[OR_Archaeology] Camas Colors Project: Cultural Landscape Implications

Mon Jan 4 12:35:40 PST 2016

Thanks for your response Bob, and Happy 2016.

When I mention elk and camas, I’ve referring to Siletz Valley grazed field which have been grazed/hayed/tilled fields at different periods for over  100 years… and which I have driven by, walked in for all of my mobile years (more than 45 years) and never saw camas in these until several years after Elk began hanging out there. If you recall, elk had been pretty much extirpated from the Siletz valley until the ODFW had re-established herds by re-introduction in the 70’s. it was once these herds became established and comfortable with hanging out in near-road fields that I saw, eventually, pockets of camas come in….. I’m not saying it’s Solid proof of anything, just an observance.

Possibly willing to participate. I don’t know how much work has been done to identify specific population pheno-types  - what it would take to consolidate that info  - I would want to know and carefully weigh the research questions, partners list, objectives,  and possible out-comes – also the results sharing protections, so some company isn’t patenting certain types, doing genetic manipulation as a result… etc.

Like I said earlier, let’s keep the productive conversations going…

R…

From: Bob Zybach [mailto:ZybachB at NWMapsCo.com]
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2016 11:26 AM
To: Robert Kentta
Cc: Leland Gilsen; archaeology listserve; skephart at willamette.edu; jamesmattscott at gmail.com; 2franklake at gmail.com; William Woods; Tom Connolly; Kathy Kentta-Robinson; Sharla Robinson; Farque, Tony -FS; Lantz, Mei L -FS; Stan van de Wetering; Jeanne Spaur; Mike Kennedy; Julie Arwood; hulrich at blm.gov; Bruce, Kevin L -FS; David Lewis; Susan Kephart; Lake, Frank -FS; Edward Alverson; Madrona Murphy; Nathan Reynolds; David Perasso; CPOP Listserve
Subject: Camas Colors Project: Cultural Landscape Implications

Hi Robert:

Good to hear from you! My experience and observations are that almost all camas populations I have seen appear to have been put there by people, rather than birds or mammals. And, during the past 50+ years I have noted that the populations are becoming more restricted — either by urbanization, farming, or encroachment by adjacent conifer populations. I would guess that the elk you are seeing with camas — such as at Gordon Meadows — are grazing on prairie remnants and thereby helping to retain open sunlight needed by the flowers by reducing conifer encroachment. Regular fire, as used traditionally during precontact time, is what is needed to maintain the few remaining prairie relicts in optimum conditions, according to both my observations and my research in fire history through the years.

My long-term objective with this project is to: 1) establish a correlation between cultured varieties of camas and historical Tribal lands by a combination of field observations and documentation of remaining native stands, and 2) progeny test site plantings in 5-10 western Oregon and western Washington locations to compare a) blossom colors, b) growth patterns, and c) nutritional values of the identified varieties.

Is this something the Siletz would be interested in participating in? I think progeny test sites would be very small in size (less than 1/10 of an acre) and would begin to produce substantive data in 5-10 years.

Best wishes for 2016!

Bob

On Jan 4, 2016, at 10:44 AM, Robert Kentta <rkentta at ctsi.nsn.us<mailto:rkentta at ctsi.nsn.us>> wrote:

Thanks Le.

I think Bob was referring mostly to heat needs for germination specifically, but would qualify the statement in the email chain that “Camas is not fire dependent” in that camas may not find fire necessary in order to germinate… but, the native, open prairie habitat is largely maintained most effectively through fire, and that condition keeps camas in a peak production mode of flowering, producing seeds, and likely creates best seed-bed conditions and early growing conditions to reach blooming age, size and vigor… which he hints at - with comments about camas being able to go “dormant” and hide under thick over-story vegetation until a fire, or other disturbance brings sunlight, warmth and other triggers for the camas to again sprout and become vigorous.

There are remnant camas patches on steep, rocky, thin-soil areas along the coast…. And apparently vigorous enough for bulb production and harvesting for use… in past time, but fire-suppression has minimized these places to no-longer being steep sloped meadowlands, and are often what I would call a threatened population area now… So fire dependence is a long conversation to be had.

I have in recent years noticed camas appearing (where I hadn’t earlier noticed camas) in fields frequented by elk, and wonder if elk can carry viable seed in their stomachs, and whether digestive processes help heat, soften and erode the hard seed coat, and they can effectively spread camas that way… of course birds have a similar way of distributing seeds… I’ve mentioned this to a couple of researchers over the years, but don’t know if anybody has looked into it.

