For the Love of Grass IX Botanizing the Snake River Plains and Bonneville Lakebeds and Shorelines Jack Carlson, Wendall Oaks, Larry Holzworth, Dan Ogle, and Wendell Hassell May 10-15, 2016 Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 Day 1 – Monday, May 10 .................................................................................................... 5 Inventory Site 1 – Forage and Range Reseach Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Logan, Logan County, Utah ............................................................................. 5 Inventory Site 2 – Curlew National Grassland, Oneida County, Idaho ................................ 8 Day 2 – Tuesday, May 11 .................................................................................................. 13 Inventory Site 3 – Aberdeen Plant Materials Center (PMC), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Bingham County, Idaho ...................................................... 13 Inventory Site 4 – Coffee Point, Bingham County, Idaho .................................................... 17 Day 3 – Wednesday, May 12 ............................................................................................ 21 Inventory Site 4A – Big Lost River Rest Area, Butte County, Idaho .................................. 21 Inventory Site 4B – Craters of the Moon National Monument, Butte County, Idaho ....... 22 Inventory Site 5 – Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh Wildlife Management Area, Camas County, Idaho ............................................................................................................................. 26 Inventory Site 6 – Castle Rocks, Elmore County, Idaho ...................................................... 29 Day 4 – Thursday, May 13 ................................................................................................ 34 Inventory Site 7 – Orchard, Ada County, Idaho ..................................................................... 34 Inventory Site 8 – Thousand Springs, Twin Falls County, Idaho ....................................... 39 Inventory Site 9A – Balanced Rock, Twin Falls County, Idaho ........................................... 42 Inventory Site 9B – Highway 93 Roadside, Twin Falls County, Idaho ............................... 46 Day 5 – Friday, May 14 ...................................................................................................... 47 Inventory Site 10 – Trout Creek, Elko County, Nevada ........................................................ 47 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 53 2 For the Love of Grass IX Introduction Intrepid botanizers rendezvoused in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday, May 9, 2016 for the ninth Love of Grass trek. Those convening were Larry Holzworth, Wendell Hassell, Wendall Oaks, and Jack Carlson. New trekker Dan Ogle, retired Idaho Plant Materials Specialist, joined us later at the Aberdeen Plant Materials Center (PMC) on Tuesday, May 11th. Bob MacLauchlan, Curtis Sharp, and Fred Gaffney were not able to participate this go-round, and therefore were assigned to choose the location of the 10th trek in 2017. After arrival on the 9th we were treated to dinner by Wendall, his wife Barbara, and daughter-in-law Kristen at her home in Mountain Green in the mountains east of Ogden. Barbara’s son James, a pilot for Delta Airlines based in Salt Lake City, was on flight duty. From their home we looked across the valley to the Snowbasin ski resort. Our trek this year took us north to Logan, Curlew National Grasslands, Aberdeen Plant Materials Center, Coffee Point, west to Craters of the Moon National Monument, Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh, Castle Rocks, south to Orchard, Thousand Springs, and back east to Balanced Rock, south to Trout Creek, and then south and east back to Salt Lake City. We started on an old Bonneville lakebed (Logan), then its northern shoreline (Curlew), Bonneville flood deposits (Aberdeen) and the Snake River plains (Craters of the Moon, Camas, Orchard, Balanced Rock), a volcanic track across southern Idaho formed by the North American continental plate passing over the Yellowstone Hot Spot. Finally, the last stop (Trout Creek) in Nevada was situated on valley fill of the Basin and Range province featuring mountain ranges and valleys generally running north and south. All part of a very geologically active area the past 17 million years, likely triggered by a large meteor impact in eastern Oregon creating a weakness in the earth’s crust and resulting hot spot, now the Yellowstone caldera. The Flora of North America considers the area of our trek to be part of the Great Basin Floristic Province, with the flora developed since Miocene times (5-23 million years before present). Drought and cold characterize