A riparian area is the land surrounding a stream. It plays an important role in water quality and wildlife habitat. We have been replanting native trees in the Alder Creek riparian area—which you’ll cross right as you enter the ACCF site—for several years. Below is a summary of what we’ve replanted, and survival estimates for replanted trees.
2014 Replanting
We launched replanting efforts in during the wet winter months of 2014. For a key to all flagging colors and details on the tree species, including survival as of Aug 2015, see this table, or the quick summary below, which starts with overstory species (bigleaf maple and red alder), then presents understory species in a general mesic to xeric (wet to dry) continuum:
- Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum): Yellow/Blue
- Red alder (Alnus rubra): Green/Pink
- Pacific ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus): Yellow
- Vine maple (Acer circinatum): Blue
- Creek (redtwig) dogwood (Cornus stolonifera): Red
- Mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii): Orange
- Klamath plum (Prunus subcordata): Pink
- Oregon crabapple (Malus fusca): Green
2016 Replanting
We continued replanting in March 2016. For this replanting, we included 10 seedlings for most of the understory species above; Oregon crabapple was not available. We substituted white alder (Alnus rhombifolium; 10 seedlings) for the red alder given its relatively low survival rate. We also counted survivals as of Mar 2016 from our 2014 replanting, as summarized below; these should be compared to the Aug 2015 survivals linked above.
- Bigleaf maple: 40% survival
- Red alder: 30%
- Pacific ninebark: 90%
- Vine maple: 40%
- Creek (redtwig) dogwood: 50%
- Mock orange: 60%
- Klamath plum: 30%
- Oregon crabapple: 70%
In time, we hope to plant additional overstory species:
- Grand fir (Abies grandis): Green/Yellow
- Western red cedar (Thuja plicata): Green/Red
2017 Replanting
In February 2017, we continued our replanting efforts, including the following species (for scientific names and flagging color for most of these species, see above):
- Bigleaf maple
- Black cottonwood
- Western red cedar
- White alder
- Pacific ninebark
- Vine maple
- Creek (redtwig) dogwood
- Mock orange
- Riparian willow
We have not systematically studied survival in recent years, and hope to do so in time, so as to prioritize species and riparian locations for replanting in future.