Happy holidays everyone, and keep the productive conversations going.

Robert Kentta
Cultural Resources Director
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

From: OR_Archaeology [mailto:or_archaeology-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Leland Gilsen
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2016 7:32 AM
To: archaeology listserve
Subject: [OR_Archaeology] FW: Camas Colors Project: Cultural Landscape Implications

Thought some of you might be interested in this series of emails... hope the attachments go through

Dr. Leland Gilsen
www.oregon-archaeology.com<http://www.oregon-archaeology.com/>
www.echoes-in-time.com<http://www.echoes-in-time.com/>

"My glass is neither half full nor half empty because it has a head of quantum foam." (2009 Leland Gilsen)

"My glass is empty, could I have another please?" (2010 Dale Coleman)

"All the best ideas are at the bottom of a beer can." (Jim Riggs)

My motto: "Theory comes and goes, but data are forever. "
                     "However data without information are sterile"

If stuck with circular reasoning, measure the circumference

________________________________
From: ZybachB at NWMapsCo.com<mailto:ZybachB at nwmapsco.com>
Subject: Camas Colors Project: Cultural Landscape Implications
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2016 20:55:58 -0800
CC: skephart at willamette.edu<mailto:skephart at willamette.edu>; jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>; lelandgilsen at msn.com<mailto:lelandgilsen at msn.com>
To: dgl.coyotez at gmail.com<mailto:dgl.coyotez at gmail.com>

Hi David:

Here is some background to the camas project we recently talked about. I am copying Susan Kephart and Matt James on this as I am hoping we can coordinate this project in some ways with their academic studies.

It might be good to consider a meeting in Salem or Corvallis sometime in the next few weeks or months to discuss short-term objectives and long-term strategies.

Thanks for the Kramers thesis and the Gorman papers — all very helpful!

Bob

Begin forwarded message:

From: Susan Kephart <skephart at willamette.edu<mailto:skephart at willamette.edu>>
Subject: Re: Pyroculture and Camassia
Date: June 4, 2013 at 09:35:56 AM PDT
To: Leland Gilsen <LelandGilsen at msn.com<mailto:LelandGilsen at msn.com>>
Cc: Bob Zybach <zybachb at nwmapsco.com<mailto:zybachb at nwmapsco.com>>, Matt James <jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>>, Frank Lake <2franklake at gmail.com<mailto:2franklake at gmail.com>>, William Woods <wwoods at ku.edu<mailto:wwoods at ku.edu>>, Tom Connolly <connolly at uoregon.edu<mailto:connolly at uoregon.edu>>

Hi all

Matt. glad you hear of your studies... I"m finishing up intensive field work on camas in pretty remote areas of N California at the moment (I'm at WIllamette University and have worked most in OR pops... I''m on a deadline to get home today and have one more population to sample.. but will try to get back to you soon on what I know. We've been gathering morphological, genetic, ecological and other data in the field on populations throughout the west and more recently also in the eastern part of the distribution as part of NSF funded grant in systematics. As part of that field work, I've also noted whether some of those sites occur on or off "reservations".. but camas cultivation, tending occurred in "natural" meadows as well .. I'm not an ethnographic expert of course.. but try to be aware of this in what we are doing

There is lots more I can share but we're in the midst of intensive field season as plants flowered a bit off schedule here and in other places we're traveling as a team. I will try to get back to you with more detail either before or after I get back to town.

You might have already seen published maps in Gould's 1942 monograph and Flora N america (On line.. Ranker and Hogan.. efloras).. etc.  We are working on extending maps with GIS data for pops we've studied (and ground truthed) and we've been data basing records from other sources as well. Perhaps we can talk sometime .. might be more efficient.  Nancy Turner's students have published extensively on camas in relation to ethnobotany including thesis by Brenda Beckworth (sp).

In next email I'll attach a few of pubs funded in part thru grants to my lab. We have another methods paper coming out this year.  Glad to see your approach.. it would be great to have a more detailed analysis linking the archaeological, botanical work to fire and aboriginal practices..  THere are some papers as well describing response of camas to fire in managed ecosystems . not many but some that I've seen..

Also..we've dones some seed germination studies in response to temperature in camas as have others.. Let me know if interest.

