Author Archives: Sky Milstein

Reflections on the End of a Season

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As I sit here writing this post, the end of my season is rapidly approaching. It is as if the weather knows that endings are coming, giving us cold days and dark mornings. The station has grown quite quiet as our numbers rapidly dwindle. Our team of seven is now just a team of three. The mice are invading our house to escape the cold and our heater makes our house sing a rumbling lullaby.

I have always found the changing of the seasons to be an apt metaphor for times of transition. The cyclical nature of the seasons mirrors the way each ending is a beginning. As summer leaves us and fall prepares us for the cold winter ahead, I can’t help but look back on how much my life has changed in the last six months.

I started this job having just finished my undergraduate degree. I was filled with the fear of not knowing what is ahead, like it was too dark to see what was right in front of my face. Now I am faced again with not knowing, but I feel ready to free fall into the darkness.

When I started this job I was full of excitement and nerves, I had no idea what to expect. Throughout college my passion for plants grew like a vine spreading to every part of my life. Now I feel as though that passion has blossomed leaving me with a sense of sureness about what I want to do with my life. I love plants. I love the way they grow. I love the way they cope with every changing conditions. I love learning what each plant is and what makes it unique. I love what we can learn about life and death from plants.

I am so grateful to have spent this season doing work about something I am so passionate about. I have learned so much and yet it is only the beginning of what is a long and twisting road ahead of me. I sit here not knowing what is next in my life, but there is a sort of comfort in the unknown. The only constant I will ever find in my life is change and I welcome that. The choices are all mine and there is no right or wrong choice, only the choice I make.

I will miss Montana, but my East Coast heart aches for the place I have always called home. I will soon say my sorrowful goodbyes to this big and beautiful state. I am ready to return to Massachusetts where the people are unfriendly and cold, but where my heart feels so warm. I will stare out at the vastness of the ocean and think of Montana and the wide open spaces.

Nearly all the plants have dropped their seeds reflecting the ending that is just a whisper away. When I first arrived everything was in bloom and the hope of spring was all around us. As the season has gone on and the plants have fruited and seeded changing the environment around us I couldn’t help but feel as though I was growing and changing with them. Now as the trees and perennials begin their dormancy for winter, I too prepare for the next cycle of my life.

Nerding out at Couer D’Alene Nursery

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This past week my crew along with some others went to the Forest Service Nursery in Couer D’Alene Idaho to help out with some data collection. The nursery was incredible and full of so many different cool projects. We were given a tour and got to see into all their giant greenhouses full of plants that were mainly used for restoration work.

Before this job, I knew very little about how the actual process of restoration worked. I had never thought about the actual way plants were grown and prepared to be planted. I had a lot of fun learning all about what they do at the nursery. They are constantly doing so many experiments to learn more about our native species and how to breed more resilient plants.

During our time at the nursery, we were helping with a common garden study. The nursery grows a bunch of the same plant from different locations to learn more about the genetics of the species from different areas. It was our job to count and measure the plants, which I will admit got a little bit tedious. Luckily, one of the nursery cats came to hang out with us while we did our data collection.

The silliest thing about our trip to Couer D’Alene was that we camped in tents at the nursery. The camping was generally uneventful except for our last night when it started pouring. There were also some flies who would not get out of my rain fly, but a praying mantis came to the rescue and ate them for me.

I am so glad that I was able to go to the nursery and learn so much about how they operate. I graduated from college in the spring, and I have been trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my career. While I was at the nursery, I kept thinking “Wow, I could really see myself working here.” I love growing plants, and I am passionate about restoration work. For a long time now, I have been telling people that I am interested in the practical application of science and that is exactly what they do at the nursery.

The Weather in Montana Can’t Make up its Mind!

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I knew the weather in Montana would be different than what I am used to, but I didn’t realize quite how unpredictable it is. In New England we like to say “If you don’t like the weather wait a few minutes” but here that is even more true. In the past month it has hailed, poured rain, thunder-stormed, been humid, been dry, been hot, been cold, and even snowed a little.

I check the weather every day yet I still never feel quite prepared for what the Montana weather will decide to do. We always joke that if more than half the cows are laying down that means it will rain. Although this is not a fool proof method of predicting weather I often find looking to the cows to be more accurate than whatever my weather app says. I also don’t think I’ll ever get used to how much the temperature changes when we drive down the mountain. There is often a 10 degree difference between where I live and the nearest city, Great Falls.

Me with a cow skull I found while collecting seed.

