Elk and other wildlife contribute to 59.9% of all damage caused to our individual plants monitored this year. The 2017 team found consistent negative plant growth and decided to fence one area around Goose Creek to prevent wildlife from grazing. The 2018 team continued this fence around the culvert down the north side of the stream and down the south side of the stream. Overall, our goal was to prevent wildlife from decreasing plant growth in an effective and humane way.
The 2017 team also created this protocol to monitor how successful the fencing was at excluding wildlife and encouraging the growth of willows. Fencing monitoring was done at three locations: plot A, plot B, and plot C. Plot A is located in the area that was fenced in 2017, plot B is located in one of the areas that was fenced in 2018, and plot C is in an area that is unfenced. Plot B was referred to as “unfenced” in the 2017 report, but became fenced due to our efforts this year. At each of the three locations, we randomly selected five willows to measure and measured the height of the willow from the ground to the highest leaf.
Results:
The findings from this monitoring protocol suggest that the fences we and the 2017 team installed have been successful at preventing elk browsing and allowing the willows, and most likely other species of plants, to grow. Not only did the fencing help the willows to grow, but the data suggests that it helped them grow at a faster rate.
