Dalton Highway Invasive Plant Control
Report prepared by Jerry McDonnell

Two waves of the Kanuti Weed Wars battle against the WC (White Sweet Clover) of 2008 took place, one from June 22 to 28, the second from July 21 to 25. Betty Siegel, Joe Cannon, Floyd Ulroan, Wayne Stanley, and Jerry McDonnell were the Friends members on the June pull, organized by Ruth Gronquist of the BLM and her summer intern/assistant Rehanon Nehus. The July pull was also organized and worked by General Ruth with Rehanon's assistance. The Friends' July member crew were Tom Balland, Dilek Tas, Alan Smith and again Betty Siegel

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© 2008 Jerry McDonnell


The combined effort was to clear white sweet clover from the roadway and river crossings that feed into the Kanuti Wildlife Refuge along the Dalton Highway. The greatest attention was needed between Coldfoot, 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the Kanuti River. The heaviest infestation was at Pump Station 5 near the Jim River.


© 2008 Jerry McDonnell


Kanuti Refuge Project Description: At its nearest point, the Kanuti Refuge lies just eight miles west of the Dalton Highway, the road that leads from Fairbanks north to Prudhoe Bay. At least six Koyukuk River tributaries cross the highway and later enter the Refuge. Kanuti Refuge staff, the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges (Friends) and others are increasingly concerned that these waterways (especially Jim Creek, Fish Creek, Prospect Creek, and Bonanza Creek) could become routes for dispersal of invasive white sweetclover (Melilotus alba) into the Refuge. This non-native plant readily invades open and disturbed areas and has established extensive areas along early successional, gravel river bars in interior, south central and southeast Alaska. White sweet clover has rapidly colonized the Dalton Highway corridor near the Refuge, moving 120 miles northward between 2000 and 2007.


© 2008 Jerry McDonnell


Since 2006, The Friends have cooperated annually with Kanuti Refuge, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the National Park Service (NPS), Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT), Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and others to control white sweetclover at key sites where it could easily disperse into the Refuge, where currently no invasive, non-native plants are known to exist. To date, control efforts have focused on manual pulling. In 2007 the group continued removing plants manually, but also expanded the effort to include more mechanical control with weed trimmers. Subsequent cultural control (planting native grasses and forbs) is being considered.

The goal is to eliminate seed production, which will require infested areas to be visited during the growing season in June and July. In addition, staff will conduct early detection/rapid response surveys along rivers downstream of the Dalton Highway and within the Refuge so that newly established sweet clover can be controlled and eliminated quickly.


© 2008 Jerry McDonnell


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Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges
2440 E. Tudor Road, PMB 283
Anchorage, AK 99507-1185
akrefugefriends@gmail.com