By: Julia Carr
A hawk cried in the distance as a dedicated student resolved to press on with instructor Jess and finish the steps of a scientific experiment aimed at preserving and enhancing the native plants at Bear Creek Meadow. Immersing into nature’s classroom is the heartbeat of Wild Alive Outside where we cultivate a relationship with research and experimentation.
Our current mission is to preserve and enhance the native plant species in Bear Creek Meadow. Each year, a burst of color erupts in the form of flowers – purple, blue, yellow, orange, and white – all for the pollinators, and the eyes of the beholders. Yet, unless we get a hold of the ever-present, ever-dominating Meadow Knapweed, the diversity of colors will no longer exist (and that makes us sad). Not to mention, the native species including camas, tarweed, king gentian, western buttercup, goldenrod and Douglas Spiraea, to name a few, will be strangled out of existence on this sacred plot. So, Wild Alive Outside students set out on a glorious field research project to protect the diversity and suppress the colonization of this European hybrid species.
Meadow knapweed (Centaurea pratensis) is known as one of several closely related, invasive species found on roadsides, sand or gravel bars, riverbanks, irrigated pastures, moist meadows, and forest openings. In Montana alone, it spread across 4 million acres from when it was first reported in 1920. One plant can send over 1,000 seeds across the land through wind, water, and through the feces of animals that eat it. It also invades industrial sites, tree farms, and grasslands. It’s toxic to horses, cattle, and some birds including Sage Grouse and other grassland birds.
Meadow Knapweed grows 20-40 inches tall with branched stems that rise above a woody root crown, the leaves become progressively smaller up the stem and the flowers are pink to reddish purple or occasionally white. The seedlings have a taproot, but the mature plants develop a cluster of roots below the root crown. It reproduces mostly by seed, but its root fragments can resprout after disturbance. It secretes a chemical called catechin, which inhibits the growth of other plants. The process is called allelopathy, which basically means, “the chemical inhibition of one plant to another.” (If you’ve ever seen the bare earth beneath a Walnut tree, then you’ve seen allelopathy in action from a chemical it produces in the leaves, stems and husks called juglone. Mmmm, walnuts. We like walnuts, but we don’t have a Walnut tree problem, we have knapweed. We digress…)
So, once Knapweed was identified in our beloved meadow, where our intention is to study, appreciate, observe, and enjoy the native plant species, you can understand why we are on a mission to control it or mitigate the spread of this invasive plant that left to its own devices would become a monoculture.
Experiment:
Goal: To preserve and enhance the native plant species of Bear Creek Meadow by suppressing Meadow Knapweed, an invasive species that dominates meadow plants.
Procedure: Program participants at Wild Alive Outside designed a graph of the three-acre area and randomly selected and defined 25 one-meter plots, and studied each area. Each team examined the plots, ordered them from lowest to highest percentage distribution of Meadow Knapweed, and listed other species in each plot.
Treatment Types: There are numerous treatment types to inhibit the growth of Meadow Knapweed, though one size does not fit all situations. To preserve the native species, we need to be careful not to kill one species in order to control another (the knapweed). We then placed a flag at each plot with a color corresponding to each of the following treatment types:
Fire – Burning the infested area.
Chemical – An herbicide applied with a spray bottle that will not kill the monocots (grasses).
Ho- A tool used to scrape all meadow knapweed from the surface
Control- To observe what happens in an area where no treatments are applied.
Weedcloth – A water-permeable fabric where no light gets through
If works, could target certain areas that are more populated
Looking ahead:
As we plunge forward into spring, our Wild Alive Outside team will continue to monitor the progress of this experiment. We also plan to continue our ongoing research on how best to preserve the native plant species at Bear Creek Meadow. Although we are not excited about invasive plants, we are excited to be witnesses to this process and stewards of this land. Our experiment is one example of how we cultivate a deeper awareness of how we impact, and also dance, with the delicate and powerful force of nature.