At the Lockeford Plant Material Center we have a unique situation; most interns at BLM field sites have areas to collect from right at their facilities, whereas the PMC is 100 acres of farmland used for propagating those initial native plant seeds. That said, it makes it slightly more difficult to collect seeds of target species, so we have to travel to other field sites in the surrounding areas.

These last couple weeks took me to both the Cougar Wetlands area of the Cosumnes River Preserve outside of Sacramento, and the Red Hills Area of Critical Environmental Concern, just east of Yosemite. It’s astonishing to see how quickly climes change here in California, and likewise, how diverse the plant populations are. Cosumnes was chalk-full of grasses, sedges, and bulrushes all populating the flood plains and riparian areas. Red Hills, on the other hand, had large areas of serpentine deposits that limited the hillsides to stands of Ceanothus cuneatus, Pinus sabiniata, Elymus elymoides, and a few other smaller wildflowers like Castilleja.

I’ve only been in this state for about a month, but I’ve already travelled to the Bay Area, the Sierra Nevadas, and Monterey, and the more I see of California the more I understand why it’s such a biodiverse area and why it’s so important to have the BLM present here.

Castilleja associated wtih Buckbrush at Red Hills