Pacific Ninebark is one of our favorite native plants to use in restoration projects. It has long trailing branches that create shady nooks along shorelines and in upland forests. Like many species of the Rosaceae family, it has fibrous roots that help stabilize slopes and streambanks. It’s a great nectar source for many insects, including bees and butterflies. And since the bark isn’t very palatable, deer and elk rarely damage it.

It’s also attractive. The blooming season is fairly short – often mid-May to mid-June – but the dome-shaped clusters of small white flowers catch the eye every spring. The flowers develop into papery red fruit with shiny yellow seeds that are released in the fall.

Pacific Ninebark may not grow as fast as the native willows, but it does tolerate a wide variety of conditions. It grows well in sun and shade; and while it grows best in places where soils are moist for part of the year, it tolerates sites that dry out during the summer. Since a mature Pacific ninebark bush may get to be 15 feet tall and 15 feet across, a patch of these shrubs can form a wonderfully dense thicket that provides excellent nesting sites for native birds and shelter for many species.

by Kim Bredensteiner, Nisqually Land Trust Associate Director

When I think of the Middle Reach of the Nisqually River, just upstream of Yelm, I think power and mystery: steep, forested bluffs, wide gravel bars littered with cobbles, river islands that change shape year by year, hidden side channels and expansive floodplain.

The Nisqually Land Trust’s Thurston Ridge Protected Area includes 155 acres and two miles of shoreline along this part of the Nisqually. It protects high-quality salmon habitat, tall bluffs covered with Douglas-fir, side channels where industrious beaver make their homes, and young floodplain forests dominated by red alder and cottonwood.

Twenty-five years ago, landowners who’d planned to build cabins along this stretch of the river found that the river had other plans. The Nisqually migrates powerfully through this area, and what was once the main channel suddenly became a side-channel along the toe of the bluff.

Shortly thereafter, we acquired two properties in the Thurston Ridge Protected Area – one purchased, one donated. Both are in the river’s floodplain and are sometimes underwater during high flows. Over time it is likely that the river will move back across the floodplain and reoccupy that side-channel. Protecting these properties, and the rest of the Thurston Ridge Protected Area, ensures that this natural channel-migration process can happen.

Our thanks to the supporters who helped fund these early protection projects and the landowners who partnered with the Land Trust. Twenty-five years later, we see the fruits of those efforts in a natural, free-flowing river. And the Nisqually Land Trust continues to focus on protection of the Nisqually River floodplain.

 

 

By Katie Kirdahy, Volunteer Coordinator

Dan Miszewski was at Yelm Cinemas one day in 2015 when he saw
an ad for the Nisqually Land Trust. He’d been a longtime volunteer with the
Washington Trails Association and Mount Rainier National Park Associates, but he was looking for something closer to home. He began coming to our weekly work parties, and after a few months he joined our Site Steward program and “adopted” our Lower Reach Protected Area, on the Nisqually River near Yelm.

The Lower Reach hasn’t been the same since.

Dan turned out to be hardworking and a bunch of fun. Site stewards are responsible mainly for monitoring their properties, but Dan has gone well beyond that. He’s accelerated habitat restoration, spending over sixty hours caring for his site last year alone.

The Lower Reach has long had issues with dumping, camping, vehicle trespass, firewood robbery, and Scotch broom infestation. Dan tackled them head on. He cleaned up dumpsites and planted ferns and scattered logs to disguise and obstruct old four-wheeling paths. Over the winter, he also planted more than one hundred salvaged trees.

When Dan isn’t planting he’s pulling Scotch broom and generally keeping a watchful eye on this riparian forest and its shoreline, which provides high-quality habitat for all five species of native Pacific salmon. And Dan’s site-visit reports are funny and positive, showing his connection to the outdoors: “Nature is very much reclaiming the place, the two side roads are just covered with wild grass and flowers.”

Thanks to Dan for all he’s done for the Land Trust. His work has been invaluable and we hope he sticks around for a while!

by Charly Kearns, Land Steward

Western bluebirds are now a common sight at the Land Trust’s Powell Creek Pastures property, along the Nisqually River. It’s always a joy to see them hunting for insects or perched on fence posts. They are a cavity-nesting species but are unable to create their own nests, so they rely on woodpeckers, tree rot, and humans to create safe places to lay eggs. Volunteers have helped us install dozens of birdhouses throughout the Pastures property, and we have watched bluebirds successfully fledge multiple generations of young.

Bluebirds prefer open woodlands, like the Pastures, but are found in different habitats throughout the western United States. In summer, they primarily eat terrestrial insects, like caterpillars, pill bugs, and grasshoppers. In winter, they largely depend on seeds and hard berries. And, though stable, Western bluebird populations do face risks: habitat loss from development and extensive logging, loss of openings due to fire suppression, removal of dead trees, and invasive species, such as European starlings and feral cats.

Bluebirds have a fascinating and unusual family dynamic. Nesting pairs may allow some sons to remain within their defended territory but will cast out most daughters. The stay-at-home sons may try to mate with outcast daughters from neighboring territories and eventually create their own territory. However, some sons may not mate at all, and instead stay within their parents’ domain and help care for offspring. This cooperative breeding strategy significantly increases the survival rate of fledglings.

Henry David Thoreau wrote that “the bluebird carries the sky on his back.” This is actually closer to the truth than you might think. The color blue is rare in nature, especially in the animal world. In fact, the only vertebrate known to actually produce a blue pigment is a group of fish. All other blue-colored vertebrates get their color from structural elements. In bluebirds (and most blue feathers), this is accomplished by tiny air pockets within the barbs of feathers, which scatter light, reflecting only blue wavelengths.

These somewhat common birds are anything but ordinary, and we love providing them with a home!

The Land Trust recently added two more highly prized
properties to its acquisitions along the Whitewater Reach of the Nisqually River, near Yelm, which is rated highest priority for protection in both the Nisqually Chinook Salmon Recovery Plan and the Nisqually Steelhead Recovery Plan.

The properties total twenty acres and just over one-third mile of shoreline, and they provide spawning and rearing habitat for all five Pacific salmonid species native to the Nisqually Watershed, including Chinook, coho, chum, and pink salmon and steelhead trout. Both Chinook and steelhead are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

In addition, the purchase of one of the properties completes the goal of securing land for the potential extension of the Yelm-Tenino Trail all the way to, and possibly across, the Nisqually River. The property and one purchased in 2016 bookend railroad tracks, owned by the city of Yelm, that cross the river and run to Roy, in Pierce County. The track and its trestle could be converted to a pedestrian and bike crossing, which would be the first on the Nisqually River.

“It’s a bold vision,” said Land Trust Outreach Coordinator Cris Peck, who will work with Yelm on planning for the potential project, “but it’s an inspiring one. The Yelm-Tenino Trail already connects with the Chehalis Western-Woodard Bay Trail in Thurston County. If we can extend it across the river to Roy, and connect the Thurston County network with the planned Pierce County trail network, we’ll have a regional jewel.”

The two new property acquisitions, and a third completed in 2016 are part of a combined project funded by Thurston County Conservation Futures and the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board. Total cost for the three properties was $490,000.

The two new properties are undeveloped, with largely intact shoreline, forest, and wetland habitat. “Acquiring high-quality habitat while it’s still healthy – before it has to be restored – is unquestionably the most cost-efficient strategy for salmon recovery,” said Land Trust Executive Director Joe Kane.

All three properties will be managed as part of the Land Trust’s Yelm Shoreline Protected Area, expanding it to 227 acres and 2.79 shoreline miles.