Tag Archives: Montana

Caring for the Future: Seed Banks and Nurseries

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A howling, cold wind forced the small crew of scientists to huddle closer. The group’s navigator glanced from her rudimentary compass to the horizon, concentrating her tired eyes on a small dark shape that stood opposed to the pale, starlit snowfields. The group was traveling in the Artic Circle, a land no more desolate now than most of the post-apocalyptic planet. At last, a man-made building resolved itself against the pale dawn. The tall concrete walls cut the wind and a quiet fell upon them. The navigator faced the stainless-steel entrance of the imposing tomb. She knew, though, that life lie frozen, preserved in that breathless place in the form of seeds. Millions of seeds, preserved by people of the past for the unknown future, contained the hope for replenished agriculture and revegetation. She had reached the ‘Doomsday Vault’ — the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Not the Svalbard Global Seed Vault but looks like a sci-fi building! Saw this radio equipment (?) on Blacktail Mountain, Flathead National Forest, Montana.

In the popular imagination, seed vaults conjure up post-apocalyptic visions of bunker-like warehouses filled with crop seeds for kickstarting a new human civilization. Helen Anne Curry, in her paper “The history of seed banking and the hazards of backup,” discusses the origin of this doomsday fear: a survival strategy for mid-20th century Cold War anxieties. The Cold War inspired a frenzy of record backups, computer and communication system redundancies, and other safeguards against global environmental catastrophes. Saving seeds represented an insurance policy for our food, forests, and the green of our planet. The Fort Collins Seed Bank in Fort Collins, Colorado fulfilled this need for redundancy, with the first “Fort Knox of the seed world’ opening in 1958 (Curry, 2022). The Svalbard Global Seed Bank, built almost 50 years later, continues to assuage similar fears but it also represents a more active, dynamic approach to modern day seed-saving needs. The Svalbard Seed Vault, located in the remote Artic Svalbard archipelago, functions quite literally as a seed “bank” in which a nation or organization deposits seeds in a safe box that is then available for withdrawal at the depositor’s request. Svalbard is a backup for the thousands of other seed banks throughout the world, a safeguard against the worst, but it is not a sealed off seed tomb. The seed vault regularly accepts deposits and honors withdrawals. To date, the only withdrawals have been from Syria in 2015 and 2017 due to the civil war disrupting a gene bank located in Tel Hadya, Syria (Dan, 2015).

Many organizations concerned with plant conservation and genetic diversity like botanical gardens, university laboratories, and nurseries, partake in some form of seed saving. The ability to preserve living plants, in the form of a seed, offers a highly adaptable opportunity for humanity to realize the needs and goals for both our local and global plant communities.

Conifer seeds stored in drums in the cold storage freezers at the Coeur d’Alene Seed Nursery; not as cold as Svalbard!

How It’s Made: Trees (and Plants) for Future Forests

My co-intern and I visited the USDA Coeur d’Alene Seed Nursery in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho this month. The 220-acre nursery includes 25 greenhouses, 130 acres of bareroot seedbeds, multiple buildings for seed extraction, and numerous freezers for seed banking. The nursery provides native conifer, forb, and grass seedlings and seed mixes mainly for Region 1 National Forests in Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota (USDA Forest Service). The nursery participates in many projects including the Northern Region’s Tree Improvement program for growing and testing Whitebark pine seedlings for blister rust resistance. The forest I am working with, the Flathead NF, is sending seed to the nursery for extraction and use in grow outs to increase seed number of our target species. Eventually, the bulk-grown seed will form pollinator seed mixes for use back on the Flathead NF in disturbed areas.

Greenhouse and fields at the Coeur d’Alene Seed Nursery.

We first toured the huge, industrially-sized “Seed Extractory”. Large boxes, each holding hundreds of pinecones, are stacked from floor to ceiling (see picture for scale). Hot air is pumped through the stacked boxes, turning the whole pinecone-filled column into a kiln. The heat opens the cones and releases the seeds. Inside the main building, ductwork lines then walls and ceiling, moving air from one machine to another, providing a means to separate the dense seed material from the chaff. Screens of different sizes could be fitted into the various sifting and sorting machines to accommodate a wide range of seed sizes. A sample from each batch of purified seed is then tested vias X-ray for seed viability. X-rays reveal dried-up embryos or hollow seeds that would otherwise escape notice. The nursery manager described the importance of creativity in purifying seeds and the lack of standardization in the seed cleaning processes since each species requires unique troubleshooting. Some seed extraction, despite all the helpful machinery, must be done by hand. This is the case for Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis). Whitebark pine is considered a “stone pine” due to the cone scales never opening, even when the seeds are ripe. Heating the cones up in the kilns only makes the scales close more tightly. The cones must be cracked open by hand, imitating the natural forces they encounter in the wild—being crunched by grizzly bear jaws or cracked by awl-like beaks of the Clark’s nutcracker (National Park Service).

