Wildflower meadow featured on tour

Sisters Ranger District Ecologist

Hikers studied Metolius area wildflowers.

Wildflowers, fire and forest management were the topic of a Forest Service field tour in Allingham Meadow along the Metolius River on Saturday, June 29.

A group of flower enthusiasts took to the trail to identify plants in the meadow and view two rare wildflowers of the Sisters area in bloom -- Peck's penstemon and the tall agoseris. Displays of blue flax, cinquefoil, broad-leaved lupine, and scarlet gila tinted the meadow and participants enjoyed seeing the beautiful white sub-alpine mariposa lily.

The field tour was the first of a series of five trips the Sisters Ranger District will be offering this summer to discuss special topics of the Metolius Basin Forest Management Project.

The project is located in a 15,000-acre area surrounding the Metolius River and Camp Sherman. The project's purpose is to reduce wildfire risk and help restore ponderosa pine forests to a more natural condition with thinning and prescribed fire. Allingham Meadow is part of the proposed project as a "Meadow Restoration" where small trees which have invaded the meadow in the absence of fire would be cut, and low intensity fire would be reintroduced.

Field trip participants walked through deep grass to view the springs in the meadow that emerge clear and cold and flow into the Metolius River.

Yellow monkey flowers and blue Jacob's ladder bloomed along the spring channel.

Allingham Meadow was historically grazed and has been disturbed over the years by fire camps and other activities. The vegetation reflects this disturbance and some areas have weedy non-native species such as meadow goldenrod and salsify.

Other areas contained many gopher mounds, which actually benefit the rare wildflower species, Peck's penstemon and tall agoseris. Both plants evolved with periodic wildfire and require patches of bare soil to germinate. In the absence of fire, gopher mounds provide germination spots in the grassy meadow.

The tour concluded with a look at the fire ecology of ponderosa pine forests in the nearby Metolius Heritage Forest Demonstration Project.

This partnership project of the Forest Service and the Friends of the Metolius demonstrates various forest management techniques, including prescribed fire along a major road in the Camp Sherman area (Road 1419).

The area was burned only two months ago but was covered with green re-growth of bunch grasses, silver lupine, and wild strawberries. Peck's penstemon had responded well to the fire with multiple sprouts from a plant that before had only one stem.

Participants discussed the issues associated with prescribed fire including smoke, blackened trees, red needles, and fear of escape. The Metolius Forest Management Project offers a range of options for how much prescribed fire is used.

The next field tour will be on Saturday, July 27, and will feature Sisters Ranger District Wildlife Biologist Lauri Turner discussing the birds of the Metolius area, including spotted owls, white-headed woodpeckers, and goshawks. The tour will meet at the Camp Sherman Store Fish Overlook Platform Parking Lot at 1 p.m. and concludes at 3 p.m.

Call the Sisters Ranger District, 549-7727 for more information.