Exploring Malheur National Forest

One of the neatest benefits of the western states is the amount of land that is in the public domain. Here in Harney/Grant counties, the government owns the majority of the land.  The Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and Fish and Wildlife all have huge parcels of land here.

Last weekend, the original plan I had with two of the interns was for me to go up SteensMountain, where I'm collecting wildflowers to dry for my bee display, on Friday and pay for a site for all of us. Then the interns would to up that evening and I would join them after I finished work on Saturday.  They would go back to the Refuge Sunday night and I'd come back on Monday night.

But plans changed and only Eric was able to go camping. So we decided to go explore Malheur National Forest. We did a little research and knew where some official camping sites were and also were some identified trails were.  I had to rush to get my clothes clean and my food box repacked.  It was tough, only having two working days between camping trips.

I decided to take off on Saturday - which means I'll work at least part of Monday and Tuesday instead. Eric and I got off about 7:30 A.M. and we drove to Burns and then started north. We headed to the eastern part of the forest. I put in the GPS locations of one of the sites we wanted to visit and and we were soon going from little road to another. We stopped for a little hike and for lots of wildflowers. Then we saw a sign to a fire tower and decided to got to it. The road soon became too rutted for the little Honda Fit and I had to back down the hill with Eric directing me around the washouts I couldn't see behind me. As soon as we go turned around, we noticed a field of wildflowers that were hosting a huge butterfly party. Even though the light was too bright, we couldn't resist taking lots of pictures.

One of the fantastic rock formations along Hwy 395

A  beautiful tiny tussy mussy made out of rosy everlasting, then abandoned on a bench along a trail

The first columbines I've seen in Oregon

Two pollinators

We stopped for a lunch of Mississippi Caviar in pita pockets that we ate while sitting on a shady log.  Soon after that our GPS directed us down a tiny road.  We soon decided that this was not going to go well for us and turned around and started back.  I checked my GPS settings and found that I had the "avoid unpaved roads" selected. Eric who is a computer expert, thought the computer didn't have data on the little unpaved roads so was taking us off the unpaved roads that were in its database.

A tiger swallowtail lapping up columbine nector

Finally after a very fun journey, we got to some of the campgrounds we had researched. We thought we could do better and kept driving.  At about an hour after hammock time, we came across a hunting camp on a little gurgling creek that went through a little meadow. We had plenty of trees for shade and a place to hang my hammock, so we quickly stopped and I hung the hammock and got a late start on my hammock time.

Our free camp site

This creek was a few feet downhill from my hammock and provided water music to the entire camp

We had to take each other's picture in this wonderful tall chair carved from a stump in the camp across the street from ours - it was a really comfortable seat

I could take a nap here

Then I set up my tent and we had a supper of redband trout, which had been given to us by Refuge researchers, and tabbouleh salad made ahead of time by me. By this time, the light was beautiful so we went off exploring again. We missed the unmarked turn to the Malheur River but finally found it.  On the other side were several people in tents and trailers.  There were also horses there. We started to cross the low water crossing but decided it was too deep for our car.  We saw the light would be beautiful in the morning so returned the following morning for pictures.

Oregon checkered mallow, Sidalcea oregana

A high view of the Malheur River

The next morning we packed up our camp, then had buckwheat pancakes and sausage before leaving for another day of exploring.  We both wanted to hike so we kept turning down smaller and smaller roads until we found a pretty place to hike.  I suggested that Eric go ahead as a tall, young guy is going to need to walk a lot faster than on old, short lady to have the same aerobic benefit. We ended up going to different places. He to a high, wet meadow where he found bog orchids and I to a meadow on a mountain top where I could look into the neighboring valley and watch the storm clouds filling it.
 
 We continued  home by a different route but still came through Burns where we picked up a few groceries.  Another great weekend.

On the current home front, the fire that started last weekend is still burning and is only about 30% contained. The temperatures are dropping and we have a twenty per cent chance of rain so I think the humidity is up a little as well.  But just as I was starting supper, the electricity went off so I got my camp stove out.  Just then Eric came over to tell me the electricity was out.  Apparently I have the only stove in town, so I ended up cooking supper for him and Barry, who is staying up here tonight. I had just precooked one sweet potato and had it sliced to bake.  I started by sauteing it and we each had a few pieces as a first course. Eric was about to make a frittata and had carrots and onions chopped.  So I sauteed them and then added a few frozen stir-fried vegetables and leftover rice plus an egg and seasonings. That turned out really good. Then I cooked one piece of redfin trout and three pieces of carp.  The wind came up and blew the frying pan off the stove twice while I was cooking the last two pieces. We scraped them off the deck and finished cooking them and they were delicious as well.  The electricity came back on as I was cooking the fish.

