The Golden Paintbrush, a species of native prairie flowers reintroduced at the Glacial Heritage Preserve site that has taken hold there in the last 15 years.
Pale yellow and looking like a flower that hasn't quite bloomed, the Golden Paintbrush isn't a very spectacular looking plant.
But its looks aren't what makes it so special. It is the significance for the future of the prairie lands it inhabits that makes its appearance every spring at the Glacial Heritage Preserve near Littlerock so exciting.
Dennis Plank, Littlerock, a volunteer with Friends of Puget Prairies since 1998, said his wife told him at one time the once lush prairie was so thick with Scotch broom you could ride a horse through it and all you would see were the heads of the riders.
Bill Funk, of Olympia, added when he first started volunteering there 19 years ago, the entire effort revolved around removal of the invasive weed.
“We'd just come out here with weed whackers and cut them down,” he recalled.
Today, much of the land is free of Scotch broom.
Though volunteers said it is an ongoing struggle to remove the weed, it no longer dominates the landscape as before. Looking out over the grasslands and Mima Mounds, the Scotch broom is only a few isolated tufts surrounded by a sea of swaying grassed and pockets of color: the cornflower blue of Camas, the daisy-like yellows of the balsam root and the bright spikes of Golden Paintbrush.
“That's what really grabs people first about this place if they come out in the spring for the wildflower show,” Plank said.
“People go to Mount Rainier to see the wildflowers, but they could see them right here,” added Angela Winter, Native Plant Propagation Specialist and South Sound Volunteer Coordinator for the Center for Natural Lands Management.
In many respects, the Golden Paintbrush's story mirrors the larger issue of prairie lands in Western Washington. Most have been lost and what remains has been overtaken by invasive species and forgotten by history.
Plank said it is estimated that at one point there were about 150,000 acres of prairie in Washington. Today, there are only about 15,000 acres, much of which is located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and therefore inaccessible to the public.
“Most people aren't even aware there are prairies in Western Washington,” Plank said.
But the dwindling natural resource has value, noted Cliff Snyder, a 15-year volunteer at the preserve as well as a site steward at the Mima Mounds for the Department of Natural Resources. Snyder said only about 3 percent of Puget Sound prairies are in good shape but there are a host of flora and fauna that prefer the prairie as habitat.
“These are islands of rare species,” Snyder said.
And that is where the Golden Paintbrush comes in.
The prairie flower is on the endangered species list for plants and at one point it was estimated there were only 11-13 small populations of the flower between Oregon and British Columbia.
In 2000, volunteers with the Friends of Puget Prairies began an effort to gather seeds of the Golden Paintbrush from other local prairies and attempt to establish a population at Glacial Heritage. Plank explained that the preserve land had at one point in history been a prairie used by American Indian tribes that was later lightly farmed before becoming preserve lands. Because of the farming, most of the native plants were removed from the land but through historical records and by looking at other prairie lands, they have been able to reasonably deduct what plants may have originally grown there.
Slowly removing non-native and invasive species and replacing them with native prairie plants will provide food, shelter and other needs of fauna they are trying to re-establish in the ecosystem. For example, Plank said, the Taylor's Checkerspot Butterfly that is in the process of being reintroduced to the landscape, typically prefers harsh paintbrush, a relative of the Golden Paintbrush, to lay eggs. But last season, volunteers witnessed some of the butterflies laying eggs on the Golden paintbrush, which points to the usefulness for the plant.
“We don't know what works with what and what is needed by what,” Plank explained of the importance of attempting to reintroduce native prairie plants.
Besides volunteer seed gathering and propagation, another method that has allowed native species to reclaim the prairie lands has been the re-establishment of a burn cycle. Burning was a technique used by the American Indians to maintain the grasslands and its beneficial plants. Studies of the annual burnings at Glacial Heritage have shown that the effort removes invasive species such as Douglas fir and Scotch broom. Burning also allows some annuals to come back that would not otherwise.
“Some seeds need open ground to sprout,” Plank explained.
These efforts and more will be on display May 9 at the 20th annual Prairie Appreciation Day. During the free event, members of the public will get a chance to catch a rare glimpse of the usually closed Glacial Heritage Preserve and learn about the efforts to reestablish the prairie to its historic state. Winter said it is also a chance for the public to ask questions and see the work of the endangered species list, which has created challenges for some landowners, in action.
“This is really our chance to reach out and create goodwill,” Winter said. “It's a great way to explain the process and it's also just really a fun day. We want to get people to have fun in an environment they're maybe not used to being in.”
The Prairie Appreciation Day event includes an activity trail with tables of information on various topics related to the prairie and activities for all ages. There is also a 4-mile self-guided walking tour through the prairie as well as hay rides.
