Subject: Re: Elusive Sandpipers on the vanished Palouse?
Date: Sep 6 18:09:20 1997
From: Kelly Cassidy - kelly at salmo.cqs.washington.edu
Gosh, make one, lousy unsubstantiated statement and spend 2 weeks in the
library paying for it:
On Sat, 23 Aug 1997, Kelly Mcallister wrote:
> I also stand in awe at Kelly Cassidy's speculation that Upland Sandpipers
> stalked the Palouse prior to its conversion to wheatland. There is no
> documentation of Upland Sandpipers in this region and their general
> rarity in all places west of the Rockies makes at a rather grand
> supposition. But, when stated as fact it adds so much to our
> never-ending thirst for reasons to believe that we humans have
> really messed things up.
Did Upland Sandpipers occur on the Palouse? Well....maybe.
Warning: Long Post Ahead.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (for those who do not care to read the entire post):
Beginning in the mid-1800s free-ranging cattle, sheep, and horses were
released on the Palouse. Gold was discovered in northern Idaho and
neighboring areas in 1859, which provided a bigger market for meat and
other goods. The Palouse was first farmed in the 1860s. Settlement and
cultivation was especially rapid after 1880. By 1910, little of the
Palouse remained uncultivated and the coming of tractors and removal of
most livestock by the 1920s meant the removal of remaining fence rows.
There were very few visits to the Palouse by naturalists before the turn
of the century and the earliest visits visits were usually in late summer
or fall, when there were few birds nesting. Prior to the early decades of
the 1900s there were virtually no restrictions on hunting and settlers
often carried guns and shot whatever looked edible or dangerous. Many
grassland species in the Basin that are known to have been widespread and
abundant (notably, Sharp-tailed Grouse and Long-billed Curlew) declined
rapidly after settlement because of habitat loss and hunting. The
Sharp-tailed Grouse (the most well-documented of the grassland species)
was uncommon on the Palouse by the turn of century. The removal of fence
rows and cultivation of most of the last grassland remnants completed its
extirpation there. In the grasslands of the Great Plains, Upland
Sandpipers (formerly called Upland Plovers) were very common when
Europeans arrived. They became a favorite species of market hunters,
especially after the demise of the Passenger Pigeon, and were nearly
extinct by the early decades of the 1900s. They were given federal
protection and, by 1928, were making a comeback. Presumably, if there
were any Upland Sandpipers on the Palouse at the time of early settlement,
they were shot as readily as their relatives on the Great Plains.
Thus, we have an area (the Palouse) that was virtually unexplored
biologically before being greatly altered by settlement, and a bird (the
Upland Sandpiper) that was a prime target for hunters. Kelly McAllister
is correct: there is no documentation of the Upland Sandpiper breeding in
Washington until 1928 and the species has since been found only in a few
localities in Spokane County at the ecotone between the Palouse and the
Ponderosa Pine zone.
My personal *opinion* is that the species was once more widespread in
Washington and Oregon, though probably not abundant, and perhaps usually
associated with the Palouse/Pine ecotone, but that it declined too fast
from hunting and habitat loss to be documented before it was nearly (or
completely?) extirpated. After being given protection, numbers of birds
increased enough that the birds were noticed at a few remnant
grassland/wooded sites near Spokane by the late 1920s. (And, of course,
the number of biologists was increasing, too.)
What follows is more detail, with references, about settlement history of
the Palouse, early exploration of the Palouse, and the fates of grassland
species that were popular hunting targets.
DEFINITION OF THE PALOUSE: Depending on how it's defined, the Palouse in
Washington covers roughly between 1 and 1.5 million acres. An additional
300,000 to 500,000 acres occur in neighboring Idaho. The outermost
estimates include the area south of Spokane west to the scabland channel
running between Spokane and Palouse Falls and south to the Snake River
canyon. The more conservative definitions do not put it as far south, where
the grasslands become drier and less vegetatively diverse.
1. HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT ON THE PALOUSE
Europeans began settlement of the Columbia Basin in the mid-1800s. At
first, the land (including the Palouse) wasn't seen as having much promise
for crops, so free-range livestock grazing was the major use. In 1865
"there was not a settler between the Snake and Spokane Rivers, a perfect
carpet of gras covered the whole country; it was a beautiful sight to
behold, a paradise for stock" (a quote from A. J. Splawn, in Boyce 1937).
