Saving endangered flower

CHEROKEE NATIONAL FOREST -- A U.S. Forest Service crew is using a chainsaw and herbicide to save an endangered and extremely rare flower in the Cherokee National Forest this week.

Ruth's golden aster, a flower whose only known habitats on the planet are a few miles along the Ocoee and Hiwassee rivers, is being crowded out of existence by vines, grasses and saplings. So the invading plants have to go, according to Mark Pistrang, botanist and ecologist for the forest.

"Once this grows up, these are gone," said Mr. Pistrang, touching a Virginia pine growing out of a crevice in a cluster of asters, which blooms with small, yellow flowers in August.

There are about 10,000 asters on the Hiwassee and 600 on the Ocoee, according to the Forest Service's Environmental Assessment.

Crew member Geoff Call, an endangered species recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that while the aster is only one flower in the forest, it is in danger of extinction and needs help to survive. The plant is worth saving because it's tough to know what other organisms in the forest depend on it to survive, he said.

"It's not until you start losing things that you understand their role in the system," he said.

The 12-man crew started Monday around noon after a 45-minute drive through a maze of gravel roads and an hourlong hike through the dense, sweltering forest.

On Monday and Tuesday, they cleared two 30- by 30-foot plots, and they'll return in August to determine the project's effectiveness by comparing those plots against others. If the plots show encouraging signs, it could lead to more widespread clearing, Mr. Pistrang said.

Standing among rocky crags next to the rushing Hiwassee, Mr. Pistrang explained that Ruth's golden aster adapted to grow strong roots in rocky crevices and cracks along the rivers' edges. When seasonal floods on the Ocoee and Hiwassee washed away other saplings and sprouts, the aster was the only thing tough enough to hang on, he said.

Since the rivers have been dammed and the flooding controlled, trees have grown up throughout the area that used to flood, crowding the aster.

"This used to look like that," Mr. Pistrang said, pointing first at an overgrown thicket of small trees and vines before pointing back to the bald rocks and crevices.

After the crews started, the thicket quickly began to disappear. One man used a chainsaw to take down trees while others used pruning sheers to lop apart vines, saplings and smaller plants. Crew members armed with squirt bottles of herbicide followed behind, targeting the freshly cut stalks or trunks.

"None of us are big fans of coming out here and squirting herbicide all over the place, but this is being done very scientifically and under control," Mr. Pistrang said.

Bill Kline, a product technical specialist with Dow AgroSciences who selected and prepared a special river-friendly herbicide, was part of Monday's crew. He has worked with Mr. Pistrang on the project for seven or eight years, he said.

Mr. Pistrang has been working on the aster's behalf even longer, participating in a previous attempt to clear the areas without herbicide in the mid-1990s.

"It's sure taken a long time, but we're here," Mr. Kline said.

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