October 3 - 6, 2005 Dixie NF
Location
GPS
UTM
NAD27
Photo #
Photo description
Additional Comments
Crawford Creek is on the Paunsaugunt Plateau, in the southern portion of the Powell Ranger District, Dixie NF.
This section is a broad flat wet meadow – perhaps formed with the help of beaver long ago. Cattle are heavily grazing the meadow (e.g., causing head cuts, bank trampling; trampling the moss, heavy browsing on shrubs, aspen). Two abandoned beaver dams are here, one approximately 125’ long. Old beaver-cut channels are visible behind the first dam. Aspen regeneration (but not spruce) are being browsed behind the dams. Cows were entering the heavily-grazed meadow just as we left.
October 5, 2005
CRAWFORDCREEK.
(Podunk Creek Quadrangle)
Tropic Reservoir Rd
7,871’
0359995 4186534
Smooth brome
East Fork, Sevier River
0391005 4165415
Downcutting of river – lack of vegetation
Dairy Hollow: East Fork Sevier River at junction w/ Crawford Cr.
8,165' 0384492 4147641
Wayne w/ stick – 2 feet headcut into wet mud. Headcuts migrating up
Can’t fix this without getting cattle out – dense clay layer. Road stops diffuse flow and concentrates water flow
Cow trampling at headwaters
CRAWFORD CREEK – CR3
8,291' 0385048 4146065
Browsed to ~1 ½ “; cow patty
Looking north—moving from wet meadow to dry meadow—start getting concentrated flow
Remnant willows
Narrow, deep channel, as cows trail. Wet meadow (surface flow) to the east, but drier where entrenched
Dirt replaces moss—dirt in pot hole
Rabbitbrush on hillside to east
Big bare areas in aspen—rabbitbrush and Juniperus communis(?)—only 3 small aspen growing among the juniper
October 5, 2005
CRAWFORD CREEK (cont.)
8,320' 0385079 4146115
Grazed more around gooseberry, Potentilla few, small forbs; less moist; coarse timothy and Juncus.
Slope to west, probably was moist in past; Potentilla now
Cow prints in meadow
Slope to east
CRAWFORD CREEK , Walking downstream (north)
0385091 4146232
Headcut working its way up the meadow
We shouldn’t be hearing water gurgling though. rather than flowing as sheet through the meadow.
A gully forming to the east into the headcut. Note browsed willows
Multiple ways to drain a meadow. Multiple gullies.
Could be an old beaver dam.
2.4’ deep at upper end.
2.4’ deep at lower end
Downstream
8,286' 0385089 4146289
Cow trampling is breaking through moss, starting to form two channels
CRAWFORD CREEK: A few feet further downstream
The meadow, with channelized water, is drying out
0385060 4146340
Trampling to widen
More sinuous than cow-driven here
Same – eventually cows will cut off this sinuosity
October 5, 2005
About 50’ further downstream
8,289' 0385052 4146344
More trampling. Classic widening
Another small headcut
Again break off
Suzanne checking whether this is a dam—but dams would have had silt behind.
PLT Salix. geyeriana?
Feels extremely compacted –lots of timothy
8,319' 0385051 4146489
Aspen w/ smooth brome, intermediate wheatgrass and rabbitbrush—no young aspen; mat of rhizomatous grasses
Aspen dying in middle of Juniper
2 small aspen where no rhizomatous grasses
8,287'0385018 4146415
This was a beaver dam: chewed stick—now about to be sheared off by cow trampling
Any exclosures where smooth brome was seeded?
0384957 4146477
Remnant of aspen down near creek
8,287' 0384930 4146518
Bank shearing off from cow trampling
8,279' 0384922 4146531
Bank trampling
A few feet downstream
Bank trampling
October 5, 2005
CRAWFORD CREEK (cont.)
0384911 4146567
Bank trampling
8,248' 0384918 4146609
Trampling is setting the bank back
Should be no channel through this meadow
Slope to west
Slope to east
Walking back—CRAWFORD CK, looking east from road
8,377' 0384977 4146156
No willow visible in the meadow
CRAWFORD CREEK – Reach 4
8,426’
0385235 4145382
Dam 1
2 ½ ’ tall Deschampsia thick on creek that breaches the dam – cattle can get to them
8,365'
0385222 4145435
Looking S toward dam
8,426’
0385235 4145382
Lodge entrance
8,365’
0385222 4145435
Looking south to dam
Juncus in pond behind failed dam
beaver-cut channels—would have been underwater when dam was active.
8,396' 0385247 4145336
Dam 2 Long ~125’ dam, not as tall, fed by a spring
Pond behind filled with green algae.
Beaver-cut aspen stems
Aspen trying to come back in—browsed off
October 5, 2005
CRAWFORD CREEK (cont.)
8,435' 0385206 4145285
Foreground: aspen sprout browsed; but spruce not browsed by beaver-cut aspen
8,424' 0385074 4145495
Seep blocked by road
It’s a physical system – only so many ways to operate
0384798 4147102
Cows have now come into Crawford Creek , despite already-browsed/trampled meadow
0385900 4153614
Cows in meadow -- many
VALLEY CREEK
(Grand Staircase National Monument)
0438558 4179055
Incised channel
October 6, 2005
Above Escalante
Sunrise over no. edge of ?
Hogback portion of Highway 12
Dry Hollow (tributary to Boulder Ck) with yellow cottonwood