Hi all,

It has been about a month since living/working in Shoshone, ID. I have finally blended into the neighborhood and held a successful BBQ a couple weekends ago.

We have been working on a few projects which keep us busy and in the field most days of the week. When we’re in the mood for a scavenger hunt, based off directions, maps, and pictures (sometimes dating back to the 40s) we look for old monitoring plots. This can be quite difficult…one person’s north is another person’s south. This process can take 20 minutes to 2 hours.  It’s like finding gold when you see the metal bars in the ground. We then GPS the monitoring plot to make navigation easy. When we’re feeling like botanists for the day, we conduct Nested Frequency Studies. Through this method, one can determine the occurrence and frequency of a species and ground cover in the plot. These are permanent monitoring plots which allows trend data to be collected from previous years.

Nested Frequency Studies plot

This past weekend was the Seeds of Success training in Boise, ID. It was wonderful to be surrounded by botanists who knew every detail of the plant and could answer any question you had on identifying. We were taught the S.O.S protocol, helped in a collection of Nothocalais troximoides seed, and went to the Oregon State University Malheur Experiment Station in Vale, OR. The Malheur Experiment Station is where some of the collected native seed goes to be grown. The students were growing native Eriognums, Astragalus, Balsamorhiza, Lomatium, etc. Each row of plants were under certain controls and seed was collected from certain plants. This place is going to bring native seed restoration practices to a new level, it’s amazing.

Penstemon in experimental rows

That’s all for now!