Forest Service gets guidance from high schoolers

“What did the soil scientist do when he really liked the soil?” Zane Roush asked his audience. “He put an infiltration ring on it.”

On Thursday, Roush and 12 other high school students from the Youth Forest Monitoring Program presented their findings and recommendations to Forest Service professionals and the public.

The students spent seven weeks of their summer training with Forest Service scientists and then headed into the forest with field instructors to collect data, make observations and maintain a healthy ecosystem as far north as Webb Lake and as far south as Cabin Gulch.

“Student recommendations to forest managers are an integral part of the program,” said Liz Burke, YFMP program leader. “Forest scientists listen to these students’ ideas and take them into consideration for future management activities. YFMP data and recommendations have been used to help lead management decisions on impacted sites, such as the Springhill Mine Repository and BlackHall Meadows rehabilitation site.”

YFMP is a partnership between the Helena National Forest, Montana Discovery Foundation, Lewis and Clark County, Powell County and Helena College.

For the YFMP’s 19th year, the young researchers were divided into soil, stream and weed teams. Each team was responsible for collecting data and observations at 45 to 50 different sites. Students who spend their summer in the program receive a stipend for their work.

Each group learned and used the same methods and equipment professionals practice in the field. Infiltration rings, for example, were used by the soil team to test the hydraulic conductivity in the soil. This indicates the soil’s moisture and compaction levels. Dry, compacted soil is a difficult host for vegetation and prevents roots from growing deep enough to stabilize a healthy plant.

On July 11, the YFMP students hiked seven miles into the Scapegoat Wilderness and spent three days collecting data around the Webb Lake area.

The soil team suggested annual monitoring of its sites around Webb Lake. It discovered areas with too much soil compaction and areas with increased downed woody debris. This debris can increase the chance and scale of a forest fire. Some woody debris, however, is necessary to provide the soil with nutrients. The team suggested dispersing the larger debris, such as downed logs and wood piles used for fire rings.

The streams team monitored Ringeye Creek, an established Webb Lake outlet likely created by snowmelt. The students collected data on water temperature, pH levels, oxygen saturation, pebble size, macroinvertebrate numbers and amphibian populations.

“Amphibians are like the canary in the mine for water health,” said Caleb Noble, a 17-year-old student in his fourth year with YFMP.

During his years with YFMP, Noble has had the opportunity to work on each of the teams. Many of his field instructors looked to him as another point of guidance for the newer students.

Students counted several types of amphibians. This year, they estimated about 8,000 tadpoles in Webb Lake.

“We count the tadpoles by handfuls,” Noble said. “They tend to swarm, so we take a handful, count how many are in it and then estimate how many handfuls there are.”

The stream team has been collecting data on Ringeye Creek since 2008 and has found relatively healthy and stable numbers for the area.

Many of the macroinvertebrates found in Ringeye Creek, such as mayflies, are pollution intolerant, meaning they can only survive in good quality water. Macroinvertebrates like midges can survive in poor quality water.

“There was an over 95 percent pollution intolerant big ratio,” Noble said. “That’s indicative of healthy water.”

The weed team spent its time around Webb Lake monitoring weeds of concern, including the oxeye daisy, houndstongue and bull thistle.

Oxeye daisy is especially dangerous because it grows in clusters that block out the sunlight for other vegetation. Additionally, the plant is inedible for both animal and bug species because of its high acidity levels and bitter taste.

The weed team pulled and filled 18 large garbage bags of oxeye daisies in hopes of preventing it from spreading down a forest corridor to Parker Lake.

Last December, the Lewis and Clark and Helena National Forests were officially combined into a 2.6 million acre area for the forest service to monitor.

“(YFMP) not only provides them with experience, but it benefits resource management,” said Dave Callery, Helena-Lewis and Clark hydrologist. “We have a small personnel and a big forest. These kids are basically doing the grunt work. They help us indirectly for sure. They might point out that the number of macroinvertebrates is way down and we might want to go take a look, or they could identify populations of our personnel might not have known about.”