The boys will be back in the morning to eat buckwheat pancakes that have yeast in them along with breakfast sausages.

I've worked all day on processing bees and have two full boxes plus a pile of tiny bees that will take me about two hours to process in the morning.  I'm also hoping to collect more flowers and get them drying for the pollinator display and possibly to catch some butterflies and bees for the display as well.  There is a slight possibility that   I can get to the top of Steens Mountain tomorrow or Monday.  The last coyote willow is blooming up there but the fire has prevented me from getting up there. Willow blooms are extremely important to all the fly and bee pollinators and these in turn, feed the migrating warblers and vireos. So we really want it in the display.

Outdoor School

:Last week, Carla, one of my favorite staffers and the person who made my Power Point show possible, asked me to go with her to Outdoor School.  This is a day, offered every two years, when all the 5th and 6th graders from Grant County come to a place in Malheur National Forest for outdoor education.  The children move from one station to another, for a total of ten stations, and learn about the Northern Paiutes that lived here, and how they gathered food, made baskets and rope, and used the baskets to haul water and as cooking pots. They also learned about the throwing sticks and got to practice throwing them. Other stations talked about forestry, the importance of fire to aspen groves, the invertebrates and mammals of the area, the parts of a tree and were able to core a tree and find out its age. 

Carla had corporal tunnel surgery earlier this week and is not supposed to drive.  So I was the chauffeur and the hauler of stuff.  She left me directions to her house in Burns and her keys.  I needed to bring a lunch and dress warmly because this place is up in the mountains about 50 miles north of Burns. I was glad I had on my long john bottoms under my nylon pants when our first job was to get the snow off the tarp and get it high enough to use. (The site had had a light snow storm last night.) We couldn't lift the tarps so we just backed under the places where the snow had accumulated and lifted the tarps while we backed to the tarp edge.  Then I realized the negative part of this - the falling snow landed right on our posteriors, giving us a refreshing snow shower. 

Our day consisted of giving 9 talks about the plants the Northern Paiutes used for food, shoes, mats, and ropes. I gave the last talk after learning all about the materials we shared with the kids from listening to Carla. We had one short but heavy snow storm during the day but we managed to get in our cars and on the way home before another short but heavier storm hit.  The kids had fun but  the last two groups were very tired.  The sites were scattered throughout the woods and the buses parked a little ways down the road. The kids ate lunch in the buses since it was too cold and wet to sit on the ground.  So they had to both walk to all the stations and walk from one of the stations to the buses, then back.  With roughhousing while waiting for the classes to start, they probably walked more than two miles and then stood around for each presentation. They also had to chase their throwing sticks for more exercise. 

Our table with the artifacts we used in our talks.

One of the four busloads of kids arriving

Carla setting the stage for what life was like about 500 years ago

 After lunch, Carla suggested that I take a walk around and see what was happening at the other stations. Part of the time, we were on lunch break, but I caught a little action at some stations. 

Kids taking turns turning the tree corer in and out

Beautiful spring violets I found between stations

These guys were talking about forestry and warming everyone up.  They also had the only seats in town.

R & R at Delintment Lake

I've been needing to take a little camping trip for a long time and finally got a large enough block of time to make it worth while.

After finishing loading up all the stuff I thought I'd need, I headed up into Malheur National Forest after making a few stops in Burns. By mid afternoon, I had found solitude on the shores of the little Lake Delintment.

The first thing I did was to hang my hammock and take a nap to the sounds of birdsong and breeze. Then I set up camp, made supper and checked out my area. I was the only tent camper around, although there were two trailers about a quarter of a mile away. I had lots of robins but couldn't find the calling birds in the tall Ponderosa pines. Cut chipmunks raced away with their tails up or popped up on a rock or stump to check me out.

Camp under Ponderosa Pines

I ate supper, read a while, and then went to sleep listening to the frog chorus. All too soon, the sky was lightening and birds were singing. 

 

Dawn View

View over my table

 I got up and fixed breakfast and then drove off to explore the area. In a few miles, I found a gurgling creek with blooming shrubs - they looked like some kind of berry with bell-shaped blooms - covered with several species of bees.  I had brought my bee net and kill jars with me, as well as enough materials to run one 14 cup transect. I caught 7 bees and found I had 6 species. I also set up my cups and  left them while I did further explorations and then back to camp for lunch.  I also pinned my netted bees.  I think I have at least one new species and perhaps two. I took several logging roads and found some beautiful scenery and a little wildlife.

