Completion Form

2023

In November we brought a bobcat in to remove tall weeds and pile them into the existing slash piles that were made after the original fire. Took two days to clear ~5 acres of weeds. We left a patch of arrowweed that had reestablished on its own. An ACE crew organized through the Virgin river program also performed some work on the property where they cleared weeds and planted Coyote willows within a 1.0 ac plot located immediately around and adjacent to the ponded spring water (i.e. Brinton Pond) from 2/8/2023-2/15/2023. The total planting effort was approximately 704 person-hours. The willows were harvested from the Santa Clara River in St George. A total of 1,779 Coyote willow stems were replanted in approximately 593 holes.

In March, FFSL burnt the slashpiles. Following the burn we used the bobcat and mini dozer to level the ground and prep the seeding area. On March 15th flooding along the Virgin River changed the course of the river and part of the bank and fence on this property were engulfed into the river. The river overflowed onto the property and brought in silt, therefore March 20th we seeded a smaller area than planned and doubled down our seeding. We used an electric seed broadcaster on the back of side by side and then ran the carpet harrow behind the side by side to help bury and distribute the seed. We didn't use the baby rangeland drill since the flooding had made the area wet and we thought it may get stuck. In May we noticed that white top, an invasive weed was popping up on the property and to help protect our seeding and the control the spread of the invasive weed.  We hand sprayed the areas where whitetop was growing within the project. We avoided the area near the nesting SWFL habitat and the areas with the newly planted willows.  Last visit in mid-May showed the seed was beginning to grow. The herbicide to treat the whitetop was successful when monitoring in June.

SWFL monitoring observed two nesting pairs where two females at Brinton Pond produced seven fledglings. Both pairs of flycatchers at Brinton Pond had first nest attempt failures, however both re-nested and were successful on their second attempt. Brown-headed Cowbird trapping and removal were in place at both nesting sites. No flycatcher nests were parasitized by cowbirds during the 2023 breeding season.

Jessica Kinross

09/13/2023 12:11:55