Fort
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Informative Walk with Lary Ludwig Park Ranger at Fort Bowie
Barton Hiatt bartswindow@yahoo.com
Date:04/28/05
I got to take a walk with Lary Ludwig of the National Park Service who has been stationed at Fort Bowie adjacent to the D.M. property for 14 years. We met for a little over an hour and discussed various issues related to the fort site and D.M. property. The following are my impressions of this meeting.
We walked in about a quarter mile or so, from the trail head on Apache Pass road.
The initial discussion was about the Mesquite eradication program that they have been following over the past few years. The reasons for the program are to control the spread of the mesquite trees which began with the introduction of cattle and soldiers in the 1860's. The park service's goal is to return the land to the pre fort condition. Photographs (probably Tintypes, I have yet to see them) taken prior to the cattle grazing show that although the mesquite was here, it was limited to the edges of the washes and more of the tree variety than the bush variety that we see a lot of now. The area was covered in grasses, with a scattering of mesquite Oak and Juniper trees. These trees were larger and much less numerous than they are now. The cattle fed on the mesquite and deposited it with an ample supply of nitrogen and other nutrients over a much wider area. The Mesquite than began to push out the existing grasses, competing with them for water and nutrients.
The process that NPS is currently using is to cut back the branches of the mesquite wait for a regrowth of foliage and then treat this foliage with Round Up. This process is repeated several times over the period of a couple of years till the mesquite stops coming back. They have been putting the trimmings in the adjacent washes, to slow the flow of water through the wash, in the hopes of depositing enough soil to fill the grooves, this seems to have been successful in some places.
This process was tested on small sites, establishing the most effective method and timing of the round up application, and at the same time testing whether or not the grasses would come back as hoped. The grasses came back with the rains as would be expected. The clearing that hapened prior to drought years resulted in a slow recovery, a barren landscape, and presumably an increase in the loss of soils due to increased wind exposure. If we were to begin a process like this we would want to find a more organic method of removing the unwanted plants. Obviously we don't want to use Poisons, Anything that kills a plant is poison to that plant. Right now we seem to be in a wet and cool phase of weather. A couple of years ago there was a 2 year drought, which killed off a lot of the trees and grasses. The average rain fall at the site is 17” per year, the recent drought years produced only 7”.
During this testing phase they worked with biologists to determine what effect the removal of the mesquite would have on the small rodents that use the trees for nesting materials, shade, and cover from the birds which feed on them. They determined that the mice and other rodents moved away towards cover and were subsequently replaced by other types of rodents. This seemed to them to have no apparent impact on the presence of the predators that feed there.
Here on D.M. property the Prevalent “nuisance” plant seems to be the Creosote bush. Creosote bush is a caustic and invasive plant, with a pretty yellow flower that was once used to produce a coating for railroad ties that inhibits rot and insect infestation. It may produce an environment that would prevent other plants from growing in the soils around it. It may be of value as a building material for these same reasons. The same small scale test method could work to see how some creosote could be removed without damaging the land.
Another “nuisance” plant here is the prickly pear cactus. This plant has qualities that make it a useful water proofer and bonding resin that may be useful in building the retreat sites. Napolitos, young prickly pears, dethorned and cut into strips are good to eat and have a lot of nutritional value.
The Mesquite bush produces a pod that can be ground into a tasty flour. The twigs and roots can be used for weaving into shade panels, for fiber in earth based building materials, small furniture, or for fuel. It can also be used to to slow down the water and increase soil deposits or piled up as a wind break. If pruned and shaped may produce some shade but the climate here causes them to grow close to the ground for warmth, although this could be changed in the micro climates created by putting up a building.
Possibly the most advantageous approach would be to remove the unwanted growth by hand and find a use for what we remove as close to where we remove it as possible. Creosote bush was basically replaced by asphalt or petroleum based products. It may be able to be used as a water sealer for catchment systems and roofs, as well as a binder for adobe and other earth based building materials. Prickly Pear has a value as a binding material and may also be able to be used as the resin in resin and fiber matrix materials, for light weight roof and shade panels.
A side effect of removing the mesquite was the exposure of numerous building sites of the prehistoric peoples (Anasazi) and the more recent Apaches. The field houses of the Anasazi, indicated by regular patterns of stones on edge, are not hard to spot, as is the case with the roasting pits, indicated by clusters of granite turned pinkish and often cracked by the heat of the fires. The Apache sites are much more subtle indicated by semi or whole circular patterns of stones, often at the foot of a rise.
The other issue that Larry brought up was Controlled Burning and the intention of doing that at Fort Bowie. This area does not seem to fit the profile for a prescribed burn in a lot of peoples opinion and this concept should be approached with extreme caution.
