Dear friends,
The enduring spring rains and cool breezes bring new life to the Clearwater basin valleys that offer refugia to dozens of isolated, temperate rainforest plant species. These ecologically significant, native populations occur very locally in the lower river canyons of the Lochsa, Selway, and North Fork Clearwater rivers, where climate and plant communities closely resemble those west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington. In those extensive, maritime forests of Western red cedar, Western hemlock, and red alder 300 miles away, major populations of these species thrive, but in north-central Idaho, they owe their survival to the vegetated, 5,000- to 7,000-foot-high mountains that capture snow, rain, and fog during the growing season. The Bitterroot Mountain crests and remote Clearwater river valleys are among the wettest places in Idaho, with over 80 inches and 40 to 50 inches of respective, average, annual precipitation. Steep, low-elevation (1,500 to 2,000 feet) valleys moderate temperatures for these plant species that all associate in their limited distributions and ranges with similar, principal trees typically found on the northern Pacific coast: dominant Western red cedar on cool, north-facing slopes and Douglas-fir on warm, drier, south-facing slopes, along with grand fir, Pacific yew, and red alder throughout these inland refugia.
In the shrub layer and adjacent habitats of these uncommon forest communities along Clearwater streams and tributaries, black elderberry, oceanspray, Pacific and red-osier dogwoods, and Scouler's willow grow. Various ferns, such as bracken, lady, male, and sword ferns, spreading woodfern, and Western polypody, fill the understories of river terraces and gentle slopes. Closer to the earth, broadleaf starflowers, clustered lady's slippers, crinkle-awn fescue, evergreen violets, Henderson's hedge, white shooting stars, and yellow monkey flowers bloom in May and June before drier, warmer conditions set in. Eastern deciduous forest species, such as maidenhair spleenwort, northern maidenhair, and oak fern, are also present. Some endemic plants that occur only in or near these refugia are Clearwater corydalis, Constance's bitter cress, and Idaho barren strawberry. The unusual phantom orchid, devoid of chlorophyll and pure white, and the single-flowered Indian pipe derive all of their nutrients from soil fungi. All of these plant populations were diminished when the upper reaches of Dworshak Reservoir flooded their habitat, but scattered refugia remain in the Aquarius Research Natural Area and throughout the Clearwater region.
Together, these inhabitants of Clearwater drainages in the northern Rocky Mountains constitute the Pacific coastal disjunct species of Idaho. Several widely accepted theories postulate their existence and evolution through climate change since 30 million years ago, when temperate rainforests with abundant mosses and tall ferns cloaked the rocky terrain of northern and north-central Idaho. One theory surmises that the original Pacific coastline was located in Idaho. To the west, tidal flats and shallow seas provided heavy fogs, ample rainfall, and mild maritime temperatures. The warm, wet climate nurtured rainforest and coastal species until tumultuous plate tectonic shifts and volcanic eruptions raised the Idaho land mass and uplifted the Cascade Range, blocking most Pacific moisture, initiating more extreme temperature regimes, and moving the coastline further away. Numerous broad-leaved trees still associated with Eastern deciduous forests vanished from the region, and ancient plants such as dawn redwood and gingko disappeared from North America. Some temperate rainforest plants found refuge in warm, Idaho canyons during the ensuing ice ages and persisted through unfavorable, warmer, and drier conditions after the last glaciations ended about 12,000 years ago. Another theory asserts that these same glaciers deposited debris and seeds from the western coast in the deep river canyons of the Clearwater country.
Skookum Creek Hike
Join Dr. Fred Rabe on a day hike to explore Skookum Creek and a unique cedar grove on the north slope of the Lochsa River valley. Located near the Eagle Mountain trailhead on Highway 12, Skookum Creek hosts bull trout, chinook salmon, steelhead, westslope cutthroat trout, and numerous invertebrates. A few miles up the trail and nestled along the stream, some cedars with typical thin bark susceptible to fire survived a blaze in an atypical area above their usual wetter, lower, and more level habitat. This unspoiled tract is part of the North Lochsa Slope Roadless Area that would be protected as wilderness by the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. It is currently threatened by potential road building, logging, and mining proposed by the Forest Service in the Roadless Area Conservation Environmental Impact Statement due out this fall.
On this hike sponsored by the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Clearwater, Dr. Rabe, an aquatic ecologist, retired University of Idaho professor, and Wild Clearwater Country explorer, will lead us in collecting information and pictures while observing stream ecology and aquatic life. We will eventually make our way to the old-growth cedar grove as we explore native and rare plants along the trail. Because this hike requires extended time near the water and in the forests, please meet us at Rosauers in Moscow at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, and bring a lunch, water, and good hiking footwear. We will return around 5:00 p.m. Please call FOC with questions and suggestions about this and other possible group journeys.
Summer 2008 Volunteer Opportunities
Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) is offering several ways for you to get involved with wildlands advocacy through various citizen science, outreach, and publication programs happening this summer and early fall. Please visit the FOC website now and over the next few months for descriptions of new and ongoing projects seeking your experience, expertise, and enthusiasm. The success of these programs depends on the many committed volunteers in the Clearwater region who work to ensure that our shared public wildlands are well known and even better protected by sound science, sensible management, and citizen engagement. For the latest updates on how you can participate and contribute your energies and talents, follow this link to
Nimiipuum Weet'es: A Film about the Nez Perce Homeland
On Wednesday, June 25, Nicolas Barbier, a geographer from France, will show his documentary film about current land, sovereignty, and environmental issues affecting the Nez Perce Tribe and neighboring communities in the region. The original 13 million acres of the Nez Perce Homeland spanned the Snake River basin and surrounding areas in north-central Idaho, southeast Washington, and northeast Oregon, with rugged mountain ranges, deep canyons, fertile and intensively farmed hills and prairies, and the largest protected wilderness areas in the contiguous United States. About 3,400 Nez Perce and more than 100,000 non-Indians now live in these landscapes.
All of the wide variety of sixty individuals who speak in this film -- half of them Native American -- are involved in natural resource issues. Among them are scientists, land managers, government officials, tribal leaders, lawyers, association representatives, landowners, hunters and fishers, spiritual leaders, educators, activists, and others. The interviewees express different worldviews and perspectives on political, treaty rights, and resource management issues in the Nez Perce Homeland. Some advocate and actively promote a paradigm shift in our relations with the lands and sustainable practices, while others aggressively pursue the continuation of modern land management systems. The regional context of the film is broadened by two central characters who have worked on numerous Indian reservations across the country: John Trudell, a Sioux political activist and artist, and Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwa rural economist and writer.
The University of Idaho (U of I) Geography Department, Student Organization of People and the Environment (SOPE), and Friends of the Clearwater are sponsoring this excellent opportunity to view an important work about the Nez Perce and the Clearwater basin. Doors to the Borah Theater in the Student Union Building of the U of I campus will open at 6:30 p.m., and a discussion of the film will begin before its 7:00 p.m. screening on Wednesday, June 25. The suggested donation of $3.00 covers room and equipment rental and supports the work of Friends of the Clearwater.
For the wild,
Helen Yost
