Restoration ongoing at Swanson Lakes

SWANSON WILDLIFE AREA — Since the devastating Whitney Fire in 2020, which burned a large portion of the Swanson Lake Wildlife Area, work has been ongoing to restore the habitat for Columbia Sharp Tailed and Sage Grouse populations and other wildlife.

According to Swanson Lakes Area Manager Mike Finch, the first thing experts set out to do after the fire was to develop a map based on fire severity at the site.

He worked in partnership with Bureau of Lands Management (BLM) Biologist Jason Lowe. Between the Swanson Lake area and the BLM, they had 33,000 acres of land in the fire area.

“The goal was to work with BLM to develop a map based on fire severity and to overlay that map with telemetry data,” said Finch. “Data that tracked grouse movements and nesting sites.”

Although state funding was available right after the fire, it was limited, so the plan was to seed and plant selected areas.

Whitworth University Professor of Biology Grant Casady joined the project. He had just gotten funding to work with drones with multi-spectral sensors attached.

By using a pre-programmed course, they were able to get pictures of areas of fire damage. Casady’s students at Whitworth correlated the data for the recovery work. Areas were identified for the broadcasting of seeds.

Aerial reseeding was done by Kevin Leyva of Greg’s Crop Care, who broadcast 15 pounds per acre according to plan. For the project they got the seed from BFI Native Seeds.

BFI Manager, Jerry Benson recommended scratching the surface where the seeds had been broadcast, to increase germination. Finch and coworker Donovan Colvin used farm tractors and implements to scratch the ground in the seeded areas.

“Little over 600 acres was seeded, and we were able to scratch over 500 of those acres,” Finch said. “Wherever we scratched we got good germination.”

“We ended up using 11,250 pounds of seeds,” he added.

The seed mix is something developed over many years of work at the Swanson Lake site.

In some areas, the high heat of the fire did a lot of damage to sage brush. These shrubs are an essential part of the Sage Grouse habitat.

“Sage Grouse have to have sagebrush because it is their food source,” Finch said. “They eat the leaves and the bugs that gather around the plants.”

Also that fall, various other groups of volunteers came to the area and planted certain shrubs that have been found to regenerate after a fire.

Currently BLM and the Washington State Department Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) are coordinating a herbicide trial. Lowe and Finch are working this project to see if pre-emergent and post- emergent herbicides can help speed recovery after a fire.

A recent report suggests herbicide treatment has been found to have potential benefit after a fire.

Another effort by Finch and his team is to plant food plots of grain in the central areas of the animal reserve to provide more habitat for birds.

Triticale and canola are planted in strips and some are mixed for winter forage.

“Last winter we tracked grouse right to the food plots,” Finch said.

As for the birds themselves, each spring Swanson Lakes does a Lek study, taking count of both the Columbia Sharp Tailed and the Sage Grouse populations.

A Lek is a breeding ground for grouse and according to Finch the species always return to the general location for breeding each year.

Sharp Tailed Grouse were brought into the area in the early 2000’s along with 240 Sage Grouse. The Lek studies have shown the populations of both species has declined through the years.

Prior to the fire, a Lek study identified 27 male Sage Grouse. After the fire, in the spring of 2021 they identified three males.

The second year there were two and this past spring they counted one male. Finch believes the decrease in Sage Grouse is tied to the lack of shrubbery. He is not sure what happened to the Sage Grouse, but there are Sharp Tailed Grouse around, but their count is also down.