Wallowa Resources' Wallowa Canyonlands Partnership is in the thick of the field season. Our field season means being in the thick of noxious weeds. We're currently using funds from the National Forest Foundation Matching Awards Program to manage some of the most pernicious weeds in our region, including rush skeletonweed, whitetop, meadow hawkweed, and common bugloss.
This map shows some of the areas we've treated (red lines) and areas where we've surveyed (pink lines) using NFF's generous funding.
We completed a comprehensive survey of the Grouse Creek
watershed, a high priority for Wallowa-Whitman National Forest land managers,
because it hadn't been surveyed in years. Unfortunately, our surveys found a large
and new infestation of meadow hawkweed in Grouse Creek canyon—we know where we'll target a lot of work for the
next couple of years. Thanks to
surveying, we know what's out there to start managing it better with our public
and private partners.
One of our success stories is reduced numbers of rush
skeletonweed near College Creek. Our
contractors continue to brave the steep canyons to access priority weeds in
rough country.
One of our main goals as a program is to foster resilient
habitats for myriad species, like these bighorn sheep, who probably aren't
going to munch on the noxious weed whitetop, seen in the foreground on this
photo from Horse Creek.
It takes a lot of hard work to manage noxious weeds in the
Canyonlands of Northeast Oregon. Fortunately, with funds from NFF and other
partners, we're able to focus our efforts on the areas that need it most.
