Restoration team tallies tree survival

Last summer I held the seasonal position of Canoe Program Coordinator, and I spent very little time along the streams. It was a real treat to spend an entire day walking Lee Vining Creek on Sunday of the Committee's 20th Anniversary Restoration Days weekend (thanks to canoe expert Michelle Hofmann for covering the canoe tours for me).

The day started at the Information Center, where a few familiar faces gathered to help with restoration work--not hard labor, but data gathering. Botanist Mark Bagley first took us to an overlook and described some of the past restoration work. Then we headed down to Lee Vining Creek to begin work.

In spring 1995, over 1500 trees were planted in the deforested area along Lee Vining Creek, and in September 1995 I tried to find them all.
Of the ones I had found, 70% of the Jeffrey pines were surviving, and so were just over 50% of the cottonwoods and willows, which was a surprisingly good survival rate. Now, three years later, we would try to find these, and tally their survival.

We broke into two groups and began counting. At certain places it was hard to distinguish between trees planted in 1995, trees planted in other years, and natural regrowth. They looked so different from three years ago--some cottonwoods were 8-10 feet tall!

I had been wondering for three years about how the trees were doing, and I finally found out. There were more surviving than I expected--a pleasant surprise!

After lunch (thanks to Bill and Virginia Hilber, who generously fed me, summer intern Bill Lickiss, and volunteer Clyde Underwood), Mark Bagley gave a talk on riparian vegetation. During this talk I was able to count more trees planted in 1995, and afterwards, while everyone enjoyed Dave Herbst's talk, I made my way back to Lee Vining, counting along the way.

We managed to count all of the areas that were planted in 1995 west of the main channel. Of those surviving the first summer, 59% of the Jeffrey pines survived, 86% of the cottonwoods, and 74% of the willows--a total of 381 trees! This well-established forest was made possible by our members, our staff, volunteers, youth groups from LA, Lee Vining school children, biologist Scott English, and cooperation and funding from LADWP. Thank you all for both your support and your hard work! Working together we can restore the health of the Mono Basin!