Science & stories of mountain meadows
Ecohydrologist researching and restoring wetlands in the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, Coast Ranges, Rockies, Andes, and beyond
Sound on! Video of a juvenile great grey owl calling from the top left of the snag in the middle of the frame.
Photo of a fluffy juvenile (there were at least two visible at once in this area) taken on my phone through my binoculars.
This is an adult hunting the Phase 1 section of Ackerson Meadow that was restored last year. The owl is about 12 feet off the ground and was 20-30 feet away from me.
An owl pellet full of rodent bones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellet_(ornithology)
A portion of Ackerson Meadow remains in the Stanislaus National Forest, with an active grazing lease. About 300 cattle are gathered here as part of the fall roundup, calf splitting, and prep for the drive down to winter grounds in the Central Valley.
Cowboys and cattle dogs driving cattle down Evergreen Road to Ackerson Meadow. This is part of the longest remaining cattle drive in the state of CA. The calves were separated from their mothers this month, and next month the cows will be herded by horse-mounted cowboys about 50 miles down to their winter pastures in the Central Valley, utilizing highway 120 and its bridges over major rivers for part of the way.
A fence separates the cattle gathering pasture at the left from the wetland restoration project to the right. Cattle will be excluded from the restoration for 3-5 years to allow plants to become densely established. Rewetted portions of unfilled meadow on the right are already thriving with ungrazed plants, whereas the small section of filled gully visible in the lower right is still mostly bare dirt with erosion blanket over it. The pasture to the left has been intensively grazed for a few days. Cattle squeezed their heads under the fence to get at the lush growth on the restoration side.
Over the coming months the 7000-foot-long, 12-foot-deep, 100-foot-wide erosion gully in Ackerson Meadow will get filled in. Excavators are clearing out the gully to make way for the haul trucks to dump the fill soil that bulldozers will spread out and pack down in layers. As they move down the gully, the excavators pluck out willows by the root ball and set them aside for replanting in the filled surface. The narrow ribbon of wetland sod that fringes the bed of the erosion channel is similarly salvaged. By filling in the gully up to the level of the surrounding meadow, the human-caused change in the shape of the land (the geomorphology) is returned to its natural state. This restored geomorphology allows water to flow as it once did: spread out across the 1000-foot-wide valley as shallow slow flow rather than confined to a deep erosive torrent in a narrow erosion gully. The restored water flow (the hydrology) will rewet the entire valley, growing dense wetland plants where there is currently cheat grass and sand. That wetland vegetation will hold the soil in place, add organic matter underground, and provide habitat and food for a broad array of wildlife. It’s amazing to see the transformation taking place.
Thanks to Steve Bumgardner for making such a great video, and to everyone involved in this big bold restoration for making it happen!
Thanks to the Northern California Botanists for inviting me to speak about Halstead Meadow, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks at last month’s annual meeting in Chico. See the whole talk here:
For World Wetlands Day here’s a picture of water flowing out onto the surface of Ackerson Meadow, Yosemite National Park for the first time in >100 years. It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of the team restoring this wetland by filling in an enormous erosion gully. https://www.nps.gov/yose/getinvolved/ackersonmeadow.htm
Charles J. Kraebel and Arthur F. Pillsbury
Kraebel, CJ and AF Pillsbury (1934) Handbook of erosion control in mountain meadows. USDA Forest Service, California Forest and Range Experiment Station, Berkeley, CA.
Control of abnormal or accelerated erosion in mountain meadows is an essential feature of any conservation work on the range lands of National Forests. Mountain meadows can be defined as those open areas vegetated with grasses and sedges kept green through most or all of the summer months by a high water table which offers a constant supply of moisture to the grass roots. Although such meadows compose only a small part of the total area of grazing land, they provide the greater part of the livestock forage through the hot, dry California summers.
Meadow erosion is characterized by sharp active gullies, from one foot to fifty feet or more in width, and from a few inches to ten feet or more in depth, which have cut through old meadows within recent years. Their recent origin, evidenced by their present active operation and by the testimony of ranchers, indicates that the disturbing factor has entered the picture since the advent of the pioneer. These gullies have caused not only a loss of fertile top soil and of meadow area, but, more serious, have drained the meadows by progressive lowering of the water table. With this increasing dryness of the sub-soil, added to the punishment of heavy grazing, the original succulent grasses and sedges gradually disappear and are replaced by less desirable plants such as sage brush and other drought resistant species which may have little or no forage value.