Exploring Price Peet Road

June 23, 2018

 During the four years I've lived and worked at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, I've passed Price Peet Road many times, but never got around to making it a destination until today.  My impetus was to go look for a rare primrose, gumbo evening primrose (Oenothera cespitosa). This dirt road gets very little grooming, so I wasn't sure how far I would get on it. Bill said the flowers were not far up the road and I could always just walk to them. 

The road starts about 15 miles from my trailer

I was happy to find a whole little community of the flowers, growing just in the sandy clay road, and just in front of the grasses growing along the edge. This plant was first collected by Merriwether Lewis, July 17 1806, near Great Falls, Montana.  I found it growing in the same type of soils he described - sandy clay, gumbo soil. But all the flowers looked tired, so I continued on up the climbing road, hoping newer flowers would be blooming higher up.

I finally found a single plant and worked to get decent pictures in the bright light and wind. Finally a cloud came by and helped me out, but the wind blew a leaf across one of the blooms. I didn't notice that until I got back home. The best thing about this primrose is that the blooms open white, then gradually change to darker and darker pink as the blooms age.

Gumbo evening primrose (Oenothera cespitosa

The primrose was growing where I could look way out across the landscape.  I spent the rest of the trip looking for landscape views and more wildflowers. A few butterflies also tempted me to capture their pictures. The road had only a few series of little washed out gullies and I made it all the way to the end.

Rocky Mountain Iris ( Iris missouriensis)

I think this is long-leaf phlox ( Phlox longiflolia)

Arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata)

Need help with this one - it grew as a series of this tiny flowers
 up the stem - each flower was less than a half inch tall - please leave a comment if you know it-
growing in a meadow, near the red elderberry

Crimson columbine ( Aquilegia formosa)

Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

I think this is one of the painted lady butterflies

I stopped here to wander the hill above the car, then walk on up the road. 

A lot of blue skippers were stocking up on minerals

One of the larkspurs - pre-flowering plants are poisonous to cows

A little road led off into Targhee National Forest

White mule's ears (Wyethia helianthoides)

Parry's Townsend Daisy (Townsendia parryi)

Silky phacelia (Phacelia sericea)

The end of the road

Sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum)

Familiar view but always different - this on South Valley Road

One of the ranches 

I meant to hike more but my hips and back are sore from helping Jim cut willows out from under the fence he is putting up. We spent about four hours on that job yesterday. It required squatting, sitting, kneeling, and crawling.

The War on Invasives

I started this blog last year and never got it finished. Then two weeks ago,  two summer techs and I went to a two day workshop on identifying and managing invasives.  The main thrust was learning when and with what to spray invasive plants. I learned a lot, even though I've been working on managing invasive plants for many years in different parts of the country. The class was in the town of Whitehall, Montana which was a cute little town with a beautiful mountain backdrop

One of views on my walk to breakfast

Out classroom had about eighty students

I was excited to get a prize for answering a review question and even more excited to pass the two tests, even though I hadn't even looked at one of the study books.  I may now be able to take better selfies, with and extra forty-two inches of reach.

My selfie stick and test report

Why, you ask are invasives such a big deal?  Can't these aliens just live among the natives?  No, the local food chains require native plants for the native bugs for the native birds.  But the invasive plants replace native plants, sometimes forming huge monocultures that are like deserts to the native animals. They don't have insect pests that would help keep them in balance. Some of them are poisonous to birds or mammals, including livestock.

In Montana, invasive plants are assigned to one of four classes. Priority 1A weeds are not yet present in Montana, but people are watching for them to arrive.  Priority 1B weeds are only found in a few spots and are to be eradicated where they are found and people  educated to watch for them elsewhere.  Priority 2A weeds are common in parts of Montana and 2B weeds are abundant across Montana. It is the law that you may not allow any of these weeds to go to seed on your property.  Every  private or government entity has a weed management program in place and has spray crews. We have several entities in the valley that have spray crews. Several times during the summer, we will all come together to fight one particular weed at one location.


