PAGE – Park rangers in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are gearing up for a native plant restoration project at Horseshoe Bend. And they are seeking volunteers to help propagate 300 Narrowleaf yuccas and 200 Desert princes’ plumes in a greenhouse for outplanting.

“We’re about to start propagating plants for that effort,” said Lonnie Pilkington, biologist for Glen Canyon and Rainbow Bridge, “and we’ll be doing some native plant restoration along the existing trail, the staging area for all the heavy equipment, (and) along the fringes of the new trail.”  

Park rangers for the last four years have been propagating native plants from seeds collected inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and outplanted them at certain degraded places within and outside the park. Thus far, they outplanted native plants around the Rainbow Bridge and Lees Ferry areas, and along federal highways.

Pilkington says NPS has a contractor that is also growing a number of native plant species for the Horseshoe Bend project because the greenhouse – located on the Page High School campus – is already running at full capacity.

“So, we have a little bit of help,” Pilkington said. “So, we’re growing a small portion of what it will eventually end up out there.”

Native plants are critical to a healthy park ecosystem. They provide a diversity of food and shelter to animals and insects, and bring an array of color to a site, and protect cultural resources from erosion, according to the National Park Service.

“So, native plant restoration in some areas is becoming more challenging with climate change,” Pilkington said. “We’re in a drought right now obviously. It’s been really rough in regard to precipitation.”

Direct seeding in the desert southwest is a risky propagation because it is all driven primarily by precipitation, said Pilkington. As a result, seeding is risky in most situations.
“Outplanting of native plants is going to become more challenging if it continues to be hotter and dryer in this area and other areas,” he said. “So, active restoration is becoming more important. The maintenance of these sites may be more intensive to get them established where they can persist on their own.”

Restoring native species to degraded areas is something the NPS is directed to do and park rangers here do this on a daily basis, but not every park in the country has a project like this, said Tatiana Smail, a biological science technician.

“It depends on the agency and their priorities,” Pilkington said. “With regards to the park service, restoring degraded lands is something that we’re mandated to do, especially the lands that are degraded by humans.”

The NPS’s native plant restoration project started here in 2011 when members of the agency met with representatives from Page Unified School District and asked if they could propagate native plants in the greenhouse at the high school.

“They were agreeable to let us work in there,” Pilkington said. “Prior to that, the park had worked in conjunction with the school to propagate plants in there. But it had been a couple of years since the park was active there. So, we got together again, and they were (cooperative).”

Both parties put together a cooperative agreement, a formal agreement to allow the park rangers to work in the greenhouse, said Pilkington.

“It’s also a mechanism to transfer funding from the park to the school district, to help out with maintenance and operation costs,” he explained. “So, every year since 2013, when this (agreement) was signed, we’ve transferred funds to the school to help defer some of those costs. And since then we’ve been working in the greenhouse to propagate native plants for restoration projects, which is what was written into the agreement.”

And it has been a true partnership ever since. Smail says she tries to be at the greenhouse every other day to maintain the plants but she needs help.

“That’s part of the reason why we need some assistance,” Pilkington explained. “Especially during this time of year, during the summer fill season, it’s a little bit easier for us to maintain it because we have seasonal staff on like (Smail) who’s overseeing the greenhouse right now. In the winter, our staff shrinks and it’s a little bit more challenging to maintain the greenhouse. So, we’re trying to fill in the gaps. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that with some volunteer help.”

The park service gets volunteer help every year when students from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, come to help out for a short time.

“That’s great but we’re really looking for some (locals), maybe more than three individuals who can cover it daily,” Pilkington added.

“I would love to be able to get a cohesive group (that) becomes part of our extended park family,” Smail added. “And, I think it’d be wonderful for the community to be able to be a part of restoring Glen Canyon and what needs to be restored around the community as well. So, we’d be happy with as many people we can find to want to be part of that long-term. They’ll get to learn things like propagation, caring for the plants (every other day) –– what goes into all of that.”

To volunteer contact Tatiana Smail at tatiana_smail@nps.gov.