Susan

On Jun 3, 2013, at 5:01 AM, Leland Gilsen wrote:

I am sending a copy of this to Skephart at Willamette who is working on camas. She may be of help on these questions. We have been emailing on saving camas at the State Fairgrounds, now part of OPRD as well as research on camas.

Tom Connolly with OSMA at U of O has done the best archaeological research in Oregon (my opinion) and probably has the best grasp of the archaeological literature in Oregon as an active field researcher. CC'd him with this reply as well.

Dr. Leland Gilsen
www.oregon-archaeology.com<http://www.oregon-archaeology.com/>
www.echoes-in-time.com<http://www.echoes-in-time.com/>

"My glass is neither half full nor half empty because it has a head of quantum foam." (2009 Leland Gilsen)

"My glass is empty, could I have another please?" (2010 Dale Coleman)

"All the best ideas are at the bottom of a beer can." (Jim Riggs)

My motto: "Theory comes and goes, but data is forever. "

________________________________
Subject: Re: Pyroculture
From: ZybachB at nwmapsco.com<mailto:ZybachB at nwmapsco.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2013 16:46:56 -0700
CC: 2franklake at gmail.com<mailto:2franklake at gmail.com>; lelandgilsen at msn.com<mailto:lelandgilsen at msn.com>; wwoods at ku.edu<mailto:wwoods at ku.edu>
To: jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>

Hi Matt:

I'm copying Frank Lake on this, another OSU grad, in addition to Le and Bill. Frank will have a better idea on camas seed viability in regards to heat than I will -- just be aware that camas isn't fire-dependent, can go dormant for decades, has a very hard ("insulated") shell, and that duration of heat during a prairie burn would be fairly ephemeral.

http://www.orww.org/Bald_Hill_2004/Native_Plants_Tour/Video/Burn_Results.mpg

Camas was harvested with sticks and transported in baskets, so if you mean "lithics" by "archaeological sites," the best chance of that would be processing areas -- I'd start with the Calapooia Mounds in that regard. Camas was everywhere; camas ovens more localized.

http://www.orww.org/Kalapuya-Amin_2006/Program/RouletteB/Baby_Pyramids_20060908.html

Something that I think would be useful (and why I'm continuing to copy the others), would be to study the effect of disturbance (digging and replanting) on camas reproduction:

http://www.orww.org/Bald_Hill_2004/Native_Plants_Tour/Video/Camas_Bulbs.mpg

Finally, if you want to use GIS (and here's where you might get different opinions from others), I'd suggest plotting as many of the remaining camas patches as you can (there are still quite a few on OSU Forests and Ag Lands, if that is a scale you want to use) and correlate those to human disturbance history. Le or Frank probably have a better idea, but I think maybe the Native Plant Society might be a good starting point for the information you are looking for. I've also attached Kat Anderson's latest on the topic (her email address is included), but I couldn't find a publication date. I think maybe earlier this year. Kat would also be an ideal person to contact directly in regards to setting up an experiment along the lines you're discussing.

I'd highly recommend the MAIS for PhD work in the fields you've listed -- and especially keep crop science in the mix! And you might want to look to NRCS for possible funding assistance.

Good luck!

Bob

On Jun 2, 2013, at 03:40 PM, Matt James <jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>> wrote:

Dr. Zybach,
It's good to talk to someone from the MAIS program!  I have really enjoyed the program so far, and have developed a passion for ethnobiology- specifically as it pertains to aboriginal ecosystem management practices.  In the future, I hope to pursue a PhD, but am a little torn between ethnobotany and ecology.

 I think I may have worded my original inquiry poorly- I was looking for a map of Camas locations that I could use as an overlay to archaeological sites.  But you bring up some important points- particularly that of the timing of traditional camas harvest vs. timing of fires.  I will be looking at that next.  As a scientist who works with fire ecology, do you have any information as to temperature gradients in soils during a low-fuel broadcast burn?  I read a study in which scientists tested seeds of various plants at temperatures ranging from 40 degrees C to 120 degrees C at 5 degree increments.  While this may give a better sample range, I don't think I could come up with the 10,000+ seeds that it would take to replicate the experiment with Camas!  Here's what I think, and I would love your input on this: Soil surface temperatures in hot, direct sunlight could reach 40*C so I don't think that temperatures lower than this would provide much fire-relevant data.  On the other side, the lethal temperature threshold for most seeds is around 60*C.  Do you think I should keep my temperatures within that 40* to 60* range for this experiment, or should I go higher to accommodate for some extreme, previously unknown resilience within Camas seeds?  I'd love your input.
Regards