 Last year, one of our valley wide weed battles started at Red Rock Pass and came down into the refuge. Some of the crew sprayed but the people I was with pulled hoary alyssum by hand, filling a pickup truck full of black garbage bags.

Our target - hoary alyssum

The early arrivals catching up with each other

We wander through the grass in a semi organized fashion, looking for the distinctive plants

I, of course, was easily distracted and stopped for butterfly pictures

And flower pictures

This guy looks like he is really enjoying his job

This is my boss, Bill West, and Jessica Zapata, the leader of the Fish and Wildlife Strike Team.  She visits all the national wildlife refuges in Montana with several workers.  They spray from ATV where there are extensive infestations. We see her here a couple of times during the summer. 

I love these group efforts, because I know many of the people, having met them in previous years. At some of the meetups, we get a catered lunch and take time to visit.

Kara, head of the Centennial Valley Association, sets out lunch. 

Great food and company

Bill took us down a short trail to a wolverine trap.  The trap sends a radio signal when it is tripped- a top built of logs closes .  The trappers have to rush to the trap because the wolverine can chew through the logs pretty quickly.  Sometimes, they chew out but hang around to chew a bigger hole to get up the deer leg used for bait. 

This week, I  spent my first full day of this year working on weed control.  Two techs, Kyle, and Micky. and I went to an old homestead site and cut down Russian Pea, a shrub that makes edible peas, planted by the settlers.  Then we painted the cuts with an herbicide to prevent resprouting.  The kids also dug up two bags of houndstongue.

A houndstongue plant (internet image) - toxic to livestock

Micky cutting back new sprouts of a Russian pea

The tiny stumps in the middle was the only living part. We painted them with herbicide

The victors admiring their spoils

The foe completely routed

The houndstongue on the way to the burn pile

I'm late with this blog because I didn't get a day off this week.  We have had mostly rainy days, except for weed day.  It was too cold and wet to open the bluebird boxes on Monday, so I spent a long day on Tuesday on that.  I only worked 5 hours on Monday, so planned to work a few hours on Friday to catch up.  But on Thursday, Bill told me he had paid for me to go to the Wilderness First Aid and CPR class.  He thought he was reminding me. The class ran from Friday noon until 5:15 today (Sunday).  So I'm trying to get my Sunday blog out before Monday gets here. I totally enjoyed the class and learned that a lot of standard stuff has changed. We don't even use backboards any more and transport people with suspected spinal injuries on their sides.

We are supposed to have a valley wide spray day Tuesday. But we are supposed to have rain continue through Tuesday, so I expect that will be canceled.  I will probably take most of the day off tomorrow but will have to take a load of water to the horses by Tuesday. I also have to work around the wet, as there are a couple of places where the truck may get stuck if the ground is too soft.


Happy Father's Day to all you fathers.

Remembering 2015: Migration to Montana and Summer Work and Play

I was busy with friends and with doing lots of birding, during the early spring and throughout April. But I was getting more and more excited about getting back to Montana. I'm always torn between wanting to go back to a place where I've had a really good time and feel I've made a difference, and with seeing new places. My 2014 volunteer job was so fun and everyone I worked with was so nice and all the research was so interesting, that I decided I wanted to go back there. 

The first thing I do is to map routes to my destinations. When I saw it only took an extra hour to travel through Utah, I was hooked. I had missed Island in the Sky so wanted to visit it. And I knew of a cheap BLM campground, very near it, which would only cost me half price, so I planned to spend a couple of days in the area. 

Dark blue line marks my travel route

I drove to Utah, without my usual stops along the way, taking only a little time to sleep at a Motel in northwest Texas. Soon I was happily back at the same campground I'd stayed at the year before on the way home from Montana. I got to go an a wonderful hike on the Grand View Overlook Trail in the Island in the Sky part of Canyonlands.

(Click on each picture to access the blog from which it came.)