Mack (1986) writes "In the 30 years after the Civil War, the steppe [in
Washington and other areas] was transformed from a sparsely settled
section of the Far West to an extensively settled region of farms and
ranches." The first settlement on the Palouse was in about 1868 (Meinig
1950). The range cattle industry grew rapidly during the 1870s and early
1880s (Meinig 1950). The earliest agrarian settlements were in the late
1860s. Initially, would-be farmers were convinced that the best places
for farming were timbered sites in valleys (Meinig 1950). In the Palouse,
the valleys have heavy clay soil and crops are more prone to frost damage,
so cropping didn't take off until about 1877, when the loess-covered hills
were discovered to be were best land for wheat (Meinig 1950). As of 1885,
livestock stilled reigned, but it's unclear just how much land was under
cultivation by then. Scheuerman (1974) quotes from the April 24, 1885
Palouse Gazette: "...not counting small farmers owning from 10 to 15 head
of cattle: taking Endicott as a center, there are within a radius of
twelve miles, 75,250 sheep, 3,562 head of cattle, 5,395 horses, 8,176
acres of land under cultivation and 1,510 acres in improved hay lands."
Meining, quoting from the August 3, 1883 Palouse Gazette, indicates that
wheat, oats, barley were being grown on 70,531 acres. The reason for the
discrepancy is unclear, but perhaps the areas being described are of
different extent.
The railroads around and through the Palouse were completed by 1890
(Scheuerman 1974), which made it easier for settlers to come in, and gave
farmers access to more markets. It didn't take long for farmers to
realize that wheat was, by far, the best crop to grow on the Palouse, but
at first, they planted mostly spring wheat, usually in the spring.
(Sometimes, they also planted spring wheat in the fall.) Winter wheat,
which has a higher yield than spring wheat on the Palouse, is planted in
the fall, germinates and grows a few inches before winter, lies dormant in
winter, does most of its growing the following spring and summer, and is
harvested around August. (Possibly (?) significant because grassland species
that might have been able to nest in winter wheat in spring would have
been disturbed by cultivation for spring wheat.) Once the superiority of
winter wheat was discovered, and there was a market for it, acreage in
wheat increased rapidly. (Most winter wheat is "soft", i.e., it has a low
gluten content which makes in unsuitable for leavened bread. It is used
for noodles and pastry.) In Whitman County, which covers about 1.3 million
acres, most of it on the Palouse, acres in wheat were (Meinig 1950):
1890 - 110,477 acres
1900 - 280,194 acres
1910 - 347,033 acres
1.5 to 2 times as much land would probably have been lying fallow in the
hope of replenishing nutrients. (Economical man-made nitrogen fertilizer
hadn't been developed, yet.) A considerably smaller amount of land would
have been sown to other crops. Most of the Idaho Palouse was probably under
cultivation because the areas nearest to trees were settled first. Thus,
perhaps 50% to 75% of the Palouse grasslands had been cultivated by 1910.
(Buss and Dziedzic [1955] estimate about 75% by 1910, but the method they
use is unclear.) In the meantime, livestock grazing throughout the Basin
was still going strong, with little or no control on stocking. "The era of
peak numbers of livestock and major damage appears to have been
approximately that of 1890 to 1910" (Tisdale 1961).
2. NATURAL HISTORY EXPEDITIONS AND RECORDS ON THE PALOUSE
Because Upland Sandpipers are vulnerable to hunting (see below) as well as
cultivation, documentation of Palouse fauna prior to circa 1865 is of
greatest interest. Reliable observations and bird specimens from the
Palouse or neighboring upland grasslands prior to 1920 are sparse.
Tisdale (1961) writes "Some information on smaller vertebrates and
invertebrate fauna has been obtained from relict areas, while historical
records are the main source for data on the larger grazing mammals."
Lewis and Clark entered Washington State on the Snake River on October 16,
1805. They followed the Snake to the Columbia, and made a brief trip up
the Columbia nearly to the mouth of the Yakima before proceding down the
Columbia. They spent only a few days in the Basin on the way to the
Pacific, but they did collect a Whooping Crane, among others. They
wintered south of Astoria and went back up the Columbia March 26, 1806.
They were at Klickitat County by April. Since they were going upriver,
they spent more time on land. They reported nesting Long-billed Curlews
in Klickitat County and near Dayton (Columbia County). When opposite Walla
Walla, they crossed the Columbia and traveled overland to the Clearwater
(in Idaho). Other than the curlews in Dayton, they don't seem to have
mentioned many birds on this stage of the trip. Unfortunately, Lewis and
Clark rarely mentioned species they were familiar with. Hall writes:
"Lewis and Clark did not mention some of those [animals] which they
considered common to the United States," since their purpose was to
especially note those not already known in the United States. (All Lewis
and Clark information from Hall 1933.)
