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Rose Creek Preserve
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 Palouse Digital Project
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Rose Creek Preserve is a twelve acre site that offers some insight into the
dynamic nature of the Palouse prairie. Located twelve miles north of Pullman,
near Albion, the park offers a natural setting for hiking, bird watching, and
enjoying native plants and wildflowers. As agriculture and invasive species
have encroached on the native flora and fauna, the reduction of natural
Palouse prairie habitat has inspired conservation efforts. Few, small isolated
pockets of once vast tracts if the Palouse prairie remain. The Rose Creek
Preserve is focused on the preservation and study of one of the few remaining
tracts of wild Palouse prairie. With the focus on education and preservation, the
park works to build a connection to the past while showing the way towards a
sustainable future.
The Palouse has a long recorded history of human use. Starting with the
ancestors of the Nez Perce, who harvested camus bulbs from the prairie and
salmon from the river, to the life european settlers built on small homesteads
the land is changed to suit human needs. The descriptions written by Lewis and
Clark depict a different prairie from the one seen today. The changes imposed
on the once wild prairie give invasive species a foothold and deny native plants
the space to flourish.
Starting in the summer of 1982 an
effort to document the condition and evolution of Rose Creek park began. Andy
Kratz initially selected twelve locations. The spots that offered as the best
representation of the areas unique features and ecology were documented then
later mapped with GPS. The photographs are intended to document the
evolution of the dynamic Riparian forest, wet/dry meadow, and Steppe. In 1983
responsibility for taking the photographs changed hands and was passed on to
Jo Savage. Savage, a graphic designer for Washington State University and an
avid gardener, continued the work Kratz had begun. Then in 1986 Bertie
Weddell took control of the camera.The sites that had been chosen were
continued and two points added, gradually the project started to amass data.
With alternating years and seasons the photographs give a view through the
seasons as well as through the years.
To access the main collection click here, the individual photopoints are are
listed below.
Photopoint one: Documents the seasonal changes in the riparian forest.
Photopoint two: Observes the steppe and flood plain interaction through the seasons
(panoramic view).
Photopoint three: Monitors the creek and surrounding vegetation.
Photopoint four: Observes the steppe-meadow and vegetation's seasonal changes (panoramic
view).
Photopoint five: Observes the steppe-meadow and vegetation's seasonal changes.
Photopoint six: Looks at the steppe-meadow vegetation.
Photopoint seven: Monitors the south facing, dry slope of bunchgrass meadow.
Photopoint eight: Monitors the hayfield's return to natural bunch grass steppe.
Photopoint nine: Observes the low wet meadow grass community and bordering riparian
area.
Photopoint ten: Observes the wet meadow grass community and bordering riparian area.
Photopoint eleven: Studies the wet meadow's return to aspen forest.
Photopoint twelve: Is situated in the riparian forest and captures the aspen and black
hawthorn interaction.
Photopoint thirteen: Observes the meadow riparian boundaries.
Photopoint fourteen: Sits in the wet meadow studying the riparian forest boundary.
Other Resources:
The Palouse Prairie Foundation works to promote the preservation and
restoration of the native vegetation of the Palouse.
The Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute is dedicated to
strengthening citizens' involvement in the regions conservation, preservation,
and restoration.
The Nature Conservancy is invested in managing the site, eradication of
non-native plant species, and returning the hay field to its natural state.
WSU's Marion Ownbey Herbarium offers a listing of vegetation that you can
expect to encounter at the Rose Creek site.
Palouse Remnants:
There are few areas of the Palouse that are still untouched. For information
about some of these "remnants" please follow the links below:
Smoot Hill
Magpie Forest
Kamiak Butte
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