Fire season has been ramping up down here (or up here depending on where you are) in Southern Oregon.  Not only did the largest fire in Oregon, The Oregon Gulch fire maxing out at ~36,500+ acres, just get contained roughly 20 miles south of us, but 7,000 recorded lighting strikes on Monday has lead to 12 new fires that are getting bigger as I type.  The socked in smokey valley, mixed with 100 degree days, has made going out and collecting not so enjoyable.  But being the diligent seed heads that we are, we have still been keeping up with collections and as of last week we met our target collection number of 60 and have since then surpassed it by a lot.  With the vast diversity in eco-regions and elevation in our district, our number of seed collections don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.  It has been nice to think that maybe the seeds I collect today, will be used to rehab these burned sites tomorrow.

Oregon Gulch Fire

Oregon Gulch Fire

The top of Grizzly Peak