Diario de karl65

With @brucen's help, I'm now recording observations for my labor of love, the restoration of the pre-settlement savanna and prairie understory on my property. Most journal updates will be in the project journal.

Well, it turns out any observations I add within location "Lane Co., OR, US" are unalterably associated with the "Fall Creek savanna restoration" project. That's cool, I now understand that iNat is designed for community collaboration, rather than organizing private work projects. It's supposed to be a social network, innit! Accordingly, I deleted my project. I'll organize my restoration project on my desktop computer and Google Photos, as I have been.

I copied the first post in my personal journal to that for my Fall Creek savanna restoration project. New entries will appear there.

Nov. 2108: Took possession of 6.7 acres on site of old Fall Creek School, with vestiges evident around the homesite. A dozen or so mature Garry oaks (Quercus garryana) are on the place, including the iconic one at entrance: 6 ft. DBH, canopy as broad as high, probably pre-settlement age. Outside mowed area around house, ground covered in invasive alien shrub species, particularly Crataegus monogyna and Rubus bifrons; and at least 47 (by eventual count) other introduced graminoids, forbs and woody species. I was astonished to find that despite all the weeds, at least 114 (by eventual count) native plant species are extant, in some cases as single individuals. Fragaria virginiana ssp. platypetala is dominant throughout. Camassia quamash ssp. maxima and C. leichtlinii ssp. suksdorfii are both abundant, as are Brodiaea elegans ssp. hooveri, Potentilla gracilis var. gracilis, Prunella vulgaris ssp. lanceolata and Sidalcea malviflora ssp. virgata. There is a diverse Carex component. And so forth: See project lists.

Not long after I moved in, my dear near neighbor @TanyaHarvey suggested I contact the Restoration Projects Manager for the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council, one Audrey Squires. Audrey secured a $11,300 OWEB grant to restoring a "legacy oak" site. Starting in July 2019, Audrey's contractor Rosario Franco of Aumsville used a brush masticator on a bobcat, to grind the woody invasives down flat, while his crew sprayed the larger stumps with triclopyr choline, as Vastlan. That left a lot of woody debris in all size classes on the ground, albeit mostly flat and easily traversed. He and his crew returned four more times to broadcast-apply generic clopyralid and clethodim. I paid for one more broadcast application of fluazifop-p-butyl, as Fusilade DX, by Glass Tree Care and Spray Service of Eugene after the grant money ran out. The results of all that treatment is that I don't have n immediate problem with most weeds in the Asteraceae, Fabaceae or Poaceae, and some of the natives in those families appear to have survived. There are still areas dense with weeds not sensitive to clopyralid, however.

In October 2020, I spot-sprayed in the 'oak patch' with either glyphosate or triclopyr, trying to preserve native sedges especially, while not risking the oaks. Six weeks later, I used a belly-grinder to seed about an acre under the oaks; and also the spring-seep in the northern rocky 'bank' between the upper and lower meadows (a spot already rich in showy natives), with a mix of grasses and perennial and annual forbs I bought from Lynda Boyer, "The Prairie Godmother of the Willamette Valley". The mix contains Danthonia californica, which requires 12 weeks of winter stratification to germinate.

Since then, I've spot-sprayed the southern bank with glyphosate or triclopyr, prior to seeding with a mix containing only small-seeded grasses. FWIW, that brings this brief summary up to Jan. 18, 2021. I can't promise frequent updates!