Controlled Burn

[JagXKR]

Big one on PIB land. Looks like the smoke is drifting over the airport. I wonder if they are getting rid of the long grass in prep for Boondoggle?

[mitch Guilderson]

There's a lot more than grass on that site. there's substantial cacti, wild rose, hounds tongue, and poison ivy.

Now, burning off the scrub seems like a pretty good idea. and chances are, nothing bad will happen.

But when poison ivy is burned, the allergenic chemical "urushiol" is not destroyed, but rather, becomes a vapor, of which, even trace amounts, passively inhaled, can cause such a severe allergic reaction in the lung and airways, that death is generally expected. Now I know for a fact that that area has big, hedge-like shrubs of poison ivy with big white berries and shiny new green leaves.

Again, chances are, everything will be fine. But that's a lot of smoke, rolling low over the airport and down to the beach and trailer parks.

I wouldn't want someone burning poison ivy upwind from me.

[twobits]

It didn't look controlled to me. At times it looked like it was out of control. Didn't see any water trucks either but perhaps they were out of my sight line. Odd too that if it was an intentional burn, why so late in the day. It was still burning fiercely after dark.

[coolworx]

It certainly got my attention.

As to the poison ivy - I hike up there all the time, and there isn't any.
The hobo trails behind the tennis courts (beyond the marina) is rife with P.I., precicely because P.I. likes damp areas - not the barren sides of cacti growing sage brush.

[mitch Guilderson]

Actually there is ample poison ivy on that site and all the areas around it. One very easy site to observe Poison ivy thriving in very dry conditions is along the old tracks that run from the channel (where the bridge used to cross the highway) if you go just past where the junction used to be, and look to your right, you will see hundreds of square yards of the biggest bushes of poison ivy you have ever seen. Growing over 5ft tall like a dense shrub, covered with whitish berries and hairy branches.

I also encounter a lot of poison ivy on the blisteringly hot south facing talus slopes in the semi-desert, where there is no place for moisture to accumulate and the most common plants are sumac and some rabbit brush.

Now I know for a fact that there was poison Ivy on the Boonstock site, especially near the rocks and patches of elderberry bushes and sumac. Tho I imagine those specific plants would be burned out now.

In the Okanagan, poison ivy is all over the place, in moist areas, and dry alike. I encounter places where it grows out of otherwise barren, gravely steppe.

It's a Highly variable plant, And looks very different from location to location, but the leaves and berries are always the same.

You can find it quite readily along the bottom of the slope on the west side of the road that goes out behind the airport as well as the east side of the road too.

Maybe make a trip up there expressly for the purpose of finding it, and I think you will be surprised that you never noticed it before considering how ubiquitous it is.

The leaves are usually a little bigger and more vibrantly green in moist shady areas. I feel like I'd like to take you out and point it out to you in the dry areas.

[mitch Guilderson]

Heh, I just checked and there's dozens of sites that claim poison ivy wont grow in arid or desert like conditions or at higher altitudes. Id like to take those authors for a hike too.

[StraightUpLogic]

poison ivy is not hairy nor has white berries. what you are describing sounds like poison sumac.

and no there isn't poison ivy where you say it is. It needs moisture.

[mitch Guilderson]

Incorrect on both observations. why you would state them when they are so easily dis-proven with a simple internet search i don't know....
Poison sumac is very distinct from poison ivy, and the okanagan is well outside of it's rage.

Hairy (or more specifically rhizomorphic) bark on older growth, especially when growing in vine-like configurations is very typical. as are the hard, whitish berries. Poison sumac occurs east of the continental divide. You wont find it here.

You will find Stag-horn sumac. often in the same habitats as the same poison Ivy I am referring to. and If you still doubt it, As I said, there's an easily accessible patch, on the north side of the old railway path i previously mentioned.

Or you can find it in plenitude, in the rubble at the base of the bluff overlooking vasseax lake, smack in the middle of the hottest, driest patch of semi-arid antelope-bush steppe OK falls has to offer. Or you can also find it at the top of the dry, south-facing talus slopes overlooking the alkali flats around white lake.

If you are having difficulty seeing it, I'd be happy to come along and point it out for you.

[mitch Guilderson]

complete, relevant, conclusive Proof.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/mrW8_Dzl90o[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/KqlDf3bVHNU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/RKjVWyE-J7M[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/JCh8TOQ4aTU[/youtube]

There's plenty of facts that are hard to prove to doubters. This is not one of them.
For some reason the BBCode for you-tube entries wont function in this forum, so you will have to cut and paste the URLs.
They are of videos I made this evening of poison ivy directly at the Boonstock site, and in very dry areas nearby.

[0gopogo]

Wow. Cool videos. Couldn't believe the height of that 6'+ freestanding poison ivy tree!

I wonder if we have poison ivy in Summerland?

[Glacier]

Poison ivy grows wild between Spences Bridge and Lytton. Not so much in the Brokanagan.

[mitch Guilderson]

Summerland, yes, for certain. Seems all the dry places are overrun with baby's breath, knapweed, toadflax and mullein.
But I don't think I've ever gone on a walk in the okanagan without seeing at least 5 healthy poison ivy patches per linear KM.

That one 6ft shrub is probably the biggest single specimen i know of. But now im thinking touching that ash in the pit might have been risky, because Urushiol doesn't get destroyed by fire. Ill have to wait and see :P

[Dawnland]

The lower Penticton Indian Reserve area occupied by Locatee (CP) land owners where Boonstock is taking place, is on a flood plane with a high water table, that's why the Channel was built. Could it be, that the poison ivy is able to thrive in this semi-arid desert because of the natural springs and water tables inherent in the land? This is just a random thought but I do know that there is extensive documentation of Penticton flooding and just thought the two may be connected.

[mitch Guilderson]

I was thinking that too, but it wouldn't account for the poison ivy that grows high on mountain talus slopes, or the specimens encountered at the top of the berms from the old railway. some of those berms are very high above the original ground level, And the surrounding plants are sagebrush, antelope brittlebush, Prickly pear cactus, and rabbitbrush.

Now the Purshia tridentata, (antelope brittlebush or "greasewood") is considered a habitat indicator species. It seldom occurs north of the population west of Penticton, And it is describes as growing on arid mountainsides and slopes, including the Sierra Nevada ranges. The common habitat descriptions of both species (this and poison ivy) would place them as completely incompatible, habitat-wise, yet here they grow.

So the presence of poison ivy could be explained by very deep roots on the old flood plane, but it wouldn't explain the presence in the quasi-desert grassland steppes near talus slopes and bluff faces.

[0gopogo]

Thanks for your answer, Mitch. I'm sure gonna keep a look out-have never seen poison ivy before ANYwhere. (I'm new to the Okanagan). :)