The next naturalist to wander extensively in the Basin was David Douglas.
Douglas made 2 journeys to Washington, one between 1824 and 1827 and
another between 1829 and 1834. He went east of the Cascade in 1826,
between April and September. He followed the Columbia up to Spokane and
roamed around the Spokane, Colville, and Kettle Falls area unitl June 4th.
He collected (among other animals) Long-billed Curlews and Sharp-tailed
Grouse. He went back down the Columbia to Walla Walla and left for the
Blue Mountains June 17th. His descriptions of the Blues was mostly
concerned with his trials in trying to cross them over the snow. He gave
up and went back to Walla Walla. From that trip he sent back only plant
samples and the skin of what was evidently a Bushy-tailed Woodrat that had
been raiding his camp. He talks of making a second try, but apparently
gave up, went back down the Columbia a ways, then went back up the
Columbia and Snake with a couple of other men. Late July found him in the
Snake River Canyon, writing of "not a blade of grass to be seen except in
the valleys or near the springs, where little withstands the intense
heat." After more wanderings in Idaho, he then went back down the Snake
and, between July 31st and August 4th, traveled overland to Spokane
apparently (?) along the scabland channel that runs west of the Palouse
between July 31st and August 4th. He mentions no birds. More wandering
around Spokane and Kettle Falls and eventually back down the Columbia.
Douglas was well-equiped for his second trip to the northwest in 1830, and
he spent much time in the Basin, but his journals and most of his
specimens were lost in a boating accident on the Fraser River and
virtually nothing is known of that trip, except for a few letters he
wrote. Douglas died in 1834 in Hawaii when he fell into a pit trap
already occupied by a non-too-happy bullock, so there was not even a
chance for him to write his recollections of the trip. Dogulas was a
botanist whose primary goal was to collect seeds for horticulturalists in
England. His faunal observations and collections were relatively sparse
compared to his seed collections. (Information about Douglas from Hall
1934 and Davies 1980.)
The next major expedition to the interior included J. K. Townsend (an
ornithologist) and Thomas Nuttall (mostly a botanist; good ornithologist,
but rarely carried a gun and got few bird specimens). Nuttall and
Townsend crossed the Rockies and entered Washington near Walla Walla in
early September 1834. They followed the Columbia to Vancouver and did
collecting down the Columbia to the ocean, up the Columbia a short ways
(perhaps to Klickitat County) and up the Willamette for a few weeks.
They wintered in Hawaii and came back to Vancouver in the spring. They
continued to collect using Vancouver as a base during the summer of 1835,
but Townsend is unclear about their movements. Evidently, they went up
and down the Willamette, and at least short distances up and down the
Columbia. Nuttall then went home. Townsend stayed in Vancouver to
continue collecting and to act as surgeon at the Fort (an all-around
talented guy). (Information from Hall 1937, 1938) Townsend left
Vancouver in late June 1836, went up the Columbia to Walla Walla, then
overland southeast through the Blues. He entered the Blue Mountain area
July 25th, which he says was "two months too late." He mentions
Sharp-tailed Grouse in the Walla Walla area, but otherwise, his
Narratives include few animal observations from that phase of his trip
(Townsend 1839).
The next major visit to the interior was by James G. Cooper and Dr. George
Suckley, who were doing surveys for a railroad route. They were in the
Northwest between 1853 and 1857. Unfortunately, their visits to the
interior were not made at the best of times. Cooper writes: "The time
during which I collected on the central plains of the Territory,
extending from August 16 to November 17 [1853], was the worst period of the
year for that purpose." (Buckingham and Anderson 1994). They did visit
the Palouse. Cooper writes: "The Spokane Plain, between that river and the
Snake, west of longitude 118 degrees, resembles, in soil and elevation,
the lowest part of the ridges [the ridges extending out from the Cascades
in the Yakima Valley], being from 500 to 2,500 feet in elevation. But
being a great plateau, it has the advantage of retaining moisture, and in
many parts are tracts sufficiently irrigated naturally for general
cultivation." Cooper is wonderful at describing flora and fauna and,
unlike most other naturalists of his time, clearly appreciated biota for
more than its economic value. One can only sigh and wish that he had
been in the Basin at a more opportune time. Suckley returned to Fort
Steilacoom near the end of January 1956 and stayed for another year
collecting specimens in the Territory. Most of those specimens never
reached Washington DC (I don't know why). He seems to have gone east of
the Cascades at least once during that period, but apparently not much
further east than Yakima and Klickitat Counties. (Information about
Cooper and Suckley from Buckingham and Anderson 1994; Cooper and Suckley
1858)
Cooper and Suckley were part of the last major expedition-type trip to the
Basin. After that, with settlements increasing, their was no need for
government-sponsored exploration. After the major railroads were finished
circa 1890, it became easier for individual biologists to travel around,
but records from the Palouse remained sporadic for a few decades.
