As summer advances here on the Prineville district, my priority seed collections are shifting from sage grouse forbs to grasses and pollinator supporter species. The desert sagebrush steppe is home to target plants that are “crispifying” as I like to put it. A pair of brief but intense heat waves throughout the northwest region has brought this crispification on, and now we must let go of these too crispy to collect plants. So, leaving the crispy northern basin and range ecoregion for the E. Cascades and blue mountains I’ve spent several collection days on Dalea ornata at two different sites. I’m getting to know this plant really well now that we’ve spent so much time together. It’s a likeable plant being a nitrogen fixer, pollinator attractant native perennial. The seeds are encased in soft fluffy pillows, and it lends a very pleasant minty-floral aroma to the hands after collection. Little munching insects like it as much as me and the pollinators do though, so my collecting has been a bit of a struggle. I tried a tactic I’ve seen some teams use on species of lupin – tied little baby shower style mesh baggies over the seed heads, hoping to catch them before they dispersed or were consumed by hungry bugs. This backfired pretty good at the first site. I think instead of keeping bugs out, I locked bugs in the baggies, leaving them no choice but to devour all my seeds. At the second site I cut my losses to dispersal and insects, and decided to just way way overcollect to compensate for poor fill. My goal was to collect from more than 1,000 individual plants on my own. (sigh). Luckily, a youth empowerment Americorps group, the Heart of Oregon corps, stepped in to the rescue. Working with these recent highschool graduates was a lot of fun, and at the end of the day one of them even told me that he thought he’d like to become a botanist. Yes! I was happy that maybe my enthusiasm and babbling about the plight of native pollinators at the beginning of our day had a part in his declaration. I love turning people on to the natural world. The corps members helped me achieve my collection goals and I am looking forward to hearing back from BSE on our yield. Hopefully we added a great restoration plant to the Prineville seed mix.
I’m also contemplating native thistles. So much is talked about invasive thistles that I think some of our lovely native thistles may have gotten overlooked. Have you ever watched a thistle flower? It’s a pollinator smorgasbord! Unfortunately the bees and flies and other critters do not seem to make much distinction between native and non native nectar sources, so I hope that by seed collecting from the local yocals I can eventually “flood the market” with a better choice for them to dine. Collecting this year has taken me to some of Prineville’s more beautiful and sometimes more quirky sites. Pictures following! Good luck with your collections interns, I’m happy to report mine are going well. Remember your pollinator friends, and even if it is not top priority, perhaps try to get a few collections for their benefit.

It looks like summer has finally peaked here in New England!  The latter half of July brought some brutally muggy days with the occasional downpour, but these have since yielded to mostly clear skies with temperatures in the low 80s for early August.  The plants are responding well to the recent good weather, and our endeavors are finally beginning to bear fruit, which have to date comprised 15 collections; of these, nearly half are of the saltmarsh rush Juncus gerardii (which, unfortunately, has a tendency to play host to a parasitizing moth, Coleophora alticollela).  The remaining eight collections include false beach heather Hudsonia tomentosa, the sedges Carex scoparia, Carex crinita, Scirpus atrovirens, and the delicious ericaceous shrubs Gaylussacia baccata and Vaccinium angustifolium x myrtilloides)

Over the course of our collections thus far, we have voyaged as far north as Waterville, ME, to scout out the maturity of seeds borne by black spruce (Picea maritima) and purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) in kettlehole bogs, east to Harwich Port on Cape Cod to collect Carex scoparia, and southwest to Stonington, CT to assess dam removal sites.  As a result of our sojourns, we’ve gotten to see a wide variety of flora and habitats:

In addition, we have also seen quite a variety of wildlife too!

The New England Seeds of Success team has been traveling throughout the North East searching out ripening seeds that will be used in various conservation projects ranging from dune rehabilitation to stream stabilization. We are also collecting a wide range of common species that will be stored and become available in the case of future disasters and damage to plant communities.

Much of our time collecting in New England has been spent collecting salt marsh graminoides (grass-like plants), where rising sea levels threaten the delicate balance of fresh and salt water habitat. These systems are very important in keeping our coasts stable and act as a large filter as water makes its way to the sea. Despite being hugely important, these are not very diverse systems, often relying on only a few species.

There are no trees in the salt marsh, so sun beats down on us while we collect and the wind leaves us parched. The area is ruled by the tides and if one isn’t careful the water will quietly rise and leaving them stranded in a limited area of solid ground. It is also due to these factors that these areas are so beautiful and surprises abound when one takes a closer look.

It is partly due to the monotonous nature of these spaces that make the small things stand out. Watching the breeze roll across the huge open landscape can be memorizing. Spartina alterniflora, the salt marsh cord grass, glistens in the summer heat as it exudes salt directly out of its leaves. Small treasures can be seen throughout the marsh, from the dessicated shells of crabs that were deposited during a high tide to watching a horse shoe crab feeding the mucky bottom of a canal.

Salt marshes have so much to offer to both the function of an areas as well as to provide a beautiful landscape. We are fortunate to spend our days in such amazing spaces and to have the presence of mind to notice the things that are often overlooked.

Greetings again from Cedarville!

Over the past few weeks me and my co-intern as well as the interns from “over the hill” have had the opportunity to see the Seed of Success program in action. We got to visit the Lutz’s farm, where they grow native seeds to be used by the BLM for reseeding projects. On their farm they have Needle and Thread (Hesperostipa comata), Thurber’s Needlegrass (Achnatherum thurberianum), Bluebunch Wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), Basin Wildrye (Leymus cinereus), and a type of sage growing. The Basin Wildrye was started from seeds that were collected by CBG interns in 2010!

The first week that we were there we got to help in some of the routine maintenance that is required to keep the farm going. The Lutz irrigate and fertilize their plants, which helps them gain optimal yield. But before irrigation can happen the plots need to be rogued, which entails removing the unwanted plants with either a hoe or a hand hoe. They do not want unwanted plants taking away nutrients from the desired species. After we were finished with that we got to watch them irrigate. Water is pumped from a well using solar power and stored in a reservoir. When it is time to irrigate the water is pumped through pipes using a gas pump to the desired plot. The plot is flooded and the water is slowly absorbed by the plants and the soil.

The next week that we were there we got a chance to help transplant some Thurber’s Needlegrass seedlings that they were grown in a greenhouse. The first thing we did was get the plot all set up for the seedlings, it had been irrigated a few days before we got there to ensure that the soil contained enough water. The seedlings are planted 18 inches from one another in rows that are 4 feet apart. We could get about 20-25 seedlings per row and there were 5 rows per plot. We had pieces of wood to help us make sure that our spacing was right and the seedlings would be uniform. We planted the seedlings in holes with a slight berm around it . We also put a rabbit cage around the seedlings and then added some more water. We returned the next week and almost all of the seedlings in the 2 plots we planted survived the transplant and were growing!

The last week that we were there we were able to help with some collecting of their Basin Wildrye and Bluebunch Wheatgrass. Since most of the Basin Wildrye was ready we were able to cut the seed stalks off with scissors and put them in garbage cans. The Bluebunch Wheatgrass we collected in the more traditional way of removing the seeds from the seed stalks by hand. We were only able to collect half of the Basin Wildrye before we ran out of time, but even that produced a lot of seeds. Last year they collected about 45 pounds of seeds from their plots.

Overall, I had a great time at the Lutz. It was really awesome to see how seeds collected by interns 5 years ago have been taken and grown. It was also really interesting to see the whole process of native plant growing from beginning to end. We are hoping to be able to go back in the future when they are going their soil sampling to learn about what that entails and the test that need to be done.