Surprise Canyon Regrowth

Revisiting Surprise Canyon in May 2003, we were pleased to see recovery along the stream devastated by the big flood in September 2001.

New cottonwood saplings and sweetclover line the stream. Some cottonwoods are already 4 feet high.

Moss begins to colonize the bare rock, and herbs sprout: Rock nettle, Sticky spiderling, Scouring rush, and even new willows from seed.

The canyon looks quite good in places, with Baccharis growing fast. Large willows had survived the flood and continue to thrive. Birds were singing and feeding actively in the trees.

Many Arroyo willows stump-sprouted. New herbs line the waterway. Canyon life seems well-adapted to periodic irregular disturbance such as natural floods, but not as well adapted to chronic, regular disturbance of off-road driving.

We had wondered about the fate of the many unique aquatic animals, such as the treefrogs and large water bugs (family Naucoridae). Fortunately we found both. Treefrogs were laying eggs in the many new pools of the stream, and Naucorids swam about in the slower waters. Above, a male carried eggs on his back. These water bugs grasp pery such as mosquito larvae with their front legs, and can inflict a painful bite -- some are called "toe-biters."

Rock nettle, Scarlet monkeyflower, and scouring rush regrowing. The former road had now become a narrow foot path.

Entering the gorge, many willows survived well, and new herbs begin to cover the gravel.

The stream stabilizes.

New Scouring rush and willow.

Sapling cottonwoods.

Scarlet monkeyflower and Rabbitsfootgrass.

At the falls, scoured bare by the flood, mosses, goldenrod, grasses, everlasting, and other plants create new soil by rooting into the silt deposited by the slowed flow.

Colonizing mosses on the waterfall bedrock.

 

--the Roving Naturalist

 

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