Hiked up to the most severe fire damage area of the St. Mary's Wilderness fire located on Big Spy & Little Spy mountains. There are no marked trails in this area and the areas damaged most are on very steep and rocky slopes...
Shortly after the fire was declared out I made the hike to the St. Mary's Falls to check on damage and found that the river had prevented the fire from crossing over west of the river. Prior post shows the falls and areas near the river that were damaged.
During visits to the area I met the incident commander who told me of a distinctive pine tree "Table Mountain Pine - Pinus pungens" that only grows in this region and requires fire to heat the cones and release the seed...
I was able to locate the Table Mountain Pine near the top of the ridge in a very rocky area as described by the Incident Commander. I found numerous cones on the ground in many different degrees of damage and retrieved several samples for identification.
I took a ride down to Glenwood & Pedlar Ranger station near Natural Bridge for help in proper identification and additional information on the Table Mountain Pine species. I spoke with an individual I believe was the staff botanist who identified the samples as being from the Table Mountain Pine. He also advised me that there are several theories about how the fire provides opportunities for the species to propagate properly. One theory is that the fire heats the cone to release the seed. Another theory is that the fire needs to be intense enough to clear the ground clutter to allow proper conditions for the the seed to germinate...
White Pine (Pinus strobus) were also in the area but are not as hearty as the Table Mountain Pine and do not usually survive such a fire...
The above photo shows the amount of ground cover on the forest floor as shown by the area around the base of the tree that has burned. It was made up of numerouse layers of leaves and pine needles...
Some initial growth was found...
And a waterfall...
5 comments:
Nice pics. I love SMWA. It's a shame to see it in this state. But also nice to see the resilience of life fighting back.
It will be interesting to get back there in a few months to check out the growth. The botanist at Pedlar Ranger station said there should be a nice carpet of seedlings along the ridge of the two mountains that got hit the hardest.
There is a trail that is not marked or shown on maps that runs the ridge and is well worth the effort...
It's been a while since I've been out there. A couple of times I did an overnight loop—up along a fire road to the "green pond?" and then down into the gorge, eventually camping at the old mine clearing.
Saw a 4' rattle snake out there once too. Amazing.
Have only seen any substantial amount of water at Green Pond once but I hear that was a nice place years past. There are many small foundations in the area of the mine camps and what I can find they were there after WW1 time period. Impressive native trout in the St. Mary's river and have seen 14"+ come out of there during the DGIF fish count...
lol...yeah the Green Pond moniker was appropriate for the swampy state that I've always found it in. It's actually an interesting place being that it's strictly rain fed, being on the top of the mountain.
Happy hiking!
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