In our monitoring efforts, we started from the east side of Goose Creek and worked our way almost to the McKenzie River, we placed 12 equidistant plots to monitor individual plants planted by the MWC to keep an eye on how different species are doing. For each species present, we recorded the number of stems for shrubs, trees, and woody vines. For the trees and shrubs, the height class (15cm-1m, 1m-2m, >2m) for each stem, and for trees with a DBH of over 10 cm, DBH was also recorded in classes 10-25cm, 26-40cm, 41cm-55cm, and >55. By recording these measures, we can track the survival and vigor of various species planted along the watershed and guide next years team by making planting plans, including the species that do well.
Results:
MWC has been applying a very dynamic treatment across the south bank of Goose Creek that has affected the plant communities greatly. The first recording of data was in the spring of 2016 before any of the work on the site had been done, which explains the high numbers of invasive vines and small number of native vines with a low presence of trees and shrubs across both halves of the south bank. In fall of 2016, they sprayed herbicide and mowed down blackberry and grasses along the entire south bank of the creek to prepare for their site. Then in February of 2017, the east half was planted with native trees and shrubs, which is why when monitoring was done in spring of 2017, there was an increase in the number of trees and shrubs in transects 1-6 and not in transects 7-12. The number of invasive vines in transects 1-6 is probably due to case by case removal of blackberries while planting, while transects 7-12 did not receive as much attention. Later, in fall of 2017, a second round of spraying and mowing was applied to the west half of the bank, in preparation for the planting in February 2018. While monitoring in spring of 2018, there were a few more shrubs in the transects 7-12, but no more trees. There were also more native and invasive vines. The west half appears to be much less densely planted than the east half and have a stronger population of vines, which might be due to the second application of herbicide and mowing. As for transects 1-6 in the east half, the trees and shrubs experienced some losses, while the invasive vines increased drastically and native vines increased only slightly.
Percent Cover: This protocol was implemented in order to gauge the amount of invasive and native plant matter on the ground surface as a way of monitoring the effectiveness of the MWC efforts. Depending on the results, we’ll be able to provide crucial information for the Council regarding their next steps. We used pvc pipe squares placed along the transects of the 6×6 meter plots set up during the Plant Community Monitoring Protocol to mark the two subplots. After that, we visually estimated just how much part of the ground was covered by living plants/leaves/stems. Plants that had roots that were within the subplot were counted while overlaying vines and leaves from plants outside the subplot were not. We used the Daubenmire cover classes to keep the data consistent (0%, >0-5%, 6-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-95%, 96-100%). We categorized the percentages into different categories such as: woody invasives, grass invasives, herbaceous invasives, total invasive species, substrate, and other vegetation (herbaceous). The two subplots themselves were one and four meters along the overall transect and alternated right and left. By implementing this monitoring protocol we are able to track the effectiveness of the MWC efforts to reduce invasive species, cover, increase native plant cover, as well as increasing overall plant biodiversity along Goose Creek.
Results:
As we concluded from the community composition protocol, something that was distinct to this team when we compared it to previous teams was the increased amount of invasive species (mostly Himalayan blackberry) that were present along the transects. This was most likely due to MWC applying treatment to transects 7-12 last winter, while transects 1-6 were left untreated (Figure 15). Where the treatment was sprayed lead to a clear piece of land that invasive species took advantage of and revegetated. Also, referencing species biodiversity figure, there was a little bit of leveling off of plant species that were present in the plots; while there was only one new species present between 2017-2018, this is still favorable due to there not being a decrease in species over the years (mostly native).
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