Giant kilns for drying pinecones
Machinery in the seed extractor building
A “dewinger” machine for removing the wings off pinecone seeds
The X-ray room for seed viability tests

We next moved to the storage room, which contained huge walk-in freezers that housed enough conifer seeds to meet revegetation goals for Region 1 Forests for the next 10 to 20 years! Conifer seed, like other “orthodox seed,” can withstand freezing and drying for long periods of time. Some samples of Lodgepole pine seeds stored at the nursery since the 1960s still have a 70% germination rate (Robertson, 2024). The freezers at the nursery are not as cold as the -18C of the permafrost-entombed Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Hopkin, 2008). Seeds stored at higher temperatures, a warmer -2C, are not destined for potentially century-long storage. Rather, these seeds are used for ongoing projects and near-future seed planting. Pollen and seed from white pine blister rust resistant conifers is stored in the freezers for the Northern Rocky Tree Improvement Project. Four defense mechanisms against the blister rust have been genetically isolated and some conifer species, represented in the freezer, contain all four mechanisms of resistance (Robertson, 2024). Seed banks, nurseries, vaults, and libraries provide the necessary storage space for reassurance that genetic diversity can be maintained for both short-term and long-term conservation goals.

White pine blister rust infection (Cronartium ribicola); evident as the orange scab-like protrusions on the bark
My co-intern Erynn (on the left) and I with some pollen from a white pine blister rust resistant conifer

Reimagined Visions: Keep Cool and Save Seeds

While the fear of global environmental catastrophe still informs certain aspects of seed banking, seed saving today serves many other interests and needs. The Millenium Seed Bank Partnership stores seeds from 13% of the world’s wild flowering plants, representing a concern for the ex-situ conservation of wild plants as opposed to seed banking of only economically or agriculturally useful plants (Lewis-Jones, 2019). USDA Seed Extractories and Nurseries like the one we visited in Coeur d’Alene increase the availability of native seeds adapted to local, native growing conditions (Kantor et al., 2023). Smaller seed banks, housed in non-profits or botanical gardens, provide localized seed collections of endemic or culturally and historically significant plants. Seed libraries provide an even more dynamic and accessible service in which people from the community can lend and share seed among themselves. Seed saving of any kind represents a “partnership” of the “the mobile species helping the immobile species” and, of course, vice versa (Lewis-Jones, 2019).

Boxes of trees, ready for shipment, with an apt slogan: “Trees for Future Forests.”

References

“Coeur d’Alene Nursery.” USDA Forest Service. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/ipnf/about-forest/districts/?cid=stelprdb5085769. Accessed 30 August 2024.

“Whitebark pine.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/crla/learn/nature/whitebark-pine.htm. Accessed 1 September 2024.

Curry, H. A. (2022). The history of seed banking and the hazards of backup. Social Studies of Science, 52(5), 664-688. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127221106728

Dan, Charles. “Reclaiming Syria’s Seeds From An Icy Arctic Vault”. NPR, 24 September 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/24/443053665/scientists-tap-seed-vault-to-rebuild-a-vital-collection-stranded-by-war. Accessed 30 August 2024.

Hopkin, M. Biodiversity: Frozen futures. Nature 452, 404–405 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/452404a

Kantor, S., Runyon, J., Glenny, W., Burkle, L., Salix, J., & DeLong, D. (2023). Of bees and blooms: A new scorecard for selecting pollinator-friendly plants in restoration. Science You Can Use Bulletin, Issue 58. Fort Collins, CO: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 11 p.

