The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Hubbard County have been working together in a collaborative effort to manage and protect the rare Ram's-Head Lady's-Slipper.
The north American orchid, which grows in damp woods and cold bogs and has a brownish-green leaf and red and white lip resembling a ram's head, is on Minnesota's List of Threatened Species. It was taken off the endangered species list, but could likely appear on it again without protection.
At Stumpages Rapids north of Becida dispersed with jack pines, the county and DNR are in their first year of counting the Ram's-Heads, discovered in that location in the 1970s. The orchids were monitored in the same location from 1984 through 1997, but the plug was pulled on funding, said Janet Boe, regional plant ecologist for the DNR.
Last year, the county decided to sell timber in that area due to jack pine budworm infestation.
"The DNR and county staff set up a sale, with a buffer area around the orchids," explained Boe.
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A 15-plot grid was established with markers last year. Ram's-Heads are in bloom for a short period, from around the end of May through the beginning of June. In that time span, the flowers are to be counted.
The area may be burned, and research needs to be done to see how the orchids would survive.
"There hasn't been a lot of management studies on the Ram's-Head Orchid," said Boe.
During the count last week, the DNR located the same plants as the year before.
Boe, along with Thom Soule, DNR regional Forest and Wildlife coordinator; Jeremy Fleming, Bemidji State University graduate student; and Allen Lysdahl, county natural resource manager visited the location June 5 to prepare the grid for a count the next day.
They were surprised to find none of the plants were in bloom; a few shriveled remnants remained.
"This is a surprise," Boe said.
The plants had already bloomed for the season, although the count could still be conducted.
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"We know we are going to be doing a lot of cutting in this area," said Lysdahl. "We want to see how jack pine management affects the orchid."
