{"id":86332,"date":"2023-09-06T10:13:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T17:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=86332"},"modified":"2023-09-06T10:13:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T17:13:26","slug":"%ef%bf%bca-seedy-august-reflections-on-seed-collecting-and-life-in-tonasket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=86332","title":{"rendered":"\ufffcA Seedy August: Reflections on seed collecting and life in Tonasket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seed collection is a competition.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not talking about competition between CLM interns or forest districts (ok well maybe just a little bit). Over the past month or so of seed collecting, I\u2019ve been racing the wind, the clock, insects, and most notably, cattle to get to seeds first. Everywhere I look in the forest, there seems to be something or someone else looking to steal, eat, or stomp on my seeds before I can collect them, and I\u2019ve learned that whether I\u2019d like to be or not, I\u2019m in competition with these forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tonasket Ranger District has 51 active range permits, and I\u2019ve heard one of the highest range permit to area ratios of any national forest district in the country. Lucky us! Sometimes, it feels as if every square inch of our forest has been munched or trampled by cows. I\u2019ve gotten used to the sight, even enjoy their presence from time to time. No matter how much mutual respect I believe we\u2019ve built, though, they never hesitate to eat every Lupinus sericeus<\/em> seed before they have the chance to mature to harvestability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our worst enemies<\/s> best friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeds want to be collected\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not always easy to tell when a seed is ready to be collected. Take Carex utriculata<\/em>, for example. No two spikes look exactly the same when they\u2019re ready for harvest, but without fail, their akenes will slide right off when they\u2019re ready, whether they\u2019re completely brown, or still half green. Every plant looks different, but their seeds will always be easy to separate from their plants when they\u2019re ready to be collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like any living thing, the biological goal of a plant for its seeds to germinate, their offspring to thrive, and thus their genetic lineage to persist after their own lives end. I\u2019d like to think that by collecting their seeds, I\u2019m giving plants a better chance at achieving that goal than if they\u2019re left to their own devices. I\u2019ve kind of beat evolution in that way, become a god to these plants. So why wouldn\u2019t they want me to collect their seeds?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carex utriculata, affectionately “corn cob sedge”. Photo \u00a9 2017 Matt Below<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2026and bugs do too.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While stripping a plant bare of its seeds, we\u2019re often asked to abandon our botany hats in favor of entomology ones. It\u2019s nearly impossible to remove the seeds from a plant crawling with bugs without taking a few of them with you, but most are friendly and seem to crawl out of our seed bags without too much prodding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Luckily didn’t accidentally collect this guy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not all seeds are made the same.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On a good day, we\u2019re able to harvest 3 seeds from each Lupinus sericeus<\/em> plant, while Chamerion angustifolium<\/em> produces around 80,000 seeds per plant. Both wildflowers are on our target species list, but to complete a 30,000 seed collection for one, we\u2019d need to find 10,000 plants, while one weed on the side of the road would suffice for the other. Seeds are kinda like us that way, all a little bit different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A field of Chamerion angustifolium<\/em> (fireweed)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seed collection is a competition. I\u2019m not talking about competition between CLM interns or forest districts (ok well maybe just a little bit). Over the past month or so of seed collecting, I\u2019ve been racing the wind, the clock, insects, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7596,"featured_media":86336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[50,3489,3634],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86356,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86332\/revisions\/86356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}