I read a few diaries of early settlers, hoping to find some more
information about fauna in the early settlement years. Settlers, by and
large, seemed remarkably uninterested in the surrounding wildlife. Most
mention Sharp-tailed Grouse, but the only other species that get mention
are large, possibly dangerous animals (Rattlesnake, Mountain Lion, Lynx,
Badger) or animals that are destructive to crops (one mention of Columbia
Ground Squirrels).
3. UPLAND SANDPIPERS AND OTHER GRASSLAND BIRDS OF THE BASIN AND THEIR
FATES SINCE SETTLEMENT
The Sharp-tailed Grouse has the best documented history of all birds on
the Palouse. Sharp-tails were abundant in the Interior when settlers
arrived. They are mentioned by early naturalists, in railroad company
promotional literature, and in pioneer diaries. By 1897, the decline of
Sharp-tails was noticeable enough that the Washington legislature
established a hunting season (Buss and Dziedzic 1955). Bag limits were
reduced statewide in 1903. Whitman County further reduced limits in 1909,
then again in 1913. In 1919, the hunting season was closed in Whitman
County and never reopened. The already declining Sharp-tail population in
Whitman County declined precipitously between 1910 and 1920, during which
most of the last available arable land was cultivated, and then rapidly
dropped to extinction after 1925 with the introduction of tractors (Buss
and Dziedzic 1955). With most of the land under cultivation and most of
the livestock gone, there was no need for fences, and fence rows were
inconvenient for tractors and harbored weeds, so the fence rows, which
were the last grouse refuge, were removed rapidly after 1920.
Another common grassland bird in eastern Washington was the Long-billed
Curlew, also mentioned by most early naturalists. Douglas, for example,
reported a nesting curlew in the Kettle Falls area (northern Stevens
County). He wrote "a Curlew apparently quite distant from the European
species, being never seen near marshy places, but abundant in dry ground
where it lays it egg on the bare soil." (April 22, 1826). Curlews were a
popular target with hunters and didn't adapt well to cultivation.
Presumably, they once occurred on the Palouse (though Jewett does not
include them that far east).
UPLAND SANDPIPER (formerly UPLAND PLOVER)
>From Jewett et al. 1953: First reported April 22 and 23 in 1905 by
Dawson, who says who heard them by Two Rivers (western Walla Walla Co. 9
miles SE of Pasco). [By all accounts, the calls of Upland Sandpipers are
distinctive, but the early date suggests migration.] Found nesting near
Opportunity Lake, Spokane County in 1928. Seen on Indian Prairie 18
miles from Opportunity Lake in 1929. Also seen near Stubblefield Lake in
August 1929. On Newman Lake in 1940 and 1941. [Stubblefield Lake is at
the southeast corner of Turnbull. Not sure where Opportunity Lake is, but
I assume near Opportunity, which is SE of Spokane.]
Since Jewett et al., Upland Sandpipers have been reported regularly from
the Spokane Valley area as a small breeding population, but were last
reported in 1993 (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 1995).
The Upland Sandpiper once abounded on the Great Plains. Excessive
shooting for the market reduced its numbers to near extinction by 1919
(Bent 1929). Bent (1929) reports that it nests on dry, grassy
prairies. Degraaf et al. (1991) report that it inhabits grassy open areas,
ranging from sandy, sparsely vegetated flats to open, grassy bogs and
muskeg, and that it is most often found in rich pastureland, hayfields,
and alfalfa fields. Erlich et al. (1988) write "Seldom found near
water." According to Farrand (1989), it occurs in prairies,
meadows, rank sloughs, and hay and alfalfa fields. I'm not sure what to
make of Kelly McAllister's observation that UPSA seem to be associated
with water. Perhaps the apparent association is an artifact created by
lack of culitvation in rocky coulees or marshes?
