Glen Canyon ranger cleans up Escalante River, one invasive plant at a time

Before: Utah’s Escalante River, Sept. 14, 2007 — choked with Russian olive trees.

After: Escalante River, Aug. 31, 2008 — native vegetation returns

For the last 15 years, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area resource management ranger Bill Wolverton has been waging a campaign to clean up the canyons of the Escalante River in southeastern Utah.

His foes are two rapacious nonnative plants: tamarisk and Russian olive, which ruthlessly crowd out the delicate maidenhair ferns, willows and cottonwoods that once thrived in canyons all over the state.

Wolverton has led Sierra Club and Wilderness Volunteers cleanup crews into the Escalante watershed to help wage war.

But for the most part, he has been eradicating the invaders on his own, climbing into remote canyons with shears, a hatchet, herbicide and, on occasion, a chain saw. It’s grueling, slow work, but his payoff is the time he spends on eerily beautiful tributaries of the Escalante River, with their narrow slots, waterfalls, soaring cliffs and ancient rock art.

Can one man defeat Russian olive and tamarisk in these rugged canyons? Thus far Wolverton and crew have cleared thorny, monstrously hardy Russian olive from 73% of the Escalante, including side canyons such as Coyote Gulch, a favorite with hikers.

And does it make a difference? Wolverton recently sent me these before-and-after cleanup pictures from the Escalante, 1.7 miles below Neon Canyon.

Hats off to Ranger Bill.

— Susan Spano/ Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo credits: Top, Andrew Hromadka; bottom, courtesy of Bill Wolverton]

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 10:22 am by Susan Spano and is filed under National Parks, Outdoors & Adventure, Rocky Mountain States, Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.