September has been highly productive on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest! Many of our final seed collections species have finally seeded or have begun seeding as September ends. Several new collection species that have been added to our target list include Rosa woodsii, Symphoricarpos occidentalis, Monarda fistulosa, and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi with Solidago missouriensis and Grindelia squarrosa soon to be ready.

As the season draws to an end, I had the privilege of making the trip to the Couer d’Alene nursery that houses and grows all of our native seed collection species. Although seed collection isn’t quite done for the season, we were able to drop off many of the seeds that have been collected up until this point. Dropping off seeds wasn’t the only thing that happened at the nursery. While I was there, I was able to help measure and collect data for some of the species being grown at the nursery as part of a project that helps determine the growth of the seeded plants.

As always, the field was filled with fun wildlife including deer, gamebirds such as grouse and pheasants, snakes, and frogs.

Outside of seed collection, September has been pretty light for project work. One of the only big projects we worked on was a revegetation project of a recently disturbed picnic area near Butte, Montana.

The annual bio retreat for all of the botany and wildlife crew members on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge also occurred in mid-September where the forest came together for a joint camping trip with the intent of sharing different projects that are happening around the forest, including Whitebark Pine and rare plant surveys, lynx surveys, goshawk surveys, and bear surveys to name a few.