We have been seeing a lot of cool looking mushrooms pop up in the prairies.

Well it took a little longer than usual, but the moisture finally settled in the Willamette Valley and the thirsty prairie pools have been filling up, attracting flying V’s of waterfowl and inviting new green life to proliferate.  It is this time of year when we start to see more grey than blue, but there is something warm and inviting about the misty mountain tops.  And while the hardwoods have dropped their colors, the rivers grow more colorful with the silver backs of Chinook, Coho, and Steelhead.  It is always a relief and a rush of joy to see them return to spawn after facing the endless gauntlet of polluted water, damns, fisherman, degraded steam habitat, aquaculture parasites and diseases, and predators.

Here is a burn treatment adjacent to a shade cloth treatment planted with Kincaid’s Lupine.

So, we have been dodging the rain, making quick attempts at spreading native seed. Soggy handfuls of seed make it hard to disperse evenly.  But none the less, we successfully seeded all the prairies that were control burned earlier this fall.  This past week, we spent several days with a youth crew planting starts, pulling weeds, planting willow stakes, and installing shade cloth.

Willow Stakes planted by youth crew.