Baker lake and Anderson Watson transects

Last Monday John and I monitored three transects at Baker River and three at Anderson Watson. It was a nice day out around 80 degrees with smoke in the air and close to no breeze; but the flies were out and about. At Baker River we saw foam flower and miners lettuce at all transects. Fireweed and buttercup were present in some areas but nearing the end of blooming.

Pink mountain heather

At Anderson Watson we had to go off trail to get to a couple of the transects which was adventurous and fun! Except for the flies once again in the 80 degree weather. At transect one, daisy, white mountain heather, foam flower, and five leaved bramble were moderately present. Bees were all around us collecting pollen mostly from pink heather - the most abundant flower. We also saw a few arnica flowers, queens cup, and hawkweed here. 

Walking up a stream bed with flowers all around, it was evident that transect two was more diverse but had many similar plants to the previous one. These included five leaved bramble, pink mountain heather, arnica, white mountain heather, and daisy. We also noted a few others such as pink monkey flower, lupin (which the bees loved!), partridge foot, slender bog orchid, veronica, sitka valerian, and sitka mountain ash which was almost done blooming.

Lupin

Bumblebee on arnica flower

The third transect was primarily made up of pink mountain heather and this is where we found too many bees to count. They were mainly visiting the pink heather but also the sitka valerian and white heather a bit. The majority of the bumblebees were bombus melanopygus but there were a variety of others as well. Hawkweed, marigold, arnica, and white mountain heather also grew there.


Overall snow was clearly well gone in all locations, and we found many of the flowering plants present were small and low to the ground. Bumblebees were definitely out in spite of the smokey air, and they seemed to have an affinity for the heathery meadows versus the areas with less but more diversity of flowers.

Baker River and Anderson Watson Lakes

On Monday John and I monitored three transects at Baker River and three at Anderson Watson. It was a nice day out around 80 degrees with smoke in the air and close to no breeze; but the flies were out and about. At Baker River we saw foam flower and miners lettuce at all transects. Fireweed and buttercup were present in some areas but nearing the end of blooming. Baker river didn’t have a huge amount of diversity in flowering plants overall.

At Anderson Watson we had to go off trail to get to a couple of the transects which was adventurous and fun! Except for the flies once again in the 80 degree weather. Daisy, white mountain heather, foam flower, and five leaved bramble were moderately present. Bees were all around us collecting pollen in large part from the most abundant flower however– the pink heather. We also saw a few arnica flowers, queens cup, and hawkweed here. Overall not a hugely diverse transect.

Transect two was more diverse but had many similar plants to the previous one including five leaved bramble, pink mountain heather, arnica, white mountain heather, and daisy. We also noted a few others such as pink monkey flower, lupin (which the bees loved!), partridge foot, slender bog orchid, veronica, sitka valerian, and sitka mountain ash which was almost done blooming.

The third transect was primarily made up of pink mountain heather and this is where we found too many bees to count. They were mainly visiting the pink heather but also the sitka valerian and white heather a bit. The majority of the bumblebees were melanopygys but there were a variety of others as well. Also within this transect we found hawkweed, marigold, arnica, and white mountain heather.

Fire meadows at Mt. Adams

The North Cascade Meadow Stewards are very interested in fire as an ecological means of maintaining flowering plant habitat in subalpine meadows. Two years ago, Jim Davis and I explored the site of a 5 year old burn on Johannesburg Mountain in the North Cascades. Last year, we explored the site of a 2015 fire on Stewart Mountain in the Cascade foothill near Bellingham. This year, we decided to explore the 2012 Cascade Creek burn on the flanks of Mount Adams.

A team including Katrina, Jazmen, Maddie, Collin, Jim, and I drove from Bellingham to Trout Lake and then on forest roads up to Stagman Ridge on the southwest side of Mt. Adams. We camped at the trailhead and spent all day Sunday looking at flowers and bees along the 4-mile ridge trail. It was interesting to compare the difference in vegetation between areas that had and hadn’t burned, as well as look at the difference in fire effects between montane and subalpine forests.

The forests around Mt. Adams have a drier feel than those on the western slopes of the North Cascades. The trail starts at 4200’ and climbs gently through an unburned corridor with an amazing diversity of young conifers including Douglas Fir, two types of hemlock, Engelmann Spruce, two types of pine, and two or three true firs. In areas that were open enough for light to reach the understory, shrubs like Ceonothus, Thimbleberry, Oregon Box, Serviceberry, Ocean Spray, and Bitter Cherry grew abundantly along with some wildflowers like Fireweed, Columbia Lily, Violets, and Sandworts.

Just before the Wilderness Boundary the trail crosses into the burned forests. The 2012 fire killed nearly all the trees and in the 5 years since, the ample light reaching the understory has created vigorous herb growth with scattered shrubs like Black Huckleberry and an occasional Blue Elderberry. This pattern continued as we gained elevation but with decreasing shrub regeneration and increasing dominance of sedges.

During our slow walk up Stagman Ridge we saw bumble bees on Lupine at the lower elevations, and butterflies on Columbia Lily and Penstemon at middle elevations. Jazmen continued up into the alpine beyond Stagman Ridge and saw more bumble bees.

There are many ways to make a mountain meadow. Environmental pressures like deep snow, shifting snow, cold temperatures, fire, and too much or too little water can all limit tree growth and make space for meadows. In the subalpine tension zone, minor alterations in these factors can have dramatic effects. For example, we are observing tree encroachment in many of the meadows around Mt. Baker with tree growth that is limited predominantly by snow pack and cold, and hypothesize that decreases in snow pack from climate change are responsible. In the subalpine forests near Mt. Adams, drought and fire appear to play a much more prominent role holding tree growth in check. Throughout the burn area I saw surprisingly little tree regeneration, even under Lodge Pole Pine, which supports the tension zone hypothesis and may also suggest that much of the burn area we walked was only forested as a result of fire suppression.

As an ethnobotanist, I could not help but notice the bounty of culturally significant plants to Sahaptin, Salishan, and Chinookan Native Americans along the burned portions of Stagman Ridge, especially in the upper montane and lower subalpine zones. Foods like Black Huckleberry, Fireweed, and Columbia Lily along with medicines like Osha, and materials like Beargrass were all abundant. I know that in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the newly established Gifford Pinchot National Forest put a lot of pressure on the Yakama and other tribes to cease their practice of burning mountain meadows. Seeing Stagman Ridge 5 years after a burn gives me a new appreciation for why the fire stick was such a useful land management tool for the Yakama.

Hannegan Pass July 10, 2017

Thimbleberry flower

Marie, Collin, and I (Maddie) monitored the three Hannegan pass transects. The snow has long since melted in all of these transects and the flowers are blooming prolifically. The difference in phenology between the lowest and highest Hannegan pass transects is much less now than it was a month ago. Many tall, herbaceous, and shrubby flowering plants were blooming such as cow parsnip, fireweed, goats beard, thimbleberry, salmon berry, foam flower, and columbine. Bleeding heart had faded at the lower transects, but was at peak bloom at the highest transect. Despite the abundance of flowers, only a couple bumblebees were spotted, possible because of a partially clouded sky and breezy conditions.