Another thing about the weather here that I am still getting used to is the wind. The wind is louder and stronger than anything I am used to. Not too long ago we were camping in an area we wanted to collect seed in. During the night the wind was so loud I thought a bear was trying to break into my tent! We could hear the wind building up before it hit our campsite and it made my tent shake. I think none of us slept very well that night between the loudness and the fear of falling trees. Luckily no trees fell in our campsite.

Despite unpredictable, and sometimes scary weather I have really been enjoying my time here. I was lucky enough to see a moose which was a bucket list item for me (I almost cried). I am continuing to learn so much and I am so grateful for the community in the region of my forest, they even make our safety meetings fun. I feel homesick sometimes, but I also know that I will be so sad to leave when my season is over.

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Now that I’ve been in Neihart for around a month and a half I am really starting to get in the swing of things! I’ve been really enjoying collecting seeds, it is such a peaceful task. That said, some plants I enjoy collecting from much more than others. Here is my official ranking of all the species I have collected from so far: 

Geum triflorum (Prairie Smoke) 10/10 

I enjoy collecting from this one for a couple of reasons. The seeds of Prairie Smoke are super easy to pull right off. This makes the process both simple and satisfying. There is no stickiness or plants parts that are easy to cut yourself on (foreshadowing for my later complaints).  

Penstemon eriantherus (Fuzzytongue Penstemon) 10/10 

Penstemon have dry easy to pull off seed pods. Each pod has a bunch of seeds, which makes it easy to collect large amounts of seed. I also found collecting from this species to be satisfying. We collected this species in a part of the forest I had never been to before, which was a dry, shrubby ecosystem that was cool to see. 

Festuca campestris (Rough Fescue) 8/10 

Let me start off by saying I was such a grass hater before I started this job. Now the more I have learned about grasses I have started to appreciate their beauty. This species is particularly important to restoration in the area where I am located and seeds early in the season, so we were excited to collect from this. Rough Fescue is also the first species I collected from so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Taking the seeds off this plant was very satisfying because they just pop off as you run your hands up the stem. The only reason Rough Fescue loses points is because as the name implies it is rough. Collecting from this plant really cut up my hands so for that it loses points. 

Mertensia paniculata (Tall Bluebells) 8/10 

Bluebells are one of my favorite wildflowers, so I was thrilled to be able to collect seeds from this species. My forest has not been able to collect these in previous years, so it was quite exciting to find a population with seeds before the moose got to it. Tall Bluebells are one of few shade tolerant species on our collection list, which is a bonus. My only issue with collecting from this species is that it grows in riparian environments, meaning I was being swarmed by bugs the entire time. The seeds are also very tiny and easy to drop.  

Lupinus sericeus (Silky Lupine) 6/10 

Silky lupine is one of the most satisfying plants to collect from because you can just pull the pods off. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other downsides for this one. For one they are sticky which is quite unpleasant. They are also loved by aphids which gross me out. Flies also like to lay their maggots inside of the seed pods, which is not something I like to find when I am collecting seeds.  

Geranium viscosissimum (Sticky Geranium) 4/10 

As the name implies this plant is very sticky. It also grows everywhere, so collecting from it can be exhausting; it is the only plant I get tired of collecting seeds from. The only thing that makes collecting from Sticky Geranium a little better is how pretty it is.  

Montana has More Cows than People

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I’ll admit I was quite nervous to start this job and move to Montana. Coming from MA, one of the most densely populated states in the US, to MT, one of the least populated states, was quite intimidating. I was preparing myself for quite a difficult adjustment, but I have actually been having a lovely time and the adjustment has been easy.

So far I have been doing A LOT of learning. Being from the east coast I had to learn a bunch of new flora that I have never seen before. I have found a lot of comfort seeing plants like Mountain Bluebells and Glacier Lilies which are very similar to species we have where I am from. The whole structure of forests and other ecosystems here are entirely different than what I am used to, but it has been a fun challenge. Coming from a place with mostly deciduous forests it was surprising to see the forests full on conifers. All of the pines make the forests smell so good and I love walking around in them or just sitting next to a stream and taking in my surroundings. People told me Montana was beautiful, but there is no way to understand the true beauty of Montana without seeing it.

Now, about the cows. Everywhere you go in Montana you will see cows, you might not see a person, but the cows are ever present. After one of our scouting trips we were driving back to the Ranger station when we realized we were approaching animals in the road. Being that we were in a national forest I was preparing myself for deer or maybe even a bear. That is when we realized it was a bunch of loose cows! For a little we just stared at the cows and they stared back at us. Eventually my partner had to get out of the car and clap to heard the cows out of the road. I have a feeling that will not be our last cow encounter in the field.