Curious golden-mantled ground squirrel

A curious pronghorn antelope watched me run the bee transect

Coyote Willow Catkins

Yellow flowers

Part of a huge boulder outcropping

 My afternoon was drowsy with reading and dozing. In the evening, I retrieved my drowned bees and stored them in ethanol in my cooler before cooking supper, which included a piece of carp. Three deer visited my camp and one ate my apple core. After another short walk, I was ready for bed.

This morning I was cleaning out my tent and hanging out all my stuff to dry or air out by 5:15.  Then I made breakfast and finished breaking camp. I even had time to read a while before taking a hike around the lake. It was a lovely walk with lots of birds.  I got to see a pair of Canada geese with downy yellow babies, as well as ring-necked ducks, mallards, ruddy ducks, and coots.  There were a few red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds, a hairy woodpecker, 6 spotted sandpipers, one of which had a red bill and sang a song that sounded like he was calling his dog. I saw a few juncos, heard chickadees and several birds I couldn't identify and couldn't locate in the tall trees.  There were several kinds of wildflowers, most just getting ready to bloom. After walking four miles, I still didn't have any aerobic miles so did another quick mile around the camp before heading out.

Pink flowering shrub that drew lots of bees, flies, and butterflies

More spring flowers

 I came back via a different route and enjoyed views of Emigrant Creek and more open spaces as I left the forest.

Roadside View

Emigrant Creek

New Leaves and flowers (Manonia repans)

Out of the forest

Abandoned

Carpe Carp III: Know Your Enemy

Carp, an invasive species of fish, has had a huge negative impact on Malheur NWR.  They compete directly with fish and plant-eating ducks and totally destroy sago pondweed, an important food for ducks.  They cause the water to turn from clear to so turbid, it looks like chocolate milk. The turbidity kills some of the invertebrates that the ducks feed on.  So the refuge is committed to reducing the numbers of carp.

But they don't know how carp move, where they like to congregate, and ways the staff can get the best of the carp. So the first step is to track where carp go in a couple of ponds so the staff can predict where they will be.  If they know this, a professional fisherman may be able to come in and remove them when they are in a big group.

To study carp movement, Linda, the fish biologist, is planing to put  radio tags in 25 carp in Bocca Lake, a fairly large lake on the refuge. She has already tagged five carp.  Today she recruited several staff members, including John, the Law Enforcement officer, who is a great airboat operator, her new technician, Kris, and me.  The plan was to put out gill nets to catch the carp and also to fish for them.  Last year they found that carp LOVE corn marinated in garlic so we were all charged with adding garlic to a can of corn last night. I was out of corn so I marinated black-eyed peas.instead.

This morning dawned cloudy, cold, very windy, and with rain in the forecast. That didn't even put a blip in the packing up and leaving.  However when we got to to lake, we found that Jess, who was supposed to operate the motorboat that Carla, the archeologist, and I were to fish from, found that he couldn't control the boat easily in the wind and didn't want to risk us taking a dip in the frigid waters. So we fished from the bank  instead - and found a nice place out of the wind. Meanwhile John, the airboat operator, Linda and Kris went out to put the gill nets out.  They got them out before 11:00  A.M. and then had to wait until 2:00 P. M. to go back and pull them in. Meanwhile we all tried to fish with corn on our hooks. I found that black-eyed peas won't stay on the hook, so just chummed with them. But no one caught a fish.  I think they were all huddled up in deeper water and not eating.

Finally after we ate our lunches, and sat around looking at our poles and chatting,  it was time to go bring in the nets. John, Kris, and Linda fought their way through big waves to the nets and pulled them in but only got 4 carp of big enough to implant the radio tags in.

I was the official carp holder.  First we had to anesthetize them by putting  a small amount of clove oil in a bin of water and then putting a carp in it.  As soon as it went to sleep, we took it out and added another while we operated on the first one.

The pictures tell the rest of the story. The characters were: Surgeon: Linda, Fish deliver/holder: Marilyn, Fish Recovery: Kris, and data enterer and photographer of the surgery: Karla

Linda showing Kris how to operate the radio antenea

Leaving to pull up the nets

Untangling the fish from the net

Fish in anesthetized in clove solution

Bringing the anesthetized fish to be measured

Holding fish ready for surgery

Figuring where to make the first cut

The slit is finished and she adds a needle to thread the antenna out

Pushing in the radio tag

 

Pulling the antenea out through the  needle

Suturing the fish - took 3 - 4 sutures

All done

Recovery room - Kris had to swish the fish until the effect of the cloves wore off and it could swim - the coldest job

This was a really interesting job.  If we had had sun, little or no wind, and had caught fish on out hooks, it would have been a superior day.  But we managed to have fun anyway.  And now there are 9 fish in Bocca Lake with radio tags.  And I'm invited to go help next time.