Last updated: May 2, 2019
Article
Of salmon and success: Partnership across boundaries in Olympic National Park
NPS photo/C. Decker
Invasive species pose a unique challenge to our national parks. Plant species travel relatively unnoticed, hitching rides on visitor clothing and recreation equipment when not cleaned properly, and then can establish themselves quickly in native plant communities, often outcompeting native plants for nutrients and water. This makes prevention extremely difficult and treatment daunting. Luckily, the fight against invasive species in parks can provide unique team work opportunities, too!
Along the river banks of the Olympic Peninsula, the North Coast/Cascades Network Exotic Plant Management Team (NCCN EPMT) has partnered with the Quileute Tribe and Clallam County of Washington state for over a decade. This year, the teams have joined to remove an invasive knotweed from Olympic National Park and adjacent lands, protecting and restoring critical habitat for a culturally significant salmon species.
NPS photo/C. Decker
Partnership across Peninsula
Even though Cheryl Decker only recently began her role as liaison with NCCN EPMT, it did not take her long to learn the cross-boundary partnership of the National Park Service (NPS), the county of Clallam, and the Quileute Tribe is a crucial one for the Olympic National Park ecosystem.
“Because multiple agencies and landowners share boundaries across the entire Olympic Peninsula, and because we were working on the same infestation in adjacent riparian areas and estuaries, the partners decided to work together on cross boundary invasive plant problems.” Decker explained.
It was in 2002 that the first bi-annual “get togethers” for all invasive plant managers on the Olympic Peninsula was organized. Federal and State Government agencies, Tribals, county weed coordinators, and private landowners and businesses form the expansive Olympic Invasives Working Group. From the regular meetings, the NPS, tribes, and other agencies built a strong partnership, agreeing to work on a mutually beneficial project together every year.
In the case of the invasive knotweed, “It’s a nasty one!” said Decker.
Riparian habitat is where the land meets a river or stream. When treatment began, the knotweed had already begun changing the area, blanketing the ground with its elephant ear -like, green leaves and beginning to flatten the streambed. Knotweed reduces the nutrients available in the streams and slows the flow down, making the water temperatures warmer and harming eggs and juvenile salmon.
Coho salmon, also known as silver salmon, are one of several species of Pacific salmon. These native fish come from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the freshwaters of the West Coast every year, however, they have experienced a decline in abundance during the past several decades. The decline is of great concern to the tribe and Olympic National Park.
Partnership across state lines
The effects of noxious, invasive plants such as these have had drastic effects on Coho salmon in other parts of the country. In 2015, the California EPMT (CA EPMT) discovered that an infestation of the 10th most invasive plant in the world, Japanese knotweed, had taken up real estate along the banks of the Lagunitas Creek in southern Marin County, CA. Japanese knotweed has proven so formidable because of its ability to root and grow rapidly along waterways, often completely taking over an area from any other plant life. Just as along the Olympic Peninsula, this is damaging not only to the Coho salmon, but also the endangered California freshwater shrimp that rely on the critical habitat of Mount Tamalpais, where the creek traverses county, private homeowner, state park, and Golden Gate National Recreation Area lands. Surveys and treatment of the invasion started immediately.
The following year, the CA EPMT hosted a series of meetings with countywide land managers to raise awareness and support for a cross-jurisdictional response. Those conversations led to the establishment of an interagency and non-governmental task force focused - similar to the Olympic Peninsula partnership - on knotweed eradication called Marin Knotweed Action Team (MKAT). CA EPMT treatments in 2017 reduced knotweed numbers by 93% on NPS land. With this type of success and the dedicated array of MKAT members, the CA EPMT is optimistic about the prospects of eradicating knotweed from the watershed.
Partnership for years to come
At the initiation of the Quillayute River riparian project, the area was so infested with knotweed that more than a month of work was required each year to manage the infestation, often with a crew of more than eight people. One site in particular was very challenging to work in, due to the dense Pacific Northwest undergrowth and “a disproportionate number of wasps”, according to the NCCN EPMT. One such day happened to be Decker’s first week.
“We had to wear orange just to see each other!”
But all the hard work is paying off for this site, which has shown great progress due to the continued efforts of those in the cross-boundary partnership. The area was last treated in 2017 and shows far less knotweed, according to Garrett Rasmussen, Timber Fish and Wildlife program manager with the Quileute Tribe. However, searches of the area must be done every year, he says.
"The partnership worked together for eight days on the project...the time consuming part of working here is the large area that needs searched," Rasmussen explained.
Invasive species management in national parks is no easy task, but the removal of invasive knotweed to preserve the native salmon and shrimp habitat proves that even the noxious and “nasty” can be turned into a success.
“It couldn’t have happened without [the Quileute Tribe]”, Decker said.
Last year, the partnership on the Olympic Peninsula moved to a new location on the Bogachiel River, another riparian area that crosses boundaries, and perhaps will even fight a new invasive species, but the partnership formed all those years ago will remain active - dedicated to working together, not separately, to resolve threats posed by invasive species.
NPS photo/C. Decker
Learn more about invasive species, the work happening in national parks, and how you can help prevent their spread by visiting the Invasive and Non-Native Species website.