Lewis-Jones, K.E. (2019), “The First Step Is to Bring It Into Our Hands:” Wild Seed Conservation, the Stewardship of Species Survival, and Gardening the Anthropocene at the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. Cult Agric Food Environ, 41: 107-116. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12238

Robertson, Nathan. “Tour of the Coeur d’Alene Nursery”. Coeur d’Alene Nursery, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 20 August 2024.

Plants of medicine, myth and modernity

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Plants shape our historical and modern worlds

For many of us in the modern age, plants blend into the background. The joy of this internship, and other outdoor work, is the movement of plants to centerstage again as primary shapers of the world. Not long ago in Europe and much more recently in North America, plants were the primary suppliers of medicine and raw materials. Here in and around the Flathead National Forest, plants were imperative for everyday life of the Salish and Kootenai people. An exhaustive list of plants and their traditional uses is not possible here, but important edible plants included Serviceberry, Huckleberry, and Camas (Bear Don’t Walk, 2019). Plants for raw materials included Apocynum cannabinum for rope, Salix (willow) for fish traps, and Holodiscus discolor (oceanspray) for digging stick handles (Ryan, 2024). In the paragraphs to follow, I focus on three medicinal plants, common and widespread across multiple continents, that many cultures used and still use today. The independent use of these plants for similar ailments across different cultures corroborates their effectiveness.  The application of these plants goes back thousands of years, with the origin of their medicinal value shrouded in myth and legend but their effectiveness indisputable and tangible with the modern-day scientific isolation of their bioactive compounds.

The view from Doris Mtn, looking west across the Flathead valley

Yarrow: ancient medical hero

Yarrow, the common name for various plant species in the Achillea genus, is widespread throughout Eurasia and North America. Species of Achillea have been used for thousands of years in the treatment of wounds, infections, inflammation and skin conditions (Applequist & Moerman, 2011). Yarrow pollen was unearthed at the 65,000-year-old burial site of several Homo neanderthalensis in a cave near Shanidar, Iran (Applequist & Moerman, 2011). The genus name, Achillea, honors the ancient Greek mythological hero Achilles. Achilles was not just a famed (nearly invincible) warrior; he was also trained in the arts of medicine by his tutor, Chiron the Centaur. The ancient Greeks believed Achilles discovered the astringent properties of Yarrow and carried it with his army to stem bleeding wounds (Chandler et al.,1982). In addition to wound healing, the Salish boiled leaves and stems of Achillea millefolium for colds and made a compress out of the leaves for toothaches (Hart,1979).

Modern-day chemical analysis and assays of the bioactive compounds in Achillea reinforce traditional medicinal uses. Sesquiterpenes isolated from yarrow display anti-inflammatory properties through inhibition of COX-2, an enzyme involved in inflammation and pain (Applequist & Moerman, 2001; Benedek & Kopp, 2007). Extracts of four Achillea species, including the Achillea millefolium species found in the Flathead National Forest, showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against seven different strains of pathogenic bacteria and fungi (Saeidnia et al., 2011). The aromatic, delicately feathered leaves and cloud-like flower heads of yarrow contain compounds for a familiar and ever-present need: wound-healing.

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, in flower

St. John’s Wort: revered and reviled

St. John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum, is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but is now so common in North America it is often considered a noxious weed. The showy, yellow flowers and glandular leaves contain numerous bioactive compounds that are harmful to grazing animals but prove useful for human medicine. St. John’s Wort was used in traditional Chinese, Greek, and Islamic medicine for depression, anxiety, nerve pain, wounds, infections, and inflammation (Barnes et al., 2001). The scientific genus name, Hypericum, is ancient Greek for “above” (hyper) and “picture” (eikon). “Above picture” refers to the tradition of hanging the revered and powerful plant over religious icons (Barnes et al., 2001). The common name, St. John’s Wort, originates from the practice of harvesting the plant during the Midsummer festival, later Chirstinaized as St. John’s Feast Day. Harvesting the flowers at such an auspicious time was believed to make the herb’s healing and magical powers even more potent (Trickey-Bapty, 2001). On the festival day, St. John’s Wort was hung over doorways to ward off evil spirits. This practice inspired another common name: “fuge daemonum” (demon-flight).

