{"id":67819,"date":"2016-03-16T10:01:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T17:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=67819"},"modified":"2016-03-16T10:01:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T17:01:21","slug":"unauthorized-trails-and-asclepias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=67819","title":{"rendered":"Unauthorized Trails and Asclepias"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Time flies when you\u2019re an intern! Apparently.<\/p>\n

A month has passed since I began work with the San Bernardino National Forest. The snow melted. Then it snowed again. Somewhere in between things picked up for us.<\/p>\n

The SBNF restoration staff tackle an incredible number of responsibilities, and we\u2019ve been busy learning how projects are carried out and prioritized on what is, apparently, one of the most heavily utilized patches of public land in the country. Every weekend the (human) population explodes in Big Bear. Thousands come from all over southern California to snowboard, ski, hike, climb, fish, and drive through the mud. While most forest users treat the area with respect, others do not, and thus restoration is necessary.<\/p>\n

One of the most common and damaging illegal practices on the forest is the creation of unauthorized off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails. Many miles of legal \u201cgreen sticker\u201d routes already traverse the forest. I\u2019ve driven on them. They\u2019re beautiful. They climb stunning ridgelines and cross desert streams. The Forest Service and partnering organization the Southern California Mountains Foundation (SCMF)\u00a0has worked to carefully designate and manage these routes. But, instead of sticking to them, some users drive off and pass into wilderness. Where one ATV, dirt bike, or jeep goes, others are bound to follow. Before long, there are miles and miles of crushed native plants and otherwise damaged habitat. In the desert where plant growth is incredibly slow and other pressures abound, these\u00a0ecosystems could take extreme lengths of time to naturally recover. Indeed, they may never return to a previous state on their own.<\/p>\n

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The SBNF restoration program\u00a0receives funding from the state of California to close off unauthorized\u00a0trails and attempt revegetation. Following closure, restoration sites require years of monitoring to ensure drivers stay\u00a0away and plants grow in properly. The program utilizes a small number of staff and volunteers to cover a lot of ground. It\u2019s interesting to hear which methods of closure work depending on locations and varieties of use. For example, heavier cable fences are used\u00a0to cut off\u00a0high traffic routes, while T-post fences or even scattered tree branches are sufficient on smaller paths. Some unauthorized trails are allowed to passively revegetate, while others are seeded and others still planted with native\u00a0plants grown in\u00a0our greenhouse. Seed\u00a0is always collected from plants already occurring\u00a0nearby. In\u00a0many cases, these methods have proven remarkably successful.<\/p>\n

In the future, many of the plants in our restoration\u00a0greenhouse will be grown with the dual\u00a0purpose of promoting the health of pollinating insects! The program recently received funding for the enhancement of pollinator habitat, which is\u00a0a subject I’m very much interested in and also one of the reasons I was so excited to join the team here.\u00a0This work is supported by the National Pollinator Strategy–organized and endorsed\u00a0by the White House! It is also supported by regional\u00a0Forest\u00a0Service\u00a0best management practice\u00a0guidelines.\u00a0I’m happy\u00a0to see pollinators recognized as valuable on these significant governmental\u00a0levels!\u00a0A few\u00a0weeks back we started planting a few hundred milkweed seeds. Milkweeds, of course, are\u00a0the primary food source for\u00a0monarch butterfly larvae. Three local species were planted in small pots and \u201cflats\u201d: Asclepias californica, A. fascicularis, and A. eriocarpa<\/em>. Thousands more are to be planted in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6344\"<\/a>\"IMG_6333\"\"IMG_6346\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of plants and pollinators, I\u2019ve also started work on a major update of a restoration document intended to guide the revegetation of disturbed sites within the various \u201cvegetation communities\u201d of the\u00a0SBNF. This\u00a0“work horse” species document\u00a0describes the forest\u2019s many varied habitats, the\u00a0expertly recommended\u00a0“work horse” species to be utilized in their recovery, and the specific value of these species to pollinators. Pretty cool!<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m very much looking forward to growing more familiar with\u00a0these unique\u00a0vegetation communities\u00a0and pollinator ecology in general. I\u2019m also excited\u00a0to see the Asclepias seedlings grow up. One day they’ll be Asclepias adults, and I’m hopeful to see a few out-planted before the end of my internship. Finally, outside of work, I\u2019m taking every opportunity to explore my surroundings in southern California. Visits to Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley, the Salton Sea, Los Angeles, and San Diego are on the horizon!<\/p>\n

Note: I would like to apologize to the good people of the Inland Empire for misspelling San Bernardino three times in my previous post. \u00a0That semi-silent R threw me for a loop. Won\u2019t happen again!<\/p>\n

Brandon Drucker<\/p>\n

Mountaintop Ranger District
\nSan BernaRdino National Forest
\nFawnskin, California<\/p>\n

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Time flies when you\u2019re an intern! Apparently. A month has passed since I began work with the San Bernardino National Forest. The snow melted. Then it snowed again. Somewhere in between things picked up for us. The SBNF restoration staff … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7236,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67819"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67948,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67819\/revisions\/67948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}