2013 Glacier National Park WBP Seedling Outplanting
Project: Glacier National Park Whitebark Pine Seedling Out-Planting
Agency/Forest or Park/District: Glacier National Park, Montana
Project coordinator: Dawn LaFleur
Contact: Dawn LaFleur, Glacier National Park P.O. Box 128 West Glacier, MT 59936, 406-888-7864, dawn_lafleur@nps.gov
Cooperators
Kent Eggleston, USFS Coeur d’Alene Nursery; to grow rust resistant WBP seedlings.
Source of funding /amount
FHP: $5,000
Supplemental funding: $24,000 from NPS FLREA (NPS Fee Program money – Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act) funds
Dates of restoration efforts
June-September 2013
Objectives
Plant and monitor 3000 “rust- resistant” whitebark pine seedlings
Acres/ha treated
3.5 acres with 2085 seedlings
Methods
Planting will occur in clusters to imitate the seed caches made by the Clark’s nutcracker. Specific attention is placed on appropriate microsites to provide some shade and promote growth with better soil moisture retention. Rocks and/or large downed debris are placed on the southwest side of plantings to create microsites. In general, the planting prescription provided by McCaughey et al 2009 is followed. Long-term monitoring plots will be created at the time of planting. Approximately 20–25% of all the seedlings will be monitored for survival. Environmental Compliance for whitebark pine restoration and related work has been completed and is documented in Categorical Exclusion, GLAC-01-057. An Interagency Agreement has been established with the USFS Coeur d’Alene Nursery for tree production and it is amended annually to cover the current year’s work.
Planting? If so, source of seedlings? Resistance?
Yes, 285 seedlings planted in Numa Pass, Firebrand Pass, Atlantic Creek
Campground and Morning Star Campground, Glacier National Park. Seeds from plus trees.
Outcome
This portion of GNP’s larger WBP restoration project is complete for FY’13.
In the original proposal we had planned to plant 3000 seedlings; we planted 1000 in June and another 1085 in October. The plan originally was to plant the WBP in September but the weather did not cooperate and then we had the government shut-down. We did have a good stretch of weather the week of Oct.21 and were able to get all of the remaining seedlings planted. We had planned on planting 1000 more seedlings this year, but an unanticipated request from our partner park – Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada) – for 1000 WBP seedlings maxed out our inventory received from Couer d’Alene Nursery for this season. Monitoring plots were put in at both Numa and Firebrand this year.
Monitoring since completion of the project
Yes, we will continue monitoring the success of the WBP plantings.
Dates Installed seedlings are monitored at year 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15.
Plans for future monitoring? Monitoring plots have been established with all WBP plantings
Will outcome meet goals?
Yes, our objective was to plant and monitor “rust-resistant” WBP seedlings. Even though we fell short of the anticipated numbers, we still met the objective.
Future actions/follow up?
Monitoring plots have been established with all WBP.