Fields of the tall yellow flowers, which excrete a rusty red compound when crushed, are a familiar site along disturbed roads, old logging sites, and burns here on the Flathead National Forest. The plant’s bioactive compounds give it both medicinal properties and also invasive advantages, since the plant engages in allelopathy and releases chemicals into the surrounding soil that inhibit other species’ germination and growth (Aziz, 2006). Chemical analysis reveals two significant bioactive compounds, hypericin and hyperforin, that support several of the traditional uses of St. John’s Wort (Barnes et al., 2001). Hyperforin appears to inhibit serotonin uptake, analogous to conventional selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as inhibit the uptake of other neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine (Barnes. 2001). These antidepressant activities are substantiated in randomized controlled studies where the herb is more effective than a placebo and as effective as several conventional antidepressants in mild-to-moderate depression (Barnes, 2001). Hyperforin shows significant antimicrobial and antifungal effects as well as increased collagen synthesis which expediates wound healing (Nobakht, 2022).

St John’s Wort, the plant of demon-flight

A family of pungent herbs: the Mints

One of the oldest surviving medical texts in the world, the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BC, recommends mint for stomach pain and flatulence (Pickering, 2020). The Salish and Kootenai as well as the Blackfeet used a local mint family member, Monarda fistulosa (Beebalm), for stomach pain, toothaches, colds, and fevers (Anderson; Hart 1979). Monarda fistulosa contains thymol, a strong antiseptic, with a cooling, strong flavor and odor that is popular today in mouthwashes and toothpaste (Lawson et al., 2021). The Salish rubbed Monarda fistulosa on the body for a mosquito repellant and sprinkled dried leaves on meat and berries to repel flies and preserve food (Bear Don’t Walk, 2009). The antimicrobial activity of the plant is attributed to terpenoids that slow the growth of certain pathogenic bacteria, like Streptococcus aureus (Anwar et al., 2019). Members of the mint family include an array of herbs such as beebalm, self-heal, horsemint and thyme that caught the attention of people as possessing the revered ability to heal.

Monarda fistulosa (beebalm)
Agastache urticifolia (horsemint)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal)

Many cultures throughout the ancient and indigenous world recognized the medicinal properties of Yarrow, St. John’s Wort, and mint. The long-standing importance of these plants in the human story explains their persistence as daily shapers of our world today.

References

Anderson, M. Kat. “Wild Bergamot.” United States Department of Agriculture. https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_mofi.pdf

Anwar F, Abbas A, Mehmood T, Gilani A-H, Rehman N. Mentha: A genus rich in vital nutra-pharmaceuticals—A review. Phytotherapy Research. 2019; 33, 2548–2570. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.6423

Applequist, W.L., Moerman, D.E. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.): A Neglected Panacea? A Review of Ethnobotany, Bioactivity, and Biomedical Research1 . Economic Botany 65, 209–225 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-011-9154-3

Azizi, M. and Fuji, Y. (2006). ALLELOPATHIC EFFECT OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANT SUBSTANCES ON SEED GERMINATION OF AMARANTHUS RETROFLEXUS AND PORTULACA OLERACEAE. Acta Hortic. 699, 61-68 DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.699.5 https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.699.5

Barnes, J., Anderson, L.A. and Phillipson, J.D. (2001), St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L.): a review of its chemistry, pharmacology and clinical properties. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 53: 583-600. https://doi.org/10.1211/0022357011775910

Bear Don’t Walk, Mitchell Rose, “Recovering our Roots: The Importance of Salish Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Traditional Food Systems to Community Wellbeing on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.” (2019). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11494. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11494

Benedek, B., Kopp, B. Achillea millefolium L. s.l. revisited: Recent findings confirm the traditional use. Wien Med Wochenschr 157, 312–314 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10354-007-0431-9

Chandler, R.F., Hooper, S.N. & Harvey, M.J. Ethnobotany and phytochemistry of yarrow, Achillea millefolium, compositae. Econ Bot 36, 203–223 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02858720

Hart, Jeffrey A. “The ethnobotany of the Flathead Indians of Western Montana.” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 27.10 (1979): 261-307.

Lawson SK, Satyal P, Setzer WN. The Volatile Phytochemistry of Monarda Species Growing in South Alabama. Plants. 2021; 10(3):482. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10030482

Nobakht SZ, Akaberi M, Mohammadpour AH, Tafazoli Moghadam A, Emami SA. Hypericum perforatum: Traditional uses, clinical trials, and drug interactions. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2022 Sep;25(9):1045-1058. doi: 10.22038/IJBMS.2022.65112.14338. PMID: 36246064; PMCID: PMC9526892.

