Yellowstone Country Guardians Field Journal: River Guardian Fly Fishing School 2011: Giving Back

After escaping an oncoming thunderstorm on day two, we awoke to clear skies and warm temperatures on Wednesday morning. One of the most fulfilling components of running a program like the River Guardian Fly Fishing School is observing the progress that is made each and every day and this morning brought tremendous growth in regards to fly casting and line management. Following our morning casting session we journeyed back to the classroom where we watched a short but powerful video titled Against The Current about the importance of water in the arid west. This film really touches home for each participant as the entire piece takes place in the Paradise Valley which we commute through each morning and afternoon as we shuttle our Livingston students to Gardiner and back each day. The visceral discussion that followed clearly demonstrated the thoughtful progress that is being made by the 2011 class of river guardians.

Next we journeyed back to the Joe Brown Fishing Access Site which has become our project sight for our Giving Back day of the River Guardian Fly Fishing School. As with our Yellowstone Leadership Challenge, we feel strongly that service learning or community service projects are essential to inspiring a commitment from these young and excited Yellowstone country guardians. For this year’s service project we returned to Joe Brown with our friend Matt Wilhelm from the Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species to learn about the threat that aquatic invasive species pose to the watersheds that represent the lifeblood of the Yellowstone region. Working in collaboration with the Gardiner District Forest Service office, Matt shared an engaging presentation about one of the most potent invasive species in our region, Spotted Knapweed. One adult Spotted Knapweed can produce upwards of 80,000-100,000 seeds per year with a germination rate of approximately 95%.

Perhaps because of the wet spring and early summer, there was a profusion of knapweed around one of the most critical fishing access sites on the Yellowstone River. While we were concerned there wouldn’t be enough work to keep us busy after our successful project during the 2010 River G program, it was quite the contrary. Matt theorized that we were witnessing the rosettes that we weren’t able to tackle the year before. Regardless the reason, the aggressive knapweed was certainly attempting to gain a stronghold and if left uncheck, it would only be a matter of a few years before this potent invasive would begin outcompeting the important native riparian vegetation.

This year’s project was a huge success as we filled between 16-20 thirty gallon trash bags with Spotted Knapweed. The kids were jacked as were the YCG volunteers, Matt and our friends from the Gardiner District Forest Service. One of the reasons this site is so critical is because it is the upper most access site with a Spotted Knapweed problem and rests above the legendary Yankee Jim Canyon. When the seeds are dispersed they travel downstream and continue to germinate, thus by tackling the problem upstream we are mitigating future downstream outbreaks.

We were then joined by our volunteer guides for day three, Burke Holms and Jeff Musselman. Burke is one of the hot up and coming guides from the region who volunteered two days for the 2010 River G program and Jeff has become an important friend to YCG and journeyed down from Bozeman and quickly become a favorite of the kids. We couldn’t be more grateful for the efforts of these important volunteers. Venturing back to the Indian Creek area, we separated the groups and worked a few small tribs to the Gardner River and celebrated another banner August day in Yellowstone National Park.

~Michael Leach, Director and Founder

Two happy young ladies getting it done with two full bags of spotted knapweed.

Nick with a spotted knapweed bouquet.

2011 River Guardian's "Giving Back" at our River G service project in collaboration with the Gardiner District Forest Service and Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species.