Discovery

Sometimes, figuring something out only deepens the overall mystery.

Take Pseudomonas fluorescens D7, for example.

Ann Kennedy, a USDA-Agricultural Research Service soil microbiologist at Washington State University, has isolated the native bacteria as a perfectly natural way to fight cheatgrass, also known as downy brome, scientific name Bromus tectorum. Recently, she and her colleagues were awarded a large grant to test the effectiveness of Pseudomonas fluorescens D7 on cheatgrass in rangeland.

Cheatgrass, which was introduced in the late 19th century as a forage crop, is an aggressive invader, a grass that has, according to botanist Washington State University Richard Mack, changed the ecology, if not the landscape, of much of the western United States. Cheatgrass crowds out other plants and changes the fire ecology of a region. Because it matures in early spring, it dries out and provides a hot-burning fuel for wildfires, to which its seeds are impervious.

The reason invasive species are so successful is they are out of context, out of their normal environment. Not all introduced plants are necessarily invasive. They may grow in a foreign environment, but not sufficiently well to crowd out native species. But if a plant does well in an environment and lacks native predators or enemies, then it can become aggressively invasive. Other very visible invasives in the Pacific Northwest are Scotch Broom and purple loosestrife. The reason they are so visible is they have no natural controls.

So it is with cheatgrass. Originally from Eastern Europe, it is not the problem there that it is here. In its native environment, it has no advantage over competitors and predators.

Kennedy and her colleagues imported soil from Turkey and Kazakhstan and found that 90 percent of the organisms in it were inhibitory to cheatgrass. Only 50 percent of organisms in domestic soil are inhibitory. (more…)

UPDATE: May 28, 2009 – Northwest Public Radio had a story this morning on Congressional movement toward an Ice Age floods trail: Congress Rubber Stamps Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail

In the fall of 2004 WSM’s Tim Steury wrote a nice article about the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington titled “An Exquisite Scar”. Tim interviewed me about the efforts of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) to convince Congress to authorize the National Park Service to organize and manage an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail.  He inserted a report of that interview into the article in a little piece that he titled “a trail through time”.   Tim’s last question in the interview was, “How likely is the trail’s realization?”  He reported my answer as, “It depends what day it is.”

Well, the day turned out to be Wednesday, March 25, 2009.  Congress passed it on Wednesday and the following Monday President Obama signed it into law.

At the time of Tim’s interview the IAFI was trying to get authorizing legislation introduced into Congress.  Since that interview Washington’s Fourth District Congressman Richard “Doc” Hastings and Washington’s Senator Maria Cantwell sponsored the needed legislation in their respective houses and a near five-year campaign for passage began.

The legislation authorizes the National Park Service to plan and manage a highway route from western Montana (site of Glacial Lake Missoula) across Northern Idaho (site of the ice dam) and eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands, down the Columbia Gorge, back up Oregon’s Willamette Valley and on down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.  The trail will link the many flood features across the four-state region [map of the trail].  Most important features are already on public land and many already are interpreted by state or local facilities.  A cap of $12,000,000 is placed on capital expenditures by the legislation.

The Park Service Trail will focus public attention on this phenomenal story.  Research, education and tourism opportunities will grow with this attention.

The next step in this long process will be for Congress to appropriate the funds for the trail’s creation.   That campaign is now underway.

Gary Kleinknecht (’72) is president of the Ice Age Floods Institute

Links

http://www.iafi.org/

www.nps.gov/iceagefloods