Pickering, Victoria. “Plant of the Month: Mint.” JSTOR Daily, 1 April 2020, https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-mint/.

Ryan, Tim. “Ethnobotany of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes.” Montana Native Plant Society Annual Meeting, 28 June 2024, Camp Utmost, Greenough MT. Lecture.

Saeidnia S, Gohari A, Mokhber-Dezfuli N, Kiuchi F. A review on phytochemistry and medicinal properties of the genus Achillea. Daru. 2011;19(3):173-86. PMID: 22615655; PMCID: PMC3232110.

Trickey-Bapty C (2001). Martyrs and miracles. New York: Testament Books. p. 132. ISBN 9780517164037.

Plants of Pollinator Friendliness

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“Bees are crucial for maintaining biodiversity and, by supporting healthy plant communities, a long list of ecosystem functions”

– Of Bees and Blooms, 2023
Queen bee Bombus rufocinctus pollinating Agastache utricifolia, one of our seed collection species in the Swan Valley of the Flathead National Forest

This field season (May through October) I was hired as a Seed Collection Intern by the Chicago Botanical Garden for the U.S Forest Service. I am stationed far North in the Flathead National Forest of Montana, and as late summer approaches for most of the continental United States, the species that we will be collecting seed from have just begun to flower.

Target species (from left to right) Symphyotrichum laeve, Heuchera cylindrica and Monarda fistulosa blooming in late July in Flathead Nation Forest

While waiting for our target species to bloom (and seed) we assisted with many other projects. Mostly, we helped out on Timber Unit Vegetation Surveys. This is where botanists go into a section of the National Forest known as a Timber Unit, a section of the forest that will be logged in the next few years, and conduct a vegetation survey. This vegetation survey involves recording every plant species in the unit and GPS marking areas of water (water=high biodiversity) and flagging rare and endangered species that we come across so that the area around them doesn’t get logged and they don’t get ran over/disturbed.

For us interns (Grace and myself) this mostly served as a way for us to familiarize ourselves with the plant species and habitats of Flathead National Forest so that we could properly identify our target species we are collecting seed from and be able to scout out the habitats they are found in. Two months later we are confident in our plant and habitat identification skills, and are now able to scout of populations of our seed collection species ourselves.

Subalpine Heuchera cylindrica population and wildflower meadow containing a Monarda fistulosa

Another project we helped on was the Bumble Bee Atlas project. This research project was started by The Xerces Society with the goal of gathering data needed to track and conserve bumble bees (bumblebeeatlas.org). Many bumble bee species are in decline, the exact causes have yet to be determined but it as been surmised that it is due to a combination of climate change, habitat lost, pesticides and herbicides, and lack of conservation efforts.

Bumble bees are strong, hearty and efficient pollinators that have coevolved with flowering plants. It has been estimated that 60 to 80 percent of all flowering plant species require bees for pollination and that more than a third of the food consumed by humans is pollinated by bees (Glenny, Will Et al., 2022). Due to these factors, the Forest Service and multiple other entities are collaborating to collect data in order to develop a conservation plan so that we don’t continue to loose these valuable pollinators.

The data that needed to be collected was; What species of bumble bees are on the landscape? What plant species are the pollinating? What plant species do they prefer? What disturbances are in the area if any? If we can answer these questions than we can move forward with developing a conservation plan for native bumble be species (bumblebeeatlas.org)!

We assisted with this project by conducting a few bumble bee surveys. We did this by going out to lovely montane meadows full of wildflowers and catching bumble bees! We used big bug catching nets and put them in little tubes so that we could put them on ice in order to put them to sleep and take pictures so that they could be identified to species later. Putting the bees on ice does not hurt the bees! It’s simply puts them to sleep, like the freezing cold air of an early spring night in the mountains.

Within a few minutes of removing them from the cooler, they were waking up, stretching and
flying off (often before we could even get all of the photos that we needed!)

Photos of native bee species from conducting Bumble Bee Atlas surveys outside Glacier National Park in the Flathead National Forest

Little did I know that this cute week with bumble bees would go on to play a roll in the rest of my field season.

