Category Archives: Land Stewardship

Batterson Greenbelt Survey June 21 2008

Field Monitoring, Land Stewardship, Noxious Weeds, Wildflowers, Work Days

Info added 9/1/09 Because of the Houndstonque at Gate 10 discussion…more info will be forthcoming.

Who: Linda Bell, Chana Fuller and Ellen Heath spent 7 person-hours working at the Batterson Greenbelt, where Charlie Bell and Butters Fuller accompanied us.
Weather: Sunny, low 70s
Description: At the Batterson Greenbelt, we mapped (with a Garmin nuvi 650) and weeded nine sites, see Google Earth map below. Linda helped us identify penny cress (PC), tumble mustard (TM), flixweed (FW), kochia (KO), and hound’s tongue (HT) which were there along with the usual suspects: Canada thistle (CT), Musk thistle (MT) and Dalmatian toadflax (DT). This area was very diverse and a nice contrast to Crellin Lake in terms of overall species diversity.

Map Notes:
Site 1–In a 50 ft diameter area, we clipped and bagged PC that had gone to seed, pulled or hand weed whacked KO, FW, and TM
Sites 2,3,4,6 — These were four test areas Linda Bell had flagged (last year?) to study the effects of stripping the leaves off of DT to weaken them. The numbers on the map indicate the number of plants in each 20 foot diameter area. Linda and Chana stripped the leaves in a downward motion.
Site 5 — This 50 ft diameter site had 100s of TM that we weed whacked before giving up.
Site 7 — We identified a 100 ft diameter area of disturbed soil as a weed hotspot that should be sprayed. The site had it all: CT, MT, HT, PC, F AND it is above Judd and Linda’s property. See photo.
Sites 8, 9 — These two sites are riparian areas with CT, MT.

Linda Bell’s Notes:

On June 24, 2008 Linda Bell emailed “Thanks Ellen for your very comprehensive notes and pictures. Just wanted to follow up with my own list of invasive plants from the reference names used in Weeds of the West. Cheers. Linda

Discussed, identified, not managed:
Stinging nettles
Canada thistle
Field bindweed
Smooth scouringrush (equisetum)
Cow parnisp

Identified and managed in very limited way
Dalmatian toadflax
Common mullein
Musk thistle
Flixweed
Houndstongue
Western sticktight
Smallseed falseflax
Tumble mustard (Jim Hill)
Field pennycress
Prickly lettuce (white sap)”

Crellin Lake: Just add water!

Land Restoration, Land Stewardship, Wildflowers, Work Days

Exciting update from Jeff:”I thought that maybe others in the community would enjoy taking a peek at the progress we have made at Crellin Lake. This beatiful spring of 2009 is really contributing to our success of rebeautifying the neighborhood. The constant trickle of runoff and natural spring waters has created a reality where once only a picture in are minds existed.

Crellin Lake is nearing capacity. We are seeing a rise in water level of about 2″/day. That, coupled with the growth and maturity of some natural and hand-sown grasses, has made for a most picturesque setting and community recreation spot.

I took a relaxing stroll around the lake this morning, June 9th, and snapped a few pictures of Crellin Lake and the immediate surroundings. Hope you enjoy the view as much as I did. Regards, Jeff Gibford

Judd’s April Workday Report

Land Restoration, Land Stewardship, Work Days

Monday, April 27, 2009 8:32 AM: “My thanks to Linda Petrie and Chana Fuller for coming out and helping seed Crellin Lake. We worked from 8:30 – 10:30 seeding the west side: first was the area near the picnic table that had not yet been seeded. Second we pulled, via racks, dead Canada thistle and made mini trenches between the existing tufts of grass, all the way to the second picnic table and a bit beyond. It was quite wet and at one point it seemed I had stepped into quick sand and would leave my boot behind. Fortunately they are quite tight to my feet and stayed with me. It was a beautiful day although a bit windy at times.

Chana’s dogs had a great time, and Oreo was a bit perplexed by all their activity. He wanted to participate, a bit, but it was all so new for him. The end of the this month will be the one year anniversary for Rusty’s passing. He would have loved playing with Chana’s dogs.”

–Judd Adams