UCBN Camas Lily Monitoring

UCBN

Camas (Camassia quamash [Pursh] Greene) is a perennial bulb-producing lily (Family Liliaceae; alternatively Agavaceae, APG 2003) that was and remains one of the most widely utilized plant foods of the Nez Perce people (Harbinger 1964; Hunn 1981; Turner and Kuhnlein 1983; Thoms 1989; Mastrogiuseppe 2000). Camas was also a focal resource at many of the significant historical events memorialized by Big Hole National Battlefield (BIHO) and Nez Perce National Historical Park (NEPE). It was during the camas harvest at Weippe Prairie, a subunit of NEPE, where the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery first encountered the Nez Perce. The battle at Big Hole occurred at a traditional Nez Perce camas harvesting campsite. It is also noteworthy that the botanical “type” specimen for the Camassia genus as well as for C. quamash itself was collected by the Lewis and Clark expedition returning through the Weippe Prairie during the spring of 1806 (Meehan 1898; Gould 1942). Camas is considered a facultative wetland species (Reed 1988) that is strongly associated with the seasonal wet prairie ecosystems of the interior Columbia Plateau which are represented at the Weippe Prairie, a subunit of NEPE, and along the North Fork of the Big Hole River, where the Big Hole Battlefield is located. The extent of the wet prairie ecosystem type has been drastically reduced in the Columbia Basin as a result of agricultural conversion, irrigation and flood control development, and other land use practices (Thoms 1989; Dahl 1990; Taft and Haig 2003). Remaining wet prairies in the region are often structurally altered and compromised by non-native and woody native invasive species. The NPS-owned portions of Weippe Prairie and the Big Hole valley are no exception. Both sites have historic agricultural developments that have altered site hydrology, are impacted by invasive weeds, and Weippe Prairie has also been used for intensive haying and grazing. Orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) and sulfur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta), listed as invasive plants in Idaho, are present at Weippe Prairie and part of the focus of current park weed management. Competition from invasive weed species may impact camas populations within the UCBN through competition. Reduced fire frequency has allowed black hawthorn (Cretaegus douglasii) to become established in the prairie, and this may eventually cause an undesirable shift in prairie plant vegetation, including a reduction in camas. Park managers at NEPE discontinued grazing in 2008. Herbicide applications at Weippe Prairie, and to a lesser extent at BIHO, continue as part of the parks’ integrated weed management programs. The impacts of these activities on camas populations are not well understood at this time but are potential stressors as well.A long-term monitoring program for detecting status and trends in camas populations at BIHO and Weippe Prairie will serve as a central information source for park adaptive management decision making and will provide essential feedback on any eventual restoration efforts. Camas monitoring will be particularly important at Weippe Prairie because it is the focal resource for the site, and because invasive plant treatment is an ongoing management concern there and the site is a likely target for park restoration efforts in the future. The National Park Service acquired the Weippe Prairie property in 2003 and does not yet have a developed management plan. The implementation of camas monitoring early in the process of NPS management at Weippe Prairie is timely and will greatly facilitate science-based decision making. At BIHO, where management is less intense and opportunities for restoration are few, given the cultural sensitivity of the battlefield, camas monitoring will still provide a valuable indication of overall status and trend of the camas population and its supporting wetland over time.

UCBN Camas Lily Monitoring

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