As it turns out, the plant species that we are collecting seed from this year were chosen because the have a high pollinator friendliness score. What does pollinator-friendliness mean? and how does a plant get a high ranking? Plants with high pollinator friendliness is defined by the paper Assessing Pollinator Friendliness of Plants and Designing Mixes to Restore Habitats for Bees in 2022 as follows: plants with high pollinator friendliness were plants that had the highest bee visitation rates, attracted the most bee species, supported specialist bee species, and bloomed for extended periods of time (Glenny, Will Et al., 2022). In addition, the target species that were chosen to collect seed from also had to a line with the conservation needs of Flathead National Forest specifically.

The seeds the we care collecting will be added to a seed mix that will be used for roadside restoration. The open areas created by road construction and logging are great areas for grass and wildflower filled meadows and, additionally, great habitat for bumble bees.

Bumble bees photographed pollinating native plant species: Chamaenerion angustifolium, Cirsium scariosum and Lupinus argenteus on gravel road sides

Previously, the only plant species used for these road side restoration projects were grasses. Grasses are great at recolonizing gravel areas, but, being that they are mostly wind pollinated, not so great for native pollinator species. By adding native wildflowers to these seed mixes, roadsides, gravel pits and old gated off forest service roads can become great habitats for declining native bumble bee species (Glenny, Will Et al., 2022).

So, with all this in mind, the parameters that a plant species must meet is as follows

– Must be a native species
– Must have a high pollinator friendliness score
– Must prefer disturbed, gravely habitat

With these parameters in mind, the species that were selected were

  1. Monarda fistulosa (bee balm)
  2. Grindelia howellii (Howell’s gumweed)
  3. Heuchera cylindrica (roundlead alumroot)
  4. Agastache urticifolia (nettle-leaf horsemint)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Target Seed Collection Species in flower

5. Erigeron speciosus (showy aster) (not pictured because it’s not in flower yet)
6. Chamaenerion angustifolium (fireweed)
7. Symphyotrichum laeve (smooth blue aster)

(6)
(7)
Native Bumble Bee Species on Target Seed Collection Species!

Identifying and collecting seed from native flowering plant species that thrive in disturbed and are preferred by native pollinators is a crucial for restoration project because “bees are crucial for maintaining biodiversity and, by supporting healthy plant communities, a long list of ecosystem functions including but not limited to- food and habitat for animals, soil stability, and water quality” (Of Bees and Blooms, 2023). I feel incredible grateful to be working to restore biodiversity of our native forests and working to build habitat for threated native pollinator species. The seed that we are collecting this summer and fall will be sent to the Forest Service Nursery in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho were it will be grown out, the seed collected from those plant, and then CBG interns next year will spread that seed in restoration areas.

Now isn’t that a beautiful cycle.

– Erynn, Flathead National Forest


References

Glenny, Will; Runyon, Justin; Burkle, Laura. 2022. Assessing pollinator friendliness of plants and designing mixes to restore habitat for bees. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-429. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 54 p. Assessing pollinator friendliness of plants and designing mixes to restore habitat for bees (usda.gov)

Of bees and blooms: A new scorecard for selecting pollinator-friendly plants in restoration (usda.gov)

https://www.bumblebeeatlas.org/pages/about

For more information and how to participate in the bumble bee atlas! – Bumble Bee Atlas: Ecology and Conservation

A Very Smoky August

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Early this August, I got to make my first personal delivery to the Coeur d’Alene Forest Service Nursery in Coeur d’Alene, ID! Since the nursery is a 2.5 hour drive, it has proven to be quicker and more efficient to deliver the seed lots ourselves, rather than packing and shipping the large quantity of seeds that have take up all spare office space. Myself and the rest of the Lolo Botany Crew got to take a tour around the nursery facilities and take a look at all the different projects going on this time of year. The nursery is quite extensive, with many greenhouses and open warehouse space for plugs and seeds spread to dry.

Among the seeds and saplings are a more friendly nursery occupant: the nursery cats. Apparently three cats inhabit the Coeur d’Alene Nursery, although I only had the pleasure of meeting Smoky, who currently takes up residence in the seed extractory. What a hard worker! It was very impressive to see the success of current grow-outs from seed collections of years past from the Lolo NF. After surveying for much Whitebark Pine this season, one of my favorite parts of the nursery tour was to see the greenhouse designated for Whitebark Pine saplings.They typically ship out about 100,000 white bark pine saplings every year, so it was excellent to see great restoration hard at work. Super cool time!

