Amandine, former Camas biological science technician and current Friends of Camas advisory board member, all suited up to spray weeds. Photo credit: Ellie Wanner/Great Basin Institute

Message From the Board

By Dana Duran and Andrea Kristof

Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to wildlife habitat across the West. The vital migratory bird habitat encompassed by Camas National Wildlife Refuge is no exception. Russian knapweed, cheatgrass, and rush skeletonweed are three invasive plants that seek to dominate the sage-steppe uplands, outcompeting the native wildflowers essential to species like the sage grouse, sage sparrow, and yellow bumble bees. While Russian knapweed wages a type of chemical warfare by secreting chemicals into the soil that inhibit the growth of native plants, cheatgrass is more of an arsonist, flooding the arid habitat with its abundant dried remains during the summer which fuels more frequent and hot wildfires that native plant species struggle to recover from. Rush skeletonweed, a relatively new arrival to the Upper Snake River Plain, plays more of a numbers game. A mature plant can produce up to 20,000 seeds per year that are perfectly adapted to disperse by wind over vast distances. And in western North America, rush skeletonweed plants enjoy unnaturally long life, with some living up to 20 years! Meanwhile, the native trees and shrubs comprising the riparian habitat so valuable to migratory songbirds are being scaled and suffocated by white bryony, a vine with cucumber-like leaves, poisonous purple berries, and a giant turnip-like root. Saving the native trees and shrubs from white bryony requires introducing herbicide directly into the root of white bryony, which is a time-consuming, tedious, and physically demanding process. Fortunately, the Camas wetlands have thus far escaped many of the worst invasive plants (e.g. Eurasian watermilfoil, common reed) and Refuge staff works diligently to keep it that way by properly cleaning equipment that has been used in other locations (we call this biosecurity).

Russian knapweed monoculture (lighter minty green) overtakes wet meadow in the southwest part of the Refuge. Russian knapweed has been documented on the Refuge since the 1940s. It is staff time and resource expensive to treat, but too ecologically damaging to ignore.

Are you finding this rush skeletonweed difficult to see? Imagine when it’s not flowering! Its ability to escape human detection undoubtedly helps it evade control efforts.

Invasive plant management is a top priority and a full-time job for Refuge staff. The busy season for this type of work at Camas is between May and September, so we are just starting to get our boots on the ground to treat weeds! To combat the scourge of invasive plants on Camas National Wildlife Refuge, we have come up with a meticulous yet aggressive approach to monitoring and treating infestations. Every summer, our biology field crew scouts thousands of acres on the refuge for occurrences of invasive species. It can be difficult to stay organized on such a large scale, so we work in grid cells of 50x50 meters, each with a unique ID number. Invasive species occurrences are recorded along with their concentration in each grid cell. This approach is especially helpful for monitoring Early Detection/Rapid Response (EDRR) species because it allows us to detect incipient infestations and treat them early before they spread beyond a manageable point. In 2024, our field crew conducted a baseline inventory for invasive plant species across almost 800 acres and treated 770 acres of priority invasive weeds. Between 2020 and 2024, we have inventoried two-thirds of the Refuge for 49 invasive plant species, detected and treated 3 previously unknown EDRR species, and reduced the distribution of 8 invasive plants species that are more deeply rooted in the Refuge.

What are our priorities for 2025? We have a smaller field crew this year so our first priority is to protect the gains made by previous years. We will spend a lot of time re-visiting areas treated over the last two years, evaluating treatment efficacy, and completing touch-up treatments to cement some hard fought wins. We also want to begin restoring native plants to the areas where invasives have been successfully eliminated. This will require more on-site seed collecting and some propagation from cuttings. Finally, we aim to complete baseline surveys for invasive plants over an additional 1,000 acres. Interested? We would love the help! Contact camasfriends@gmail.com for more information on volunteer opportunities for this year.

We would like to thank the Friends of Camas for their support on treating cheatgrass in the Kent Christopher restoration site, promoting reintroduction of native plants at Camas in the pollinator garden, and educating the community about the invaluable natural resources we have at Camas National Wildlife Refuge.