The places from which Upland Sandpipers are known (or perhaps were known)
to breed in Washington are some of largest patches of Palouse-like meadow
remaining. (In fact, in my delineation of vegetation zones for the Gap
Project, the Stubblefield Lake area is at the southeastern edge of
Turnbull is in the Palouse zone, but the rocky/gravelly soil make the
vegetation Palouse-like, rather than modal Palouse grasslands.) I find it
hard to believe that those sites were the only sites suitable for a
grassland-associate. (Of course, I've spent 6 years modeling vertebrate
distributions based on habitat association, so it might be argued that I
have too much faith in the predictive ability of appropriate habitat!) I
would also find it hard to believe they suddenly appeared in the Spokane
area in 1928, so they were either always there and overlooked by birders
or their numbers were low (or zero) for the latter part of the 1800s and
early decades of the 1900s and they began to be seen when they began to
rebound. (Just in time for urbanization to begin!) On the other hand, I
can't believe they were ever common on the Palouse or at the edge of the
Palouse (or anywhere else in the State), because if they were, one would
have expected dispersion or strays in drier grasslands of the Basin that
were sampled better before settlement.
REFERENCES:
Bent, 1929. Life Histores of North American shore birds. Order Limicolae
(Part 2). Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum Bulletin
146. Pp. 55-69 (Upland Plover) and pp. 97-109 (Long-billed Curlew).
Boyce, T. V. 1937. History of the beef cattle industry in the Inland
Empire, M.S. thesis, Washington State College, Pullma, p. 61.
Buckingham, N. M., and A. R. Anderson. 1994. Plant Life of Washington
Territory, Northern Pacific Railroad Sruvey, Botanical Report.
1853-1861. Douglasia Occasional Papers, Washington Native Plant Society,
Volume 5.
Buss, I. O., and E. S. Dziedzic. 1955. Relation of cultivation to the
disappearance of the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse from southeastern
Washington. Condor 57:185-187.
Cooper, J. G., and G. Suckley. 1858(?) Birds of the Pacific Railroad
survey. US War Department report of explorations and surveys. 38th,
39th, and 41st parallel. ? Washington D.C.
Davies, J. 1980. Douglas of the forests: the North American journals of
David Douglas. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 194 pp.
DeGraaf, R. M., V. E. Scott, R. H. Hamre, L. Ernst, and S. H. Anderson.
1991. Forest and rangeland birds of the United States. USDA Forest
Service Agriculture Handbook 688. P. 142.
Erlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder's
handbook. Simon and Schuster, New York. P. 154.
Farrand, J., Jr., ed. 1989. The Audubon Society Master Guide to
Birding. 1. Loons to Sandpipers. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Pp. 356.
Hall, F. S. Studies in the history of ornithology in the State of Washington
Murrelet
1933. Part II Volume 14:55-75.
1934. Part III Volume 15:2-19.
1937. Part IV Volume 18:2-13.
1938. Part V Volume 19:2-7.
Mack, R. N. 1986. Alien plant invasion into the Intermountain West: a
case history. Chapter 12 in Ecology of biological invasion of North
America and Hawaii (H. A. Mooney and J. A. Drake, eds.) Springer-Verlag,
New York.
Meinig, D. W. 1950. Environment and settlement in the Palouse
1868-1910. M.A. thesis, University of Washington, Seattle, 167 pp.
Scheuerman, R. D. 1974. Pilgrims on the earth: a German-Russian
chronical. YeGalleon Press, Fairfield, Washington, 89 pp.
Tisdale, E. W. 1961. Ecologic changes on the Palouse. Northwest Science
35:134-138.
Townsend, J. K. 1939. Narrative of a journey across the Rocky Mountains
to the Columbia River, etc. Philadelphia.
Kelly Cassidy -- Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Box 357980, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195
kelly at u.washington.edu --- 206-685-4195 --- 206-368-8076
> On Sat, 23 Aug 1997, Mark Egger wrote:
>
> > The Spokane prairies were a rather specialized and unique habitat
> > that is now lost to Spokane sprawl and, perhaps even more destructive,
> > to an overwhelming influx of particularly loathesome exotic weeds.
>
> Well, I would certainly would have liked to have had a description of this
> "rather specialized and unique habitat". Dr. Irven Buss, who had
> studied Upland Sandpipers in other parts of their breeding range,
> found the east Spokane Valley habitat rather uninspiring. In fact,
> he could not understand what the birds saw in the place. His writings
> on the dry, stony ground where the sandpipers hung out was written in
> 1979, before your observations of the unique and specialized qualities.
> Frankly, I think humans tend to remember things lost as more special
> than they really were.
>
>
> Kelly McAllister
>
>