View along trail in Islands in the Sky

I also had time for the auto tour and a hike to Mesa Arch.  But I wasn't able to get there at the best time, just at sunrise, when the arch is lit from underneath.

Mesa Arch with a few of the many tourists

I left the area a day early due to a forecast of rain and snow.  I went on up to Salt Lake City, following a snow plow for part of the way, then spent the night at a motel. I realized I could visit Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, if I got up early and then finished my trip in the afternoon.

The play of light, clouds and water on Salt Lake was remarkable. It was too cold to even think about floating in the water. I was amazed at the hundreds of eared grebes there.

View of the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island State Park

I finally managed to tear myself away from the ever changing views and finish my trip to Red Rock Lakes.  There, even before I finished unpacking and fitting myself into my trailer,  I started my bluebird survey by repairing all the boxes that needed it and gathering data on the birds that were already nesting.  We had a little snow fall not long after I arrived in mid May.  I ended up helping a fellow volunteer tend our arctic grayling fish eggs in the snow, then had to stop and repair a bird house, after ravens tore the top off, pulled the nest out, and ate the eggs. (We arrived while they were still digesting their breakfast.)

Me pipetting out the fungus-infected eggs

Then stopping to repair a box damaged by ravens

When I had time off, I had lots of adventures and some misadventures. My first little misadventure was getting stuck in a place where I couldn't rescue myself and then, after I figured I had cell phone service, a rarity up there, I spent a lot of time lost to the Indian guy who was trying to locate me, and then to the wrecker who finally pulled me out.  But the rest of the day was wonderful as well as was the following day's hike.

Oops! One of the times I wished for a high-riding truck and four-wheel drive

A waterfall on a wonderful hike

The landscapes I pass while doing my jobs are amazing.  I sometimes have to devote whole blogs to them.

Upper Lake with a rain squall coming to stop my bluebird survey

Even cleaning bathrooms is but an excuse to wallow in the scenery

My very favorite job is to get to help with the scaup roundup.  This year I got to help several days during the roundups in August and September. We drive the flightless adults and young into nets, then capture them and take them back to shore to measure, weigh, band and otherwise mark them, then release them back on the water.

The controlled chaos that takes place after we trap the birds. They are dipped out of the trap and packed into boxes while also being sorted into the same sized birds in each box. 

I was really lucky in that eleven friends came to see me.  I met most of them in either Yellowstone or Glacier, although two of them also spent time on the refuge with me.  A few highlights were the rainbow that rewarded me for first forgetting my billfold, then not being able to get a campsite, then having a flat on a Sunday, when no repair shops were open.

One of the many pictures I took of a double rainbow and its reflection

Each set of friends had a different agenda while at Yellowstone: to look at the geological features, to hike, to find wildlife, or to take great photographs. Oh yes, and to bask in the hot springs.  I had all that on my bucket list so we all had lots of fun.  And at Glacier, one friend wanted to both paddle and hike, while the others came for hiking and to do driving tours.

There are pictures in every direction

The Boiling River soaking spot

Paddle with Julie on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River

Lunch on the shores of Iceberg Lake

I had one other really fun, albeit frustrating job at Red Rock Lakes NWR. It was to survey our three breeding pairs of eagles. I turned out to be much harder than I anticipated and I never found one eagle pair's nest, although I'm sure they had at least one live chick because they screamed at me the whole time I was looking. This job went on for several weeks and I finally reported one chick that I actually saw, at least one chick I didn't see, and one pair that didn't have chicks, although the adults stayed by the nest.

One of a pair of eagles that screamed at me for most of a morning

In mid-September,  I went back to Texas and Louisiana to visit friends and doctors, then started up to North Carolina for the winter, stopping only to visit my friend Laurel, in South Carolina.  I'll not look back on my time during the fall with a blog, so the past four will be the only look-back ones.

I'm having slow adventures here, because most days off are rainy, and I always work in one or another Visitor Center, put hopefully the weather will soon improve and I'll have new adventures to share with you.

Have a very Happy New Year and plan to spend more time outside in your gardens and wild places.