Following is the progress that was made on Russian Olive and Tamarisk in the Escalante Subdistrict of Glen Canyon NRA in 2011. All work was done by Escalante Ranger Bill Wolverton except as noted.

March:
Field trip made with Fire Management Specialist from Bryce Canyon to visit sites on Escalante River where Russian Olive slash needs to be burned. First (and only) site visit by anyone else from NPS. One Russian Olive cut in NF Fence Canyon that had been surrounded by dense poison ivy and could not be accessed last year. Was cut in March before poison ivy had leafed out and was not yet a problem. One other found and cut in same trip

April:
Sierra Club group worked on Russian Olive starting from where work ended last fall, 3.5 miles below Harris Wash. All clearing completed on both sides of river for ¼ mile, all clearing completed on river right for 0.1 mile, hand tool work completed on river left for ¼ mile, chainsaw work completed along left bank only for ¼ mile, both banks for 1/8 mile. Wilderness Volunteers group worked on Russian Olive starting from where previous Sierra Club group left off. Hand tool work completed on river left for ½ mile, chain sawing completed on river right for 0.2 mile, catch up chain sawing completed on several that had been missed previously, short side canyon on river right 3 miles below Harris Wash cleared.

May:
Three individual VIPs helped complete follow up on last year’s work, 1.2 miles, and with chain sawing along banks only, 0.1 miles. Follow up completed in 25 Mile Wash from GLCA boundary to Escalante River, initial clearing of Russian Olive completed in north branch of 25 Mile on BLM ½ mile above GLCA boundary, initial clearing of Russian Olive completed in main 25 Mile for 1 ½ miles upstream from north branch, total of 2 miles upstream from GLCA boundary. Follow up completed on Escalante River from 25 Mile Wash downstream 3.1 miles and upstream 2.8 miles, total of 5.9 miles. Follow up completed on Escalante River from end of work in fall 2010 downstream to 2 miles below Fence Canyon, total of 3 ½ miles. One mile below this segment remains to be done.

June:
Coconino Rural Environment Corps chainsaw crew completed clearing of Russian Olive on river right only (because of high spring snowmelt runoff) from 3 miles below Harris Wash to 2 miles below Harris Wash, total of one mile. (net of one half river mile)

September:
Follow up completed on Escalante River from 1 ¼ miles below 25 Mile Wash to Coyote Gulch, total 31 miles. The initial clearing of this stretch of the river had taken 7 years and the efforts of 11 Wilderness Volunteers groups, two Sierra Club groups, three Utah Conservation Corps groups (two with chainsaws), my own work with a chainsaw, plus numerous large hand saws, limb loppers, and many gallons of herbicide to accomplish. This trip took 5 working days on the river, plus one day hiking in and one back out, and the work was all done with a dull 6 inch folding hand saw, a pair of rose clippers, and about 2 ½ quarts of herbicide. Wilderness Volunteers completed initial work with hand tools in several places on river left in the vicinity of the “Twin Canyons” below Harris Wash. Work covered about one mile but was not continuous because of high water in the river. Chain sawing was done on river left in the same vicinity for about one mile, cutting only those trees right next to the river that would require working in the water, plus some away from the river that might be overlooked by a chainsaw crew.

September — October:
Coconino Rural Environment Corps chainsaw crew completed chain sawing on river left from 3.25 miles below Harris Wash to 2.5 miles below Harris Wash, ¾ mile, and on both sides from 1.9 miles below Harris Wash to 1.7 miles below Harris Wash, 0.2 miles. All other chain sawing in this section was completed by Ranger Wolverton and Resource Management seasonal Jordan Penia.

October:
Coconino Rural Environment Corps chainsaw crew completed chain sawing from 1.7 miles below Harris Wash to 1.4 miles below Harris Wash, 0.3 miles. None of the Russian Olive cut in this section was noticeable in a photograph taken from up on the Kayenta ledges in April 1991, yet it was some of the worst yet encountered 20 years later. Total for the season is now two miles, and the grand total is now 42.6 miles from Coyote Gulch, representing 84% of the river miles in Glen Canyon NRA, and just over half of the total river canyon from Escalante to Coyote. Ranger Wolverton completed a follow up for Russian Olive in the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch, finding only a dozen new ones in those areas that had been worked on before, a huge improvement over past follow up trips. A check of a side canyon that had never been checked before led to the discovery of a large thicket, which was cut. A Russian Olive found in Davis Gulch was cut, and the rest of the canyon checked for it and one other thicket found and cut. These were the first Russian Olives ever found in Davis.


Bill Wolverton
Escalante
November 11, 2011

© 2003–2016 Bill Wolverton