2008-12-31_REPORT - M1988044 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANNUAL REPORT - 2008 Due: December 31, 2008 Permit DA 198811488 Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation Schmidt Construction Company This is the third annual report after the 2006 amendment to the permit. The report contains the results from the 2008 growing season, analysis of the exclosure vegetation, results of the stream rehabilitation efforts on the south end (Section 25), and discussions of related issues. Some of the information presented in 2006 (exclosure maps, plots of vegetation transects, etc.) are not presented this year as it would be redundant in the file. In the final report, much of this information will be presented again. Introduction and Summary: At the end of the first year (2006 report) there was a considerable array of populations of willows and cottonwoods. Herbaceous growth in the exclosures had increased as a result of the removal of grazing, but it was still not dense growth except in very favorable locations and then only in the three older exclosures (3, 4, and 5). But it was also found that in the first year, woody plant growth showed more robust growth, larger leaves, and somewhat taller plants than at the beginning of the year. In the youngest exclosure, number 1, woody plant density was very high with many young plants and only a few plants that were more than first or second season plants. It was expected that in Exclosure 1 there would be a dramatic decline in density in 2007. In Exclosure 2, the driest of the five exclosures, density was very low, but in the more moist areas there was a fair number of young plants. So, that, in brief, was the results of the first year. In 2008, the patterns established previously continued, but there was considerable stabilization in density in Exclosures 2 through 5. In Exclosure 1, density continued to exhibit increases, mostly due to willow growth. To some extent, the density increase in the willows could be due to increased stem density with little change in actual plant density. In fact, during the sampling attempts to count the willows was abandoned in some areas because it became impossible to distinguish between individual plants and new individual shoots of pre-existing plants. In Exclosures 1 and 2, new cottonwood seedlings continue to appear within the matrix of larger cottonwood plants. In some places, new seedlings are abundant. This tends to increase the density of cottonwood in some areas of the exclosures. Such a continued invasion in these two young vegetation units is not unexpected. Invasion of new seedlings in Exclosures 3, 4, and 5 still occurs, especially in Exclosure 4, but as other ground level vegetation in these areas is often very dense and is essentially 100%, new tree invaders have a difficult time becoming established. Thus, in the older exclosures it is starting to appear that the existing trees that have been there for a few years will compose most of the eventual cottonwood growth with little additional increase in the number of plants in coming years. 2008 Annual Report Coal Creek Wetland Mitigation Permit DA 198811488 Page 1