and ecology of illustrator and has been with the Desert Botanical the North Rim. Camp in the North Rim Garden for 44 years. Her areas of interest and Campground. research include southwest US and northern

Mexico floristics. For over 25 years she has been DAYS 2-4 documenting and studying plants within Grand

Canyon National Park, including the evolution We aim to start our work days at 8 am and will car and distribution of certain plant groups as affected pool to a variety of locations to carry out our by the unique factors characteristic of this area. survey work. We’ll be away from camp until Her research also focuses on taxonomy and approx. 6:00 pm each day and therefore you’ll systematics of Agave and Yucca, including the need to plan your lunch and water for the day. study of pre-Columbian agave domesticates,

Cactaceae, Sonoran Desert ethnobotany, and rare Camps will not have any water or facilities and and endemic plants. Wendy is the author of therefore everyone needs to be prepared. Items, in numerous scientific papers and the illustrated addition to your regular car-camping gear, that book, Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert you’ll find useful: shovel, toilet paper and Ziplocs (University of Arizona Press), winner of the 2002 for your toilet; comfortable camp chair; water Klinger Book Award, presented by the Society for containers such a REI Water Sacks. Your Economic Botany. instructors will have several 7-gallon containers of water. RECOMMENDED GENERAL READING

Tentaively, we’ll aim to following this work plan: Anderson, Michael. Living at the Edge: Explorers, Exploiters, and Settlers of the Grand July 14 Survey Crystal Spring and Pond; Camp at Canyon Region. Point Sublime July 15 Survey Springs 02 and 03; Camp at Point Sublime Anderson, Michael F. Polishing the Jewel: An RECOMMENDED WEBSITES Administrative History of Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon National Park: http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/springs. Carothers, Steven and Bryan Brown. The htm Colorado River through the Grand Canyon: Natural History and Human Change. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/nature/bison.ht m Coder, Christopher. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Prehistory. Spring Stewardship Institute: http://www.springstewardship.org/ Price, Greer. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet): Ranney, Wayne. Carving Grand Canyon. http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php

Sadler, Christa. Life in Stone. Whitney, Stephen. A Field Guide to the Grand Most of these books and other interpretive aids Canyon. can be purchased at Grand Canyon Conservancy bookstores on the north and south rims, online at PROGRAM SPECIFIC READING www.grandcanyon.org or by calling 800-858-2808. Epple, Anne Orth and Lewis E. Epple. 1995. A GCC supporters receive a 15% discount field guide to the plants of Arizona. Falcon Publishing, Helena, Montana. 1-800-582-2665.

Huisinga, Makarick, and Watters. 2006. River and Desert Plants of the Grand Canyon. Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula Montana.

Phillips, Arthur M. III and John Richardson. 1979. Grand Canyon Wildflowers. Grand Canyon Natural History Association, Flagstaff, Arizona.

Stevens, Lawrence E. and Vicky J. Meteretsky, Editors, Aridland Springs in North America: Ecology and Conservation (foreword by Gary Paul Nabhan), The University of Tucson Press, and The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 36, no. 9, pp. 2059-2060.