Smoky the Cat, hard at work in the seed extractory

Another fun event in early August was the Western Montana Fair, which I got to attend both for work and fun. I had the chance to participate in some community outreach with the Lolo National Forest, greeting the public at the FS booth had and got to talk to the community about some of the projects going on and how exciting it is to work in natural resources/restoration. The best part was meeting new coworkers from different programs in the Missoula office who I don’t get to see every day. Aside from work, I went to the rodeo at the fair, and it was actually my first rodeo! It was so much fun to watch all the events.

Earlier in August I took a trip up to Glacier National Park. It has been pretty smoky this August, but the views were still great! I hiked from Lake McDonald up to Snyder Lake. Beautiful hike I would recommend to anyone visiting Glacier.

Lake McDonald
Snyder Lake

July is Floating On By

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July has come and gone, and now it is time for the highlights!

Earlier this month I was able to join forces with the Lolo National Forest Weeds/Invasives Team in collaboration with the Montana Biological Weed Control Coordination Project. We netted Oberea and Flea Beetles in a large field, then sorted/packaged them up into cups to be put on ice for transportation.

Separation method for Flea Beetles
Bugs on Ice!
Co-worker Josie, The Bug Queen
Day 1 of Biocontrol Project

The following day I joined the weeds team again on a scouting and biocontrol float trip along the Clark Fork River. We mapped Leafy Spurge populations and then released our bugs on the populations. We targeted these populations specifically since they were isolated from roads by the river. This makes the leafy spurge not only difficult to get to, but inadequate to treat with herbicides due to its proximity to the river. It was a beautiful day for floating, and it was my first time on the Clark Fork River! It sure is handy to have an ex-raft guide supervisor! Overall a super cool project I was able to be a part of.

Oberea being released
Day 2 of Biocontrol Project

Another exciting collaboration this month was being able to work with local youth crews in both the Missoula and Superior District areas to teach them about seed collection and rare plant surveys. Being able to meet local high schoolers excited about nature and working outside made for a fulfilling week of seed collecting. Having extra hands to help with seed collection wasn’t too bad either! It has been great being able to work with other ranger districts and learning more about different areas of the forest.

YCC Superior Crew collecting PEAL11
YCC loves collecting seeds!

And finally… One of the best parts of July has been getting to know one specific local plant Vaccinium membranaceum!!! The huckleberry patches I have stumbled upon while scouting for seed have been a much needed break during long days in the field.

Yum!

Until next month!

New Place, New Plants, New Possibilities

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As someone who has lived most of their life below an elevation of 3500 ft on the east coast, moving to the west for the summer and staying mostly around the 6000-7000 ft elevation range has been a great adventure. All of the wildlife is vastly different from what I am used to and I was lucky enough to see my first moose on my first day in Montana. Since then I have seen many new animals in person including elk, antelope, ground squirrels, marmots, snowshoe hares, new snakes, and my new favorite birds – magpies. I am also excited and apprehensive about the other new, larger animals that are more common here compared to home – grizzly bears and mountain lions – but have yet to run into them. 

Enjoying a lunch break in a meadow during a scouting trip at the Big Snowy Mountains.

Along with many new animals that I had not seen before, I am also excited to see and learn of lots of new plants that I had not previously known as well! Some of my favorites so far include all of the species of Phacelia (Scorpionweed), Penstemon (Beardtongues), and Mertensia (Bluebells) which I had not seen in my home state of North Carolina. And I am definitely looking forward to trying some huckleberries for the first time whenever they are in season! There are also some new species within genuses I already was familiar with such as Actaea rubra, Acer glabrum, and many new pines and spruces. The mountains in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest as well as the ones I am used to from North Carolina are both very beautiful and yet so different from each other. Montana has way fewer broadleaf trees than what I am used to and I am looking forward to learning all of the conifers that make up the amazing forest that I am working with this summer. 

Phacelia spp. found June 28th during a trip through the Big Belts. Not the ones on our list, but still beautiful.

Already I have gained many new skills and experiences and I can not wait to see what the rest of the summer brings to me from this wonderful opportunity and I am so excited to help contribute to future restoration projects in order to keep these forests thriving!

Memorial Falls at the Little Belts – just a fun day trip.