Volunteers pull ribbon grass

Often on opposing sides of environmental issues, Forest Service and Sierra Club representatives joined hands last week to test the feasibility of hand-pulling ribbon grass. They were joined by the Friends of the Metolius (FOM).

This group of weed pullers met Wednesday morning, August 27, at the Camp Sherman campground to pull weeds from a ribbon grass-infested island in the Metolius River. Pullers expected the grass to be rooted in water. Instead, the grass was rooted in soil, and a lot of digging was involved.

Maret Pajutee, Forest Service Ecologist, led the early morning introduction to the project and was joined by Forest Service Weed Tech Amber Craig. Craig's job is to survey weed sites, monitor growth and lead crews.

Asante Riverwind came on behalf of the Sierra Club and was joined by new Sierra Club members Kyle Kertay and Johannah Larsen. Kertay, an Environmental Science major who just graduated from Willamette University, said he felt it was about time he joined an environmental group, and chose Sierra Club as his first.

Pete Schay of Friends of the Metolius was there with two of his Camp Sherman "Weed Warriors," Ric and Linda Thomas. They meet weekly to pull noxious weeds in and around the Metolius.

Ribbon grass, while not yet listed on the state's noxious weed list, is known for crowding out native species like sedge, spirea and other native plants that grow in the area.

The Forest Service is analyzing various techniques of destroying ribbon grass, hand-pulling being only one of them. Chemical sprays and covering with tarps, called solarization, have also been utilized - all successfully.

Their purpose is not to determine which methods work.

"They all work," explained Pajutee. "Their purpose is to determine which methods work best."

What works best can be a matter of opinion.

Sierra Club representative, Asante Riverwind, said, "We're only talking about approximately an acre of land mass to eliminate the weeds in and around the Metolius. It wouldn't take much time for a group to pull weeds and the negative impact on the environment would be minimal compared to the possible affects of herbicides. Granted, spraying with aquatic herbicides may be easier and does not have to be repeated as often as hand pulling, but herbicides pose risks of contaminating other plant and animal wildlife."

Riverwind also recommended placing sediment catchment traps downstream from the ribbon grass areas followed by hand pulling, then planting native species. Lastly, placing rocks to shore up stream-edge soils to protect the water quality of this fish-bearing waterway from sediment.

Riverwind met with FOM and the Forest Service a couple years ago to discuss the project.

"It's one thing to advocate hand pulling," he said, "but you actually have to go out and do it to keep the reality."

He was involved with an earlier appeal of a Forest Service environmental impact statement and said "We appealed because it was too broad, didn't address root causes, and wasn't project specific."

The August 27 weed pull was held upstream from the Forest Service's proposed log implantation sites on the Metolius in an attempt to stop the ribbon grass from breeding on the newly implanted logs. The river gathers soil and seed on anything that falls into it.

Forest Service Soil Scientist Peter Sussmann participated in the test project. He is concerned pulling could remove too much soil along the riverbanks and the bottom of the river channel. He said they do not want to replant native species right now, but want to see if sedges and other native plants will take over after the ribbon grass is removed.

"These clusters of ribbon grass also did not form these islands. The ribbon grass just expands the islands and encroaches, turning them into a monoculture of ribbon grass," he said.

The Nancy and Dodd Fischer home in Camp Sherman, Oregon was an early test site started two years ago, and tests are still ongoing. Sussmann worked the Fischer property.

"We tried solarization, spraying, and hand pulling. They put the pulled ribbon grass in compost and it re-started," Sussmann said. "Unfortunately, it was brought into the area in the 1940s and 1950s and you can still buy it in some stores."

The crew expects to see results of their experiment after one year. They will assess the re-growth and may pull here again. Depending on the results, they may continue to hand pull in the area for two to three years.