Hello to all the other CLM interns around the country. My name is Melissa, and I have been working as an SOS intern at the California Plant Materials Center in Lockeford, CA (near Lodi, about 40 minutes south of Sacramento) for a few months now. I am from New York originally, so living here in the central valley is quite a change from what I am used to — but in a good way!

So far my co-intern Cathy and I have been keeping busy with a lot of things here at the PMC.  Since our interenship is a bit different than other SOS interns based at BLM offices – I thought I would share some photos/info about what goes on at a plant materials center.

This is one of the diagrams they showed us at the SOS training in Denver a few weeks ago. Working here at the PMC we are getting exposure not only to seed collecting, but also to steps 2 and 3 in the process.

Just like the picture from the diagram, we do a lot “evaluation and development” here at the CAPMC.  We develop propagation protocals for different plant species — trying out different methods of stratifcation and scarification and planting seeds in different soil types until we find a strategy that works well and we have a high germination rate. 

We when aren’t out seed collecting, we spend a lot of time in the CAPMC greenhouses –>

Planting seeds, transferring seedlings into bigger pots and keeping our plants happy!

The next step in the NPMDP program is “field establisment”

We have a lot of specialized machinery here at the CAPMC, for example this transplater which is being used to transfer these grass plugs into the field.

After a few years, the fields look like this (Southern California Brome –>)

Each of the fields is a different “release” species.

The seeds from our releases are then collected and sent off to commercial seed growers — where they can be grown out in large quantities for restoration and conservation projects.

Good luck to everyone with their seed collecting!