upwardbound2008

Seek and Destroy: Evasive Species

There are five of us in our “Seek and Destroy” group: Sally, Jake, Brenna, Jessica and Josh.  Our Project Group Leader is Josh Jannusch and Tara McDowell is our Student Assistant.

 

 

            

Our time is spent finding two specific types of invasive species along the Columbia estuary. The first of our species is the Yellow Flag Iris.

 

                 It is easier to find because of its distinctive yellow color.

 

 

 

                 We are also looking for phragmites australis, a type of grass that is not native to our area.

 

 

                                     

 

                 We haven't been very lucky finding this grass as of yet, because it looks a lot like all of the other grasses on the Columbia estuary.  We've only been looking for two days, so we are hoping for better luck soon.

 

                When we find these plants we plot them on GPS. We measure and categorize the habitat and living conditions of these species. By doing so, we hope give our information about the locations of these plants to groups that want to eradicate these species that are taking over the native population.

 

This past week we have explored the marsh area by alder creek on the youngs bay river side. We gathered data from the jetty all the way down to the old youngs bay bridge. In doing all that we have done we have had many injuries trying to jump holes to get to the phragmites. we have got almost all the phragmites that we could on foot. The next step is to get some canoes and go cross the the fort clatsop area and the walluski area to get the phragmites that are stuck on little islands.