Matt James
Graduate Student
MA Interdisciplinary Studies
Oregon State University, College of Agricultural Sciences
Email: jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>
Phone: 801-556-2594

On Sun, Jun 2, 2013 at 9:26 AM, Bob Zybach <ZybachB at nwmapsco.com<mailto:ZybachB at nwmapsco.com>> wrote:
Hi Matt:

First, I'm glad you're in crop science -- the forestry and wildlife people don't seem to grasp these concepts when it comes to "wildlife habitat" theory.

1) Camas populations do not "over lap" Indian lands -- they are at the heart of those lands. Think New England apple orchards or Irish potato fields. Camas does not readily spread on its own and its range has become increasingly restricted during the past 400 years (about 200 years in Oregon). Finding a camas patch is like finding a stash of arrowheads when it comes to interpreting pre-white native cultures. This isn't "foraging," it's crop management.

2) Most camas harvest seems to have been done in spring and early summer, as Le suggests, but could be done almost any time of the year. Broadcast burning in the Willamette Valley seems to have started in July some years and peaked in August for harvesting tarweed. Fall burns are more associated with hunting and filbert and acorn harvesting.

3) Camas production is more related to tillage than to fire. Areas that were harvested during a year would have been mostly bare dirt and wouldn't have carried much -- if any -- flame. The seeds are heavy and drop to the ground. A broadcast burn in low fuel loads, such as grasses and tar weed, burns quickly and often barely heats up the surface soil. Seeds and sprouts can usually survive such a burn with no problem. Perhaps the warmth of the fire had a positive influence on seed germination (semi-serotinous).

4) I'm pleased to see you use Le's term "pyroculture." I did the same thing during my grad studies at OSU.

Hope this helps!

Bob Zybach

On Jun 2, 2013, at 06:34 AM, Leland Gilsen <lelandgilsen at msn.com<mailto:lelandgilsen at msn.com>> wrote:

I have been in Italy so just getting back to your question.
I do not know of any definitive map or GIS (hard data) research on burning and camas production. There is evidence for burning as a management tool. Burning is situational more than absolute. The sum of multiple burns for a variety of reasons on climax vegetation and vegetation that benefits from burns has been partially modeled in some published sources. I do not recall any study on burning and camas seed germination. The production of camas seed and its natural distribution, in my experience with local fields at the State fairgrounds, occurs early in the season and prior to likely native burning time tables.
I suggest you contact Bob Zybach or Bill Woods (both cc'd here)They may be your best source for the data you are looking for and can comment on seasonal timing.

Dr. Leland Gilsen
www.oregon-archaeology.com<http://www.oregon-archaeology.com/>
www.echoes-in-time.com<http://www.echoes-in-time.com/>

"My glass is neither half full nor half empty because it has a head of quantum foam." (2009 Leland Gilsen)

"My glass is empty, could I have another please?" (2010 Dale Coleman)

"All the best ideas are at the bottom of a beer can." (Jim Riggs)

My motto: "Theory comes and goes, but data is forever. "

________________________________
From: jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 16:02:48 -0700
Subject: Pyroculture
To: lelandgilsen at msn.com<mailto:lelandgilsen at msn.com>
Dr. Gilsen,

My name is Matt James and I am an interdisciplinary grad student at Oregon State University where I am studying crop science, international agricultural development, and rural studies.  For my thesis, I am exploring physiological reactions of camas (Camassia Quamash and C. Leicthlinii) to aboriginal fire regimes in the Willamette Valley.  As you know, a substantial historical record exists of PNW First Peoples using fire as a management tool to, among other things, improve Camas populations.
The literature, however, lacks a clear exploration of fire's effects on seed germination and dormancy, which is what I am hoping to contribute.  I was reading your Pyroculture article and was curious if you have any GIS data or other maps showing how Camas populations overlap traditional First Peoples lands?  If so, would you be willing to share?  I am trying to get a better idea of the extent of fire use and traditional foraging grounds so I can better round out my ethnobotanical research.
Regards,

Matt James
Graduate Student
MA Interdisciplinary Studies
Oregon State University, College of Agricultural Sciences
Email: jamesmattscott at gmail.com<mailto:jamesmattscott at gmail.com>
Phone: 801-556-2594

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