the province, with prominent species big sagebrush, saltbush, juniper, oak, and pine. Well developed genera include cryptantha, lomatium, gilia, paintbrush, rabbitbrush, fleabane, and phacelia, with cool-season perennial grasses. For the Love of Grass IX 3 We identified 428 plants of 218 species at the 10 inventory sites (plus 2 brief stops). The most frequently encountered plants were: Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) – introduced, 11 sites Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus) – native, 9 sites Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda) – native, 9 sites Bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) – native, 8 sites Siberian wheatgrass (Agropyron fragile), introduced, 7 sites Green rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) – native, 7 sites Western tansymustard (Descurainia pinnata) – native, 7 sites Western yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – native, 6 sites Rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) – native, 6 sites Tall tumblemustard (Sisymbrium altissimum) – native, 6 sites As with previous inventories, we used the nomenclature of the PLANTS database (http://plants.usda.gov). We recorded species as they were spotted, took photographs, and then used PLANTS county lists, and university herbaria databases from http://intermountainbiota.org and http://www.pnwherbaria.org for verification. Figure 1. USDA-ARS Forage and Range Research Laboratory North Farm looking northeast to Wasatch Mountains near Logan, Utah, situated on old lakebed of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville 4 For the Love of Grass IX Day 1 – Monday, May 10 Inventory Site 1 – Forage and Range Reseach Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Logan, Logan County, Utah Our group departed Ogden in the morning driving north to Logan and the Forage and Range Research Laboratory (FRRL) located on the campus of Utah State University. There we met long-time friends and colleagues Dr. Tom Jones and Dr. Doug Johnson and caught up on their productive plant development and research for the Intermountain Area. They have published a plant materials release catalog providing a great overview of their past and current work: https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/20801000/catalog_interactive_highcondensed.pdf The following link provides access to FRRL publications to find out more about their work. https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/forage-and-range-research/ Figure 2. Tom Jones and Doug Johnson briefing us on current FRRL projects. Figure 3. Basin wildrye spring green-up For the Love of Grass IX 5 Over the past 50 years FRRL has provided the foundation for understanding the ecology and genetics of native and adapted species of the Intermountain Area, enabling extensive progams to reverse degradation and stustain healthy rangelands. Tom and Doug gave us a tour of their greenhouses containing native plants being grown for field studies. Then after lunch we visited the North Farm examining the evaluation plots and seed fields. During our visit we jotted down several species encountered in the greenhouse and fields: Scientific Name Common Name Type Origin Achillea millefolium L. common yarrow Forb Native Achnatherum hymenoides (Roem. & Schult.) indian ricegrass Graminoid Native Barkworth Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn. crested wheatgrass Graminoid Introduced Agropyron fragile (Roth) P. Candargy Siberian wheatgrass Graminoid Introduced Astragalus filipes Torr. ex A. Gray basalt milkvetch Legume Native Bassia prostrata (L.) A.J. Scott forage kochia Shrub Introduced Bromus biebersteinii Roem. & Schult. meadow brome Graminoid Introduced Bromus riparius Rehmann meadow brome Graminoid Introduced Convolvulus arvensis L. field bindweed Vine Introduced Dalea ornata (Douglas ex Hook.) Eaton & J. Blue Mountain prairie Legume Native Wright clover Dalea searlsiae (A. Gray) Barneby Searl's prairie clover Legume Native Elymus elymoides (raf.) Swezey squirreltail Graminoid Native Elymus hoffmannii K.B. Jensen & K.H. Asay RS wheatgrass Graminoid Introduced Elymus lanceolatus (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Gould thickspike wheatgrass Graminoid Native Elymus multisetus M.E. Jones big squirreltail Graminoid Native Elymus wawawaiensis J. Carlson & Barkworth Snake River wheatgrass Graminoid Native Lactuca serriola L. prickly lettuce Forb Introduced Leymus angustus (Trin.) Pilg. Altai wildrye Graminoid Introduced Leymus cinereus (Scribn. & Merr.) Á. Löve basin wildrye Graminoid Native Leymus salinus (M.E. Jones) Á. Löve saline wildrye Graminoid Native Leymus triticoides (Buckley) Pilg. beardless wildrye Graminoid Native Medicago sativa L. alfalfa Legume Introduced Medicago sativa L. subsp. falcata (L.) Arcang. yellow alfalfa Legume