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 Completed restoration.
Jim Popenoe
Back to Chapter 6: Restoration Articles Restoration of mountain yellow-legged frogs in Kings Canyon By Harold Werner Breathing space at Lechuguilla Cave By Jason M. Richards National Park Service to share science role in Everglades restoration By Thomas Van Lent California condors return to the Colorado Plateau By Elaine Leslie Wolf restoration in Yellowstone successful beyond expectations By Douglas W. Smith, Roger J. Anderson, and Julie Mao Other Developments Award-winner Profile - Botanist honored with first professional excellence award Preservation of the Fort Dupont stream Coastal dune restoration at Point Reyes Bonytail restoration continues Maintenance staff help restore native fish at Point Reyes |
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 By James H. Popenoe Dedication ceremonies were held May 5, 2001, at Redwood National and State Parks to celebrate the opening to the public of the Elk Meadow Day Use Area. The new facility provides parking, rest rooms, picnic areas, visitor information, and a network of trails. The dedication ceremonies cap a complex and remarkable effort that involved not only the construction of a major public facility but also a major restoration to enhance wildlife habitat and natural values that had been seriously degraded. Before they were acquired in 1996, a lumber mill and a log storage area or “deck” occupied the Elk Meadow site. The mill owner had built the deck in 1967 on fill placed in a wetland below the mill, diverting the mountain stream that fed the wetland through a small culvert beneath the deck. Amazingly, park biologists found salmon species still in the creek above the culvert. The site offered tremendous potential to restore essential habitat for sensitive species. The restoration geologist used old aerial photographs to estimate the creek’s likely route before construction of the deck. Excavation exposed native soils and confirmed the creek’s original location. Through this process other original landforms gradually came into view. Park Service restoration activities included removing and recycling 8 acres of asphalt and excavating approximately 30,000 cubic yards of fill to restore 3 acres of wetland and 650 feet of stream channel buried under the former log deck. Most of the fill was relocated to the slope from which it had originally been taken to construct the deck; the balance was used as the base for the new parking lot and picnic area. Moved earth was shaped and sloped to provide appropriate drainage, then covered with woody debris and mulch to control surface erosion. Elevation surveys were completed to provide a baseline against which to measure potential future landform changes. The new wetland was 2 feet lower than the surrounding terrain, which park staff surmise occurred when the ground settled under the immense weight of the deck. For the revegetation phase of the project, the restoration ecologist chose species from reference sites in the immediate area, specifying a well-dispersed, local collection of plants to preserve genetic integrity and maximize genetic diversity. Monitoring results indicate that natural recruitment probably influenced vegetation development more than did planting efforts. Flooding carried the seeds of invasive plants from nearby pastures into the site, which required extensive weeding to control. Fortunately, reexposing the wetland’s topsoil brought buried seeds of native wetland plants to the surface, where they germinated. Additionally, the wind carried a rain of native alder and willow seeds to the site. These tree species eventually outnumbered planted trees by 10 to 1. When monitored in summer 2000, native plants had achieved a slight edge over exotics. By summer 2001, natives had increased their lead and were generally the taller plants. Although not dominated by exotics, the species composition of the new wetland differed from the reference sites because of the impacts of a large local population of Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus) that depleted accessible young woody plants. One goal of the restoration was to restore in-stream coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) juvenile rearing habitat, but it was predicted that restoration would also benefit other species of fish over time. This prediction came true. Park fish biologists monitoring the Elk Meadow site for two seasons have found a wide variety of aquatic species using the area, including red-legged frogs, Pacific giant salamanders, rough-skinned newts, juvenile steelhead, cutthroat trout, and juvenile coho salmon. Ecological recovery is under way at Elk Meadow, but the story remains incomplete. Over time, landforms will adjust and native plants and animals will be at home on the newly restored site. |
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This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--2001, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in May 2001 (publication D-2255) /YearInReview/yir/yir2001/06_restoration/06_6_popenoe_REDW.html Last Updated: |
