View of Goat Basin, looking south across Big Creek - 1955 and 2019

A small section of Goat Basin, located up and out of the Big Creek canyon, is shown in these repeat photographs. Looking south across Big Creek from Goat Basin gives a stark reminder of the impact the wildfire had on the area in 2000. Goat Basin is a popular meadow for hunters to set up camp in the fall, to cross Big Creek and access the airstrip at Soldier Bar. Recently, the invasive spotted knapweed has been encroaching more and more on the native bunchgrass in the meadow, coming either from the creek bottom or carried in hay that may have had weed seeds in it. Spotted knapweed can be prolific and damaging to the native flora in an ecosystem, and to see it establishing itself out of the heavily trafficked creek drainage is discouraging for wildlife officers and ecologists.

Location: Goat Basin Big Creek Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, ID

Latitude